Community Chat

[Katcat1]

I have to share this story. Four years when I was diagnosed with Ra (I was 60 years old). The one Rheumatologist I saw decided to take me off the prednisone & another Ra drug. My wrist was so swollen, hot & painful and this dr. did nothing. He said he did not believe in pain pills and not give me anything else. I never went back to that dr. The whole practice with several drs. was like that == no pain meds. It's hard to believe that a dr. could actually see your wrist and do nothing and if you are in pain who do you turn to? Your doctor.

Filling prescriptions can take 24 to 48 hours. If your dr. is not in and the dr. on call does not know you, he/she will not call in a narcotic. The only thing you can do is go to am emergency room or one of those special care units.

[Kachina624]

Doctors cannot call in or electronically order controlled drugs. You must have a written prescription which I believe is only good for six months. They now have people constantly monitoring patients who use them and doctors who prescribe them to cut down on abuse. Drug addicts have no problem getting what they want; the rest of us have to jump through hoops.

[skuggles]

I think kachina is correct. Very rare to get great response from MDs now. As far as the request for pain Rx, most MDs resent this and stall. It's like telling them to treat you without seeing you, and without pay...legal implications and financial ones. Time constraints make this even more difficult. They are swamped.

Add to that the "crack down" on the use of prescription pain killers because of the alarming increase of accidental deaths due to pain killer overdose, especially in women, in these United States, and you have many MDs who fear loss of license if they over prescribe. They are becoming increasingly wary as there are many states adopting official oversight mechanisms to flag both doctor shopping patients and over prescribing MDs. They interpret many requests for pain med as "drug seeking" behavior deserved or not, and are refusing to prescribe and advising NSAIDS and physical treatments like heat,cold, and behavioral treatments like meditation,yoga, and combo treatments where more than one of these is recommended and so on. .

"Deaths from prescription painkiller overdoses among women have increased more than 400% since 1999, compared to 265% among men." from the CDC

[Buck-i-Nana]

On 8/2/2014 NoelSeven said:

My rheumatologist and internist are always offering me pain pills. They give me anything I want, but I think that's because I have a history with them and I always try to tough it out by myself.

I don't do well with pain killers. I have lupus and those of us with SLE sometimes get unimaginable pain.

Here's what I found out, but it may not be right for you... We can take two Ibuprofen and two Tylenol at the same time. One medical source says the combination is as good as Vicodin for some people.

I'd suggest you not try it until you talk to your MD first. Ibuprofen is an NSAID, so you want to make sure it's OK for you. It works wonders for me, especially because Ibuprofen also helps with the inflammation.

Yup, you can layer them, my family Dr recommends that. He recommends that you stagger them so you don't experience pain breakthrough in the time before you can take the next dose. So, you would take your Nsaid and then 2 hours later take your acetaminophen product. This works really well for me when I have my arthritis flares. I've tried some prescription pain killers, but they really make me sick.

[NoelSeven]

On 8/2/2014 kachina624 said: Doctors cannot call in or electronically order controlled drugs. You must have a written prescription which I believe is only good for six months. They now have people constantly monitoring patients who use them and doctors who prescribe them to cut down on abuse. Drug addicts have no problem getting what they want; the rest of us have to jump through hoops.

Kachina, some can. Mine do it regularly, although I don't take that kind of drugs.

[NoelSeven]

On 8/2/2014 Buck-i-Nana said:

On 8/2/2014 NoelSeven said:

My rheumatologist and internist are always offering me pain pills. They give me anything I want, but I think that's because I have a history with them and I always try to tough it out by myself.

I don't do well with pain killers. I have lupus and those of us with SLE sometimes get unimaginable pain.

Here's what I found out, but it may not be right for you... We can take two Ibuprofen and two Tylenol at the same time. One medical source says the combination is as good as Vicodin for some people.

I'd suggest you not try it until you talk to your MD first. Ibuprofen is an NSAID, so you want to make sure it's OK for you. It works wonders for me, especially because Ibuprofen also helps with the inflammation.

Yup, you can layer them, my family Dr recommends that. He recommends that you stagger them so you don't experience pain breakthrough in the time before you can take the next dose. So, you would take your Nsaid and then 2 hours later take your acetaminophen product. This works really well for me when I have my arthritis flares. I've tried some prescription pain killers, but they really make me sick.

And it works so well! I wish I'd known about that years ago! I can't take prescription pain killers, either.

[Irshgrl31201]

On 8/2/2014 kachina624 said: Doctors cannot call in or electronically order controlled drugs. You must have a written prescription which I believe is only good for six months. They now have people constantly monitoring patients who use them and doctors who prescribe them to cut down on abuse. Drug addicts have no problem getting what they want; the rest of us have to jump through hoops.

There are different levels of pain meds and what schedule of opioids determines whether it can be called in or not. Hydrocodone (vicodin) can be called in as can opoids with codeine but oxycodone (percocet) needs a paper prescription.

[Kachina624]

My doctor cannot call in or order electronically Vicodin. Must be paper.

[RINGER]

On 8/2/2014 Irshgrl31201 said:

48 to 72 hours is standard time concerning prescription refills and requests. All of my doctors messages have that stated in the voice mail. I rarely have to call them for anything because I make sure I keep up on that just in case it does take a while for them to get back to me.

It looks like you may have to bite the bullet and take the vicoden until he calls one in for you.

Why didn't you ask him for this non opioid medicine when you were last in there? I mean you know you will have times that you will have pain so even if you weren't in pain when you last talked to him you should try to anticipate it, I know that can't always happen but since you discussed that med during your last visit, why didn't you just ask for it then. It is our responsibility as patients too to be proactive and not wait until the last minute.

May I ask what med it is that you are looking for? Is there a reason you don't want to take the med he already prescribed for you?

I think Noel had good advice with the 2 tylenol and 2 NSAIDS. At least give it a try if you are determined not to use the hydrocodone. He gave you the hydrocodone (vicodin) for a reason, so why not use it?

I presently take Prednisone and methotrexate (5 pills one time a week) and that is it. When I was in his office he said next visit he will do a blood draw (think he wants to make sure the polymyalgia has not turned into RA which is fine. When I saw him less than 10 days ago, he gave me 2 shots in the office and I figured that would take care of things and he did talk to me (at my request) what other meds was he considering knowing my past 3 surgeries and very little left of my colon (removed anus, rectum, and colon) so medicines have to be geared toward not aggravating my digestive tract. I wanted him to and WILL NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE AGAIN--GIVE ME A PRESCRIPTION THAT ADDRESSES THE INABILITY TO USE MY ARM (cannot get a bra on, can't hold a saucer in my hand without it hurting) and I could NOT cut meat the other day it hurt so bad. I want him to give me either Arava or Azulfidine (which I think is good since I had colitis/crohns) and that would help eleviate movement in my arm that makes me wince...I never know for sure what movement will precipitate a sudden pain that just about brings me to my knees.

YES I CAN TAKE VICODIN which I have BUT as I have tried to explain, it is not just the pain it is being able to USE MY ARM NORMALLY where there must be a lot of inflammation.

As of today, I am doing fairly well and think the weather (have osteoarthritis too) and a host of other health issues--diabetes, COPD, hypertension, polymyalgia and thankfully the crohns/colitis is in check after the 3 surgeries and I pray with all my heart that doesn't return as I nearly died with those surgeries (dropped 30 pounds--could not eat, diarrhea, vomiting, in ICU 2 weeks, blood transfusions, so those 3 years were a nightmare.

Again to those of you who think I think I am the only patient you couldn't be more WRONG!! I also must say however, with my other doctors, I get PROMPT calls, etc., so these doctors have thrown me a curve but NOW I KNOW HOW BEST TO DEAL WITH THEM after this go around.

I can't believe I put myself into such a position but truly believed the double shot would be the answer--I AM VERY PROACTIVE but boy I messed up on that visit--one thing about me--I LEARNED AND TRUST ME I WILL HAVE MEDS ON HAND TO NEVER HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS AGAIN!!

[Irshgrl31201]

On 8/2/2014 kachina624 said: My doctor cannot call in or order electronically Vicodin. Must be paper.

Maybe it different in each state, but I really thought that was a federal thing. Vicodin is a schedule 3 drug and it can be called in for 15 mg or lower. Only Schedule 1 and 2 drugs cannot be called in so perhaps it varies from state to state.