Long term pain management - HELP

[susancook]

Like Linda said, everyone is different. I was never on higher doses of Fentanyl, so I just stopped abruptly one day. I actually think that I could have stopped postop Fentanyl and Dilaudid sooner than I did, but I had a big box of Fentanyl and a bottle of Dilaudid and figured that I should take them because the pain management MD gave them to me postop. I was not in pain on them.....and when I stopped them, found out that I wasn't in pain either. This was about 2 to 2.5 months postop, so early on. Maybe I just captured the sweet spot!.....probably just lucky.
Susan

[loves to skate]

Hi Rohrer01,

I saw you mentioned a recumbent bike and thought I’d share our experience. My daughter always wanted to join us on family bike rides, but then rode incredibly slow and didn’t seem to enjoy herself. She never complained of pain and I was careful to make sure the bike fit her, but it got to the point where she didn’t want to ride at all. Then I saw an ad for an Electra Townie. It looks like a beach cruiser, but the pedals are shifted forward almost 5 inches, which changes the back-to-foot and back-to-arms angles. We took it out for a test ride and she smiled the entire time. She has been using it for a couple of years and still loves her bike. We don’t take extended rides like my husband and younger daughter, but we like to go out a couple times a week for 20-40 minutes—just around the neighborhood.

Here is a description of the differences:
http://www.electrabike.com/Bikes/townie-bikes-electra

Here is a youtube video that talks about the seat, handlebar & brake adjustments that are made when you buy the bike. It is kind of hokey, but it gets the info across You can make these changes yourself if you bought a used one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmuNXdnkyjM

I did a quick look and found used ones for half the price of new ones. But be careful, the first site I pulled up did not have the pedals shifted forward. Also, I’ve ridden a Townie with the white basket as shown 6 bike images down on this site—if you are having problems with your back do not use a heavy basket!!! You will be sore is a very short time.
http://for-sale.yakaz.com/used-townie-bike

BTW, I liked her bike so much, I broke down and bought one for myself.

A Mom

When I asked my spine Doctor if I could go back to riding a bike, he recommended a Townie for me. I love it and can't wait until my hip heals enough for me to go back to riding it. I have had mine for almost three years now. When you ride sitting upright, you use back muscles which help to strengthen your back, whereas a truly recumbent bike, all you are using are your leg muscles.
Sally

[jrnyc]

article in NY Times today...Health section...
about how doctors "overtreat" back pain...
i laughed...i know they are not talking about scoliosis patients...
but i bet you anything the person who researched the article
never had a herniated disc or any other severe back problem!
back problems HURT...period!

jess...and Sparky(who knows more than many humans, it seems!)

[susancook]

When I asked my spine Doctor if I could go back to riding a bike, he recommended a Townie for me. I love it and can't wait until my hip heals enough for me to go back to riding it. I have had mine for almost three years now. When you ride sitting upright, you use back muscles which help to strengthen your back, whereas a truly recumbent bike, all you are using are your leg muscles.
Sally

What's a Townie?
Susan.....used to ride bicycles

[susancook]

article in NY Times today...Health section...
about how doctors "overtreat" back pain...
i laughed...i know they are not talking about scoliosis patients...
but i bet you anything the person who researched the article
never had a herniated disc or any other severe back problem!
back problems HURT...period!

jess...and Sparky(who knows more than many humans, it seems!)

I did not read the article, so I will try to find a NY Times. It is well known in the medical community that the vast majority of people with back pain just have a muscle strain that would heal without PT and medications. Initial rest and cold packs is the treatment of choice, and if you feel compelled, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. I do not believe that they are talking about herniated discs, but those back aches that are better within a week or two whether you do anything or not as they are just back muscle strains.
Susan

[jrnyc]

New York Times is online...you can read 5 articles for free, i think, before they require you subscribe to the newspaper...

i think back problems worsen with age...i know people who had minor back injuries when young, in their teens or twenties...some have pain come back to haunt them in later years, after they have NOT re-injured their back...
i think spines are more complicated than doctors understand...
i do not trust anyone who minimizes pain, anyway...and i do not care if they have an M.D. on their wall.
i am someone who had a TOP famous surgeon at Sloan Kettering tell me the benign tumor in left femur could NOT be bothering me...because it "isn't supposed to hurt"
i got up and walked out.
he was an idiot...great surgeon or not...
(the pain was the only reason i had the femur X rayed and investigated...otherwise, i
would not have found out i had a tumor there)

so i guess i am a little prejudiced on the subject...and subjectivity...of pain.
(i was also told i didnt need pain meds for Lyme disease symptoms, because
"Lyme doesn't hurt that much" from another genius M.D. at Stonybrook Hospital)
doctors need to listen to their patients when the patient differs from the text book!!

jess

[rohrer01]

Hmmm...
Sounds a LOT like some "genius" MD's telling me scoliosis doesn't hurt. I was diagnosed with it BECAUSE I was in so much pain at 16 years old that I was incapacitated and went in for an x-ray! Duh... The pain was right where the scoliosis is.

[jrnyc]

hey rohr...
yup, definitely sounds like another one of those "genius" types of
doctors....they are so busy justifying their text book learning, i think
they forget to give the patient any credit for knowing their own bodies...
bad enough when they pull that with kids...to do it to adults is to treat
patients like idiots...
i now have a wonderful orthopedic oncologist who told me that...
when Stonybrook told me i "must have broken your left femur and didn't
know it" from an X ray they took...that they were making a fairly common
mistake, confusing the enchondroma i had...and still have... in my left femur with a healed over broken bone....you should have heard the doctor at Stonybrook arguing with me that i "MUST HAVE broken the bone" and not known it...same female doctor who told me i should not need pain
meds because "Lyme doesn't hurt that much"...as i said...genius!

thank goodness for the doctors who DO listen to their patients...
sometimes seems those doctors are all too rare.

jess...and Sparky

[susancook]

New York Times is online...you can read 5 articles for free, i think, before they require you subscribe to the newspaper...

i think back problems worsen with age...i know people who had minor back injuries when young, in their teens or twenties...some have pain come back to haunt them in later years, after they have NOT re-injured their back...
i think spines are more complicated than doctors understand...
i do not trust anyone who minimizes pain, anyway...and i do not care if they have an M.D. on their wall.
i am someone who had a TOP famous surgeon at Sloan Kettering tell me the benign tumor in left femur could NOT be bothering me...because it "isn't supposed to hurt"
i got up and walked out.
he was an idiot...great surgeon or not...
(the pain was the only reason i had the femur X rayed and investigated...otherwise, i
would not have found out i had a tumor there)

so i guess i am a little prejudiced on the subject...and subjectivity...of pain.
(i was also told i didnt need pain meds for Lyme disease symptoms, because
"Lyme doesn't hurt that much" from another genius M.D. at Stonybrook Hospital)
doctors need to listen to their patients when the patient differs from the text book!!

jess

Not trying to step on your nerve or tell you that your pain is not real. Clinicians that do not believe patients should get out of clinical medicine and work and in a pathology lab. Sounds like you had a really bad experience. Sorry.

In the 60's when I was in college, I went to the health service for meds for severe menstrual cramps. The MD told me that the reason that I had menstrual cramps was because I "didn't like sex". I told him that I was a virgin and hadn't tried sex yet, but as soon as I did, I would let him know if it was fun or not. He did not know what to do with my answer.
Susan

[jrnyc]

thanks for the sympathetic understanding...
sounds like you met a few "geniuses" as well...what an idiotic and creepy
doctor to be working on a college campus!! and what a quick witted
reply!

my own negative experiences were a long time ago...
unfortunately, the experience we went thru when my mother was sick
with a brain tumor did not improve my opinion of doctors...
i seem to have met some of the worst...and then occasionally, one or
two i considered the best.

i would not wish those worst doctors on my worst enemy!

jess

[rohrer01]

Not trying to step on your nerve or tell you that your pain is not real. Clinicians that do not believe patients should get out of clinical medicine and work and in a pathology lab. Sounds like you had a really bad experience. Sorry.

In the 60's when I was in college, I went to the health service for meds for severe menstrual cramps. The MD told me that the reason that I had menstrual cramps was because I "didn't like sex". I told him that I was a virgin and hadn't tried sex yet, but as soon as I did, I would let him know if it was fun or not. He did not know what to do with my answer.
Susan

What a creepy pervert! It's too bad you couldn't have reported him. I guess we've all had our "winners".

[mabeckoff]

What a creepy pervert! It's too bad you couldn't have reported him. I guess we've all had our "winners".

Times were different then. Today he would have been reported

Melissa

[rohrer01]

Thank you for your well wishes, Melissa.
Yes, times are different. But not all unethical medical actions get reported, even today. You've got three kinds of people. 1. Normal people who report appropriately. 2. Sue happy people that try to get rich off of an honest mistake. and 3. People who don't say anything at all due to feeling intimidated by a person of "higher station", or fear of repercussions.

I think we've all met our share of wacky doctors. :-/

[loves to skate]

In the 60's when I was in college, I went to the health service for meds for severe menstrual cramps. The MD told me that the reason that I had menstrual cramps was because I "didn't like sex". I told him that I was a virgin and hadn't tried sex yet, but as soon as I did, I would let him know if it was fun or not. He did not know what to do with my answer.
Susan

Susan, I love your answer to the idiot Doctor. I hope this guy wasn't a gynecologist. I had severe menstrual cramps until I gave birth at age 30.

A Townie is a brand of bicycles. It sits you in an upright position so you are not putting any strain on your back or neck. Google it so you can see one. Find a dealer and try one out. I always hated my racing bike that my husband insisted on buying when we were in our late 30's.

Sally

[susancook]

Re: MD at health center at University of Texas: back in the 1960s the medical community did not know about prostaglandins and dysmenorrhea. There was a contingency of MDs who genuinely thought that cramps were caused by psychological problems.

Sally: thanks for the information. Right now, I am afraid of falling until I am fused. Maybe then, I will look into a Townie. I'll try a stationary bike in the gym.

Susan