United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Whoa, thank you so much for 'splaining (a la Ricky Ricardo) how the categories of pain meds work so differently. Do you think within the Neurontin family that slowing the electrical message to the brain is what causes the mental "fuzziness"? Maybe the ability to think clearly is actually still there, but just a lot slower in getting through? School has been a REAL issue these past couple years...

Thanks for the update,

Ellen

Thanks for the methadone heads-up guys. I went up to Townsville today, and am still in a shitty mood due to unexplained incompetence. 5 months post injury I've finally had a look at the MRI and looks like C8 + T1 avulsed. Apparently my referral letter to the neurosurgeon in Sydney was sent on May 10, and there was no reply... no follow-up phone call or anything. So I've been waiting for 3 months with my dick in my hand for nothing.

After that Rosatto said I've got F all chance of heading down there on public health money, and said I'd have to ask for methadone elsewhere because I'm not in enough pain. But aside from that, everything's great!

This is a perfect example of the differences in one human body compared to another--The Drs. are told that this medication affects the brain/body this way and it's taken as gospel that it works like that every single time.---I've been on everything you mentioned plus a hundred other meds and the ONLY thing that gives me full-on 80% of-the-time-relief is methadone. The other 20% it keeps it at the "bearable" level.I get 20mgs/daily and found that 30 to 60mgs is my effective dose. Consequently I spend 7 to 10 days a month without and have to rely on benzodiazepines to keep the spasms and burning down to a less suuicidal level. I go a day or three taking 10 mgs meth so I'll have x-tra when I have to go to an appt or just do some housework that day. It's pathetic really when all I need is a competent Doc who'll get me on the proper dose full-time. I digress---
The point I was making was that body chemistry is really tricky from person to person--but most Docs see the body as a machine that works just like the 6 billion other machines on the planet. But then how does that explain somebody who can go into anaphalactic(?spelling) shock and DIE from eating a peanut?Or the guy who can drink a gallon of rum and walk away vs. the guy who has two beers and passes out?
I don't know why methadone works for me--morphine only helps a few days and then I can quadruple my dose and feel nothing. No pain relief, no stoned feeling, no sleepiness.100mgs of morphine SHOULD put the average person to sleep--or at least get fuzzy--I litterally feel nothing in any way what so ever. I don't know why lorazipam makes me totally f-ed up in relatively small doses. Valium gives me bad insomnia.
Gabapentin--a seizure drug---makes me shake and twitch and puke.
I would like some explanation why we can be so chemically different if we're all just copies of the same design.--------Ronin

Hi Ronin,

Let's face it, we're a bunch of snowflakes. I take 20 mgs of meth per day: 10 morning and 10 at night. No side effects other than minor constipation and an intolerance of alcohol.

I am at 75% pain reduction, but don't want to go higher as I'm leery of the drugs. Unlike you, I do have the option. It pisses me off when tin pot dictators have the nerve to tell us what we feel and don't feel. Come to Canada, we'll take care of you. Medicinal pot is legal and it looks like small amounts for everyone will be decriminalized shortly.

It is all about the pain, not the politics.

Hang in. Remember that we are always listening.

Henry