United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi,

My pain doc is mentioning Bextra and I've seen it mentioned here.

Is anyone on it? How does it work? And are there any side effects, long term and short term?

I'm on meth, but would like to get out from under the junkie regulations which control its use here in Canada.

Thanks,

Henry

Hi Henry
I wrote about my experience with Bextra a few weeks ago. I was on 30 mg of methadone 3 x daily but still had a lot of pain. On July 1st my PCP (primary care provider) added 20 mg of Bextra once daily to my meds regime, and I haven't had a bad pain day since! Even after reducing my methadone to 20 mg 3 x daily, the pain hasn't returned. Even though a tropical storm is dumping buckets of rain on Durham at this very moment, and a hurricane is expected to arrive tomorrow, still no bad pain. No side effects either.
Perhaps someone else can tell us about long term effects; I plan on asking my new pain doc about them when I see him later this month. At our initial get aquainted session he agreed that Bextra was appropriate in cases of chronic nerve pain because it fights the inflammation that develops when avulsed/damaged nerves keep firing...I really can't recall his exact explanation and will ask him about this too.
Like you, I would like to get off the opioids (in my case, due to their side effects). When our weather calms down and under the pain doc's supervision, I would like to try to reduce my methadone even more. But for now I am very, very happy and relieved to be pretty much pain free for the first time in over 2 1/2 years.
I hope you have as much success with Bextra as I have had.

Thanks Sandy,

I will keep you informed. I'm going to try to get it next week. My main concern is the stomach problems associated with long term anti-inflamatory use.

TTYL,

H