Suitable Pain Meds

Hey Andrew , 

I'm in Canada too , and I take Tapentadol for chronic pain ( degenerative disc ).....my family doc put me on it after I went in to discuss my upcoming RNY and any changes I may need to make to my meds and stuff . I have to say it is by far the best pain reliever I've tried so far , it works very well . and apparently there is less of an addiction risk . 

I'd imagine it could be used in the treatment of chronic headaches as it does help me not only for my back....I do get a lot of tension headaches , usually after a ' busy' day at work and stuff after work ! I find if I'm going all day and talking to people and rushing around all day,then at night with my boy for classes or whatever, I get them . I work in home care and so I have to be positive and smiley all day to people who are in somewhat bad situations , and some days it takes a lot more than others ! lol ....those are the days I end up with a headache and the tapentadol really help them too . 

Hope you find a solution , it can be miserable for sure . 

Jax xx

artificial sweeteners  c ause wicked headaches in some ppl. Do you use them?

Artificial sweeteners give me terrible headaches too! Saccharine is the only one that doesn't.

Have any of you heard of Kratom?  My MIL uses them for pain.  Her brother was addicted to oxycodone and has completely gotten off of them using Kratom.  I don't know much about it, except that it is used all over the Philippines and Indonesia for pain and is non-addictive?

I have been using Kratom for 6+ months now, both to assist with depression/anxiety (in addition to Lexapro) and with the lingering discomfort from my latest knee replacement.  

I only know one other person IRL who uses the Kratom, and her experience has been the same as mine: even at a pretty high dose, the pain relief is only equivalent to taking an NSAID; it is NOT going to kill any significant amount of pain.  It can, however, also have a calming or energizing effect, depending on what strain it is.  Between the two of us, we have probably tried almost every strain that is out there.

It is currently legal in the US (butI ironically, it is illegal in Indonesia, where the bulk of it is grown!), but that will likely change at some point. The DEA and FDA are discouraging its use, and apparently there are periodic issues with customs seizing imports of it. Because it has not been evaluated by the FDA, there are lots of anecdotal reports of side effects (or lack thereof) but no one really knows for sure.

Many people on the Internet have reported that they successfully used Kratom to detox from opiates, but it also definitely CAN be addictive when people take it for extended periods of time and at moderate to high doses.  It apparently acts on some of the same receptors as opiates do (just not at the same level) and people online frequently report needing to take a break from it because they build up a tolerance to it much the same way as with opiates.  

Lora

Careful with the Kratum as my nephew , who is a drug addict, went to that as his drug of choice. At first he said it was to "get off" the addictive drugs. But he got severely addicted to it. It's a synthetic opiat and he had to do a year of methadone to get off of it like you would heroine or the like. He never was a heroine addict. He's a pill addict. First tricked us into buying the kratum sayig it gets him off the pills but it just created a monster. This has been a very emotional and personal experience here as he lives with us right now. So I'm so Leary of it. It's up there with the likes of spice and some Bath salts which you also get from the smoke shops. I could tell he's been high again and just found out he's back on the kratum. So devastated and frustrated. It has been pulled from the shelves numerous times and law-enforcement tells us that the companies just reformulated with a different ingredient that hasn't been banned yet and then it's right back on the market. 

Have you seen an ENT yet? 

I've been having really bad headaches also (never had them like this before RNY).  Could be stress related for mine though.  I've been taking a combination of Tramadol and Tylenol but it only works about half the time.  I need to make time to go see my doc.  

Andrew, I went through something similar for quite a time. The headaches were actually tension headaches brought about by stress as well as sleeping on horrible pillows (there were other things which contributed to my headaches as well hormones, thyroid). The only thing that worked for me was Motrin/ibuprofen, and sometimes even that didn't work. I purchased new pillows, and it made a huge difference! I hope they figure out what is causing your headaches and find a medication that works for you soon. 

New pillows? That's intriguing. Softer? Harder? Different material? I have added a new pillow but don't know when that was so can't decide if it's had an impact.

ENT? That's not been discussed yet with my Doctor. Thanks, I'll ask her about it.

When the pain gets too bad I do take an Aleve even though I shouldn't. It kills the pain in minutes. So I'm suspecting it's nerve inflammation but I can't discover what's causing it.