Thread: Health, fitness and hospitalization of the boomers

^ Yeah, you sure have a handle on what works for you. I'm still experimenting. For example, if I felt I could take tramadol every day for more than a week before having to up the dose, I would. Instead I put up with my arthritic pain for most of the week so I'll be sure the tramies work on the weekend. The reason that I do that is that I KNOW tramadol works for me. I have extreme doubts that any of the other pain killers you mentioned are worth mentioning. For example, 50-100 mg of tramadol will not have any effect on me. However, we might disagree on "desired effect". Do you get high on anything?

No ehphoria, but I have a pretty high tolerance for medication.

i don't really get euphoric either. It makes me feel as normal as a hyperactive kid and pain free. And ever since I started this thread the truth seems to be more and more apparent to me: I take tramadol to feel normal, not to get high. And I'm worried it will stop working so I want that other info on painkillers, even though I won't believe it initially (I'm good at fooling myself).

Yes, you are right about feeling normal and how it can raise ones mood. Once you are pain free, you can carry on with life without having to compensate. If you are like me, when I do have pain, I am not the best person to be around and am in a dark mood.

I have had both morphine and meperidine before after a car accident and felt no euphoria. A sense of well being also comes from drinking alcohol. No pain and no worries, which is why so many enbibe. Drinking alcohol is also legal in most countries and easily obtained.

Originally Posted by wjblaney

For example, 50-100 mg of tramadol will not have any effect on me

Medicines affect people differently. Some respond to certain ones whereas others don't. A case of trial and error. With me suffering bouts of depression, the ups and downs of my serotonin levels may play a part in how Tramadol affects me and not others?

Possibly Prag. Best not compare your results to others and only treat your symtoms. I am not possitive seretonin levels have anything to do with physical pain since they are two separate entities. No doubt one would not feel "normal" if their seretonin levels are acting up.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

With me suffering bouts of depression, the ups and downs of my serotonin levels may play a part in how Tramadol affects me and not others?

Why don't you try Zoloft (Sertraline HCL) for your depression. It's easily prescribed if you sincerely have bouts of depression. If not, I can still find a doctor (mine in CM) who will ask you "So what do you want?" Answer: Zoloft or Sertraline HCL. Then he'll ask you how much. The typical dosage is 1 pill every morning for 1 month. After that, you can ask for 2 per day. Make sure they give you at least a month's worth. Like Ricky says: THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PAIN, unless you want to call it a psychological pain (believe me that can be worse). I wake up suffering from my osteoarthritis every day and I have been on Zoloft (2 pills daily) for 3 months so I know.

BTW, at 1 hour 30 minutes, I noticed I was pain-free from the 500 mg of trmadol I had taken earlier today. However, I was definitely NOT feeling normal yet. I give this drug a full two hours before I decide to take more. It's been two hours now and I haven't decided yet. So far, so good, I guess.

I see my MD in Bangkok next week for my hip. I am going to ask him to give me Tramadol again. My pain is not as bad as it was before my surgery but it is managable. I am cutting back on my paracetamol intake after reading some of the comments above. When I lay flat on my back at night my leg stiffens up and in the morning I can barely walk, even with a cane, until I have had two pain meds and a cup of black coffee.

Did you have a hip replacement?

^555. I've had three. Right leg fine, left leg failed twice. There is a thread about my adventures.

OK. You have obviously had some chronic and acute pain. You could probably educate us on that since mine is just arthritic pain and a bad back.

Good Luck

^ mine also

^ I trust my doctor completely (although I may not tell him the complete truth) and after describing the symptoms that I had that I thought were related to depression (manic/depressive episodes) he immediately prescribed Zoloft. That's that. (what does "that's that" mean? Can I say " end of story" instead? It seems much more relevant to all stories, doesn't it?)

Originally Posted by rickschoppers

You could probably educate us on that since mine is just arthritic pain

Rick,
I'd like to go over the pain relievers that, specific to your arthritic pain, work for you, dosages and are available in LOS (pardon if you mentioned any of them in earlier posts). I found this information about the names and associated dangers of various OTC pain relievers (from WebMD) when I googled 'best otc pain relievers':

Would you recommend any of the following categories, which ones work for your arthritis pain, are they available in LOS, what dosages are safe daily and how many days in a row would you take them before switching to another category?
1) aspirin (including Anacin, Bayer, Bufferin, Ecotrin, Excedrin, and St. Joseph).
2) Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs): ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB) and naproxen sodium (Aleve, Naprosyn).
3) Like aspirin, acetaminophen (Tylenol) is used in many OTC products. And like aspirin, it relieves pain and fever. I took 1000 mg of Tylenol this morning and realize max. dosage per day should not exceed 3000 mg.
4) Tramadol

One more time realizing these are the doses that relieve my specific pain. Doses for you may be different.

Aspirin 1500mg every 4 to 6 hours as needed. You can buy aspirin in different strengths in Thailand and I purchase the 500mg tablets. Side effects to watch out for are GI bleeding and tennitis (ringing in the ears).

Tylenol 1500mg once in the morning and again in the evening for a total daily dose of 3000mg. The recommended maximum daily dose used to be 4000mg due to the possibility of liver damage, but has recently been lowered to 3000mg per day. I buy the 500mg tablets of paracetamol.

Ibuprofen 800mg three times daily. You should be able to purchase the 800mg tablets, but some pharmacies only carry 400mg or 200mg tablets. Main side effects to watch out for are GI bleeding (take with food or large glass of milk) and kidney damage.

Naproxen Sodium 200mg capsules two (400mg) morning and night. The side effects are the same as ibuprofen sense they are both non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications.

I have also taken Celebrex 200mg 1-2 capsules twice daily morning and night, but I experienced some GI bleeding and stopped them immediately. They will also need to be taken with food.

I have just recently started taking tramadol 100mg on the morning and 50mg at night. You can purchase 50mg capsules (not long release) in Thailand. The extended release may be available, but the pharmacy I go to does not stock them.

It sounds like a long shopping list, but I only take one class of medication at a time and if I find that I am becoming tolerant to one drug, I will switch to another.

Typically, if you go to a physician, they will start with one drug that seems to work on most of their patients and if it does not work for you they will switch to another drug. Also, they will start at the lower doses and titirate up to maximum doses before changing medication.

Hope this helps.

Excellent, excellent post. Very rare to find such a coherent poster on TD.

You might be interested in this short article about a randomized controlled trial combining ibuprofen and acetaminophen in a single tablet for pain relief as opposed to the typical prescriptions of one or the other at a time. Conclusion: they found the combined drug provided superior relief than either one alone. Mind you, the drug was administered before oral surgery. Make your own conclusions how this might apply to arthritis: Combined acetaminophen and ibuprofen for pain relief after oral surgery in adults: a randomized controlled trial

What do you think of the dosages (under "Methods")?

It would make sense that combining pain relief medications, that work through two different mechanisms, would give better results. This strategy is also used for high blood pressure medications since they also demostrate a high incidence of tolerance.

The dosages look reasonable, but one must remember that ibuprofen could cause excessive bleeding. Aspirin would do the same since it works on the blood clotting cascade to slow blood coagulation.

'a high incidence of tolerance' Oh, that's too bad.

I've made up my mind: I am not going to suffer from arthritis any day of the week, regardless of the tolerance I may have built up to a particular drug. Today I stocked up on ibuprofen and tramadol (already have a good stock of Tylenol) and have taken acetaminophen and tramadol so far today. I won't exceed 3000 mg of acetaminophen but the recommended maximum dosage of tramadol from drugs.com is 300 mg per day in divided doses. I wouldn't give a recommendation for anyone else but for myself, 300 mg/day won't do enough. I think 500 mg to 750 mg is more appropriate for me, although I commonly exceed that. But I'd like more professional opinions, such as those given in the article I posted.

Great Posts RickC. Top info and all on the up and up. Should help those in need.

Cheers JP. The house is looking great!

I found a pharmacist who will sell me tablets containing 500 mg of paracetamol and 30 mg of codeine. I read where the maximum single dosage of paracetamol is 1000 per dose and the max dose per day is 4000 mg. I want to take an initial dose of 250 mg of codeine. That works out to 8 or 9 tablets at 500 mg of paracetamol per tablet which equals 4167 to 4500 mg of paracetamol. Ricky: what's your opinion?

^ I had to add a couple more steps to your tutorial. After following all of your steps exactly (however, FF isn't necessary, since it uses Google as the search engine. I used Chrome because it's actually Google's browser), I saved the image to my computer. Then I went to Teakdoor's gallery and uploaded it to my album. After the upload finished, I double clicked on the image and copied the URL from the address line. Then back to here where I clicked on the Insert Image icon (mountain) and pasted the URL. Voila!

But many thanks for getting me started in the right direction!



I posted this unintentionally on this thread. It's actually a sexy gift, innit?

Originally Posted by wjblaney

I found a pharmacist who will sell me tablets containing 500 mg of paracetamol and 30 mg of codeine. I read where the maximum single dosage of paracetamol is 1000 per dose and the max dose per day is 4000 mg. I want to take an initial dose of 250 mg of codeine. That works out to 8 or 9 tablets at 500 mg of paracetamol per tablet which equals 4167 to 4500 mg of paracetamol. Ricky: what's your opinion?

I would't do it. Too much paracetamol.

^ too bad it's a done deal. What side effects might I have to deal with?