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Fibromyalgia grieving and opiate intolerance.

Misfit Toy

Senior Member
Messages
4,178
Location
USA
This week has been horrible for me pain wise. I have been working a lot and leaning over so maybe that is the reason. Having said that, the pain actually fuels me to work more out of a need to distract.

Or, perhaps it's the weather. The worst time of year for me is spring/summer as far as pain. Summer and winter.

A lot of people on here love opiates, or they enjoy how it helps them overall. Not just the pain, but the CFS. For me, opiates make me feel awful. I have horrible itching. I take tramadol only to be up all night due to itching and then it just makes my mind wonder. I feel drugged and with how much? 1/2 a tramadol. That's crazy! Ultram does nothing for me pain wise but brings on a million side effects.

What does help...sort of? Fentanyl, but I become drugged, like completely drugged from fentanyl. No itching though, but no sleep either. Interestingly though, Fentanyl ends up causing more pain, because it does something to the nervous system and makes me tense up. It totally messes up my brain. I become agitated and angry. I become livid on most opiates. They rev me up and make me react. Really react.

I miss DARVOCET. The #1 drug of choice for this. I had no side effects, could sleep great and go about my day. Not anymore. Does anyone know if it is available anywhere? I have looked everywhere. Online that is.

I have tried all opiates with no help. Dilaudid, morphine, make me vomit and itch. Demerol is the worst. Codeine...forget it. Benadryl doesn't even stop the itching with codeine.

I take 800 mig of ibuprofen, I am on Lidocaine patches. I take baths, used magnesium body spray from ancient minerals....nothing helps like darvocet did.

Just shoot me.

The other day I realized how much pain I have by touching my arm. just putting a finger to my arm and poking it. What pain that caused.

I didn't develop fibro until 14 years into this illness. That really bothers me. WHY? Why did it come on? I just got done with endometriosis and then....in comes fibro. JESUS. Yup. That's how I feel. God, are you up there? Give me a break. The endo just about killed me literally and now this.

I was thinking why I can't vacation well anymore. It's because of fibro. If the bed isn't right, the pillow isn't right, if I don't have my million meds and supplements, my heating pad, my fibro will destroy any kind of vacation. I need a whole other suitcase for all of my fibro stuff that I "must" have.

A vent. A much needed pain vent.
 

*GG*

senior member
Messages
6,389
Location
Concord, NH
My brother used to take Darvocet (paraplegic), I believe the FDA pulled it of the market. Fentanyl was bad news for me also, pain just kept getting worse. I was sleeping on my side(s) at the time, and would wake every hour from the pain! I luckily started seeing my Dr at the time, and he was like you know they give that do dying cancer patients! The Neurologists I was seeing at the time had prescribed it, tried so many damn useless drugs!

I am familiar with your pain.

GG
 

Xandoff

Michael
Messages
302
Location
Northern Vermont
This week has been horrible for me pain wise. I have been working a lot and leaning over so maybe that is the reason. Having said that, the pain actually fuels me to work more out of a need to distract.

Or, perhaps it's the weather. The worst time of year for me is spring/summer as far as pain. Summer and winter.

A lot of people on here love opiates, or they enjoy how it helps them overall. Not just the pain, but the CFS. For me, opiates make me feel awful. I have horrible itching. I take tramadol only to be up all night due to itching and then it just makes my mind wonder. I feel drugged and with how much? 1/2 a tramadol. That's crazy! Ultram does nothing for me pain wise but brings on a million side effects.

What does help...sort of? Fentanyl, but I become drugged, like completely drugged from fentanyl. No itching though, but no sleep either. Interestingly though, Fentanyl ends up causing more pain, because it does something to the nervous system and makes me tense up. It totally messes up my brain. I become agitated and angry. I become livid on most opiates. They rev me up and make me react. Really react.

I miss DARVOCET. The #1 drug of choice for this. I had no side effects, could sleep great and go about my day. Not anymore. Does anyone know if it is available anywhere? I have looked everywhere. Online that is.

I have tried all opiates with no help. Dilaudid, morphine, make me vomit and itch. Demerol is the worst. Codeine...forget it. Benadryl doesn't even stop the itching with codeine.

I take 800 mig of ibuprofen, I am on Lidocaine patches. I take baths, used magnesium body spray from ancient minerals....nothing helps like darvocet did.

Just shoot me.

The other day I realized how much pain I have by touching my arm. just putting a finger to my arm and poking it. What pain that caused.

I didn't develop fibro until 14 years into this illness. That really bothers me. WHY? Why did it come on? I just got done with endometriosis and then....in comes fibro. JESUS. Yup. That's how I feel. God, are you up there? Give me a break. The endo just about killed me literally and now this.

I was thinking why I can't vacation well anymore. It's because of fibro. If the bed isn't right, the pillow isn't right, if I don't have my million meds and supplements, my heating pad, my fibro will destroy any kind of vacation. I need a whole other suitcase for all of my fibro stuff that I "must" have.

A vent. A much needed pain vent.

I believe that we all experience a spectrum illness and that our bodies react differently to different drugs. I am sorry you can no longer get Darvocet. I have read about people who were helped by a small dosage of codeine on a regular basis. Please read the following:
----------------------------------------------------------------------

ME & PAIN

Prof. Dr. Kenny De Meirleir

Produced March 2013,

The Pains change during the disorder.

Most patients, who recall how they felt before the run-up of this disease, remember they were free of pain in the beginning. The fatigue and the lack of recovery often occur before the start of Pain. The various possible causes are of a central nature. That is, cytokines, which are particles produced by our own white blood cells, can affect certain receptors and induce pain.

This concerns mainly the so-called inflammatory cytokines, with one specific pointer to interleukin 1. They also occur in other disorders and animal models and are accompanied by pain of central origin.

Bacterial neurotoxins also play a part. When the immune system has been seriously disrupted, all kinds of bacteria can no longer be eliminated. Or intestinal bacteria pop up, because the intestines are less capable of holding them back. Bacterial toxins can also cause central pain. Moreover there are a lot of other substances such as nitrogen oxide, which play a role. We know for example that if we reduce the effects of nitrogen oxide, pain is reduced.

The same applies to a number of antibiotics that inhibit certain bacteria and also reduce pain. There is also a problem with opiate receptors. Endogenous opiates play a part in the brain, and with those receptors there seems to be a problem too. An English group is engaged in manipulating those opiate receptors, as to also reduce pain in patients.

Perhaps the most important cause of pain is metabolic pain, pain from the metabolism. It is cause by a poor delivery of oxygen to the organs and also by mitochondrial dysfunction. The mitochondria are responsible for the release of ATP to let all our organs function.

This is the most difficult pain to combat and the biggest problem, because there is no medicine for it. We can try to ensure the peripheral parts of the body getting more oxygen. We can do that artificially. But the release of several substances causing the large vessels to expand automatically causes a contraction of the small blood vessels which is the cause of cold feeling in the peripheral organs like fingers and feet, because the blood vessels themselves contract.

This is a result of an altered sympathetic nervous system that is more active as compensation, but still can’t prevent H2S, NO and other vasoactive substances….to cause the expansion of large blood vessels. To such an extent that the small blood vessels are contracting. I think many organs suffer from a chronic oxygen shortage. And this will also, in the peripheral nerves…which contain blood vessels as well-cause a shortage of oxygen. So we have a mixture of neuropathic and metabolic pain.

In my experience metabolic pain is the biggest problem because you can’t cure it, simply because there’s an imbalance in the blood circulation. Then there are all kinds of other factors. With this condition the red blood cells aren’t functioning normally, and there is also a problem with oxygen supply. I could mention an entire list of different mechanisms which all come down the to the same. We call them ischemic pains, due to a shortage of oxygen to form energy.

The result is of course, the production of much lactic acid. We and others have found that while resting, the concentration of lactic acid in the blood to be up to three times the normal value. In normal blood 0.6 to 1 mmol lactic acid per liter is found. In a ME patient it is not uncommon to find 2 to 2.5 mmol per liter. And that a normal value in the blood of someone running the marathon of Rotterdam at considerable speed.

In ME patients this is a normal value when at rest. That lactic acid comes from the tissues, which must convert all their glucose in lactic acid as a final product with much less energy supply. On the other hand there are also intestinal bacteria, as we have shown in a publication which produce both left as right turning lactic acid.

Often the disintegration of D-lactate is more difficult with ME patients because they lack the enzymes to do so. That is animal lactic acid. So there are a lot of factors which cause the aerobic metabolism to shift to a more anaerobic metabolism and to me this is also an important element in the occurring pain.

That’s why pain management must be performed with an overall vision on pain. Often one can’t cure this with one particular medicine, but with a more integrated approach one can usually cause a serious relief from the pains.
 
Messages
236
Location
Medford NJ
Darvocet 's active ingredient is propoxyphene . Propoxyphene is Darvocet without the Tylenol. Propoxyphene went by the name Darvon.
Darvocet had 650mg of Tylenol in it along with 100mg propoxyphene. I hate the fact that Tylenol acetaminophen is put into all the pain meds. When I worked I was always warning people about liver damage (the opiates when used correctly ) are safer then the acetaminophen .


I was a pharmacist for 23years . Had to go on disability.
I think plain propoxyphene was banned also but I am not positive, may ask a pharmacist friend tomorrow.
I have fibromyalgia also. My pain has gone down allot so far using bioidentical hormones. This was the only thing besides opiates that helped the pain .
Was able to get off Duragesic (fentanyl) after getting my hormones balanced. My spine hurt so bad I once cut the lidocaine patches into a long strip and put it over my spine.

This illness cfs is a pain in the a_((##=! And I know I am not as badly affected. I take magnesium , epsom salts ,sodium bicarbonate baths . Trying to pace but I seem to feel like absolute carp to " can pass for normal"

I do not think opiates are for everyone but I hate the blanket statement on the CDC page that said opiates are not for me/cfs pain.If we are in pain the is not relieved by any other means opiates should be an option . Don't we suffer enough?
 

Misfit Toy

Senior Member
Messages
4,178
Location
USA
It's so sad what they're doing to people with fibromyalgia. Taking them off all their pain meds. It's not right. I'm really lucky that I have doctors that give me pain medicine and I don't abuse it because most narcotics I can't handle.

Bio identical hormone's made my pain worse and more importantly made me feel nuts.

I'm wondering about trying term rack. A lot of people seem to do really well in that and another thing that people do well on which I don't understand all is kratom.
 
Messages
236
Location
Medford NJ
Sorry the bioidentical s did not help. They helped me at first but now I am feeling anxious depressive the last few months. I have these crying spells relived by Alka Seltzer gold, so I don't know if it is lactic acid. . I never was this bad before so I don't know if it is the bioidentical s or not. Ugh. I go to a naturopath also but so far I have noticed no difference it is frustrating. Good luck with term rack.
 
Messages
759
Location
Israel
To Misfit Toy:
Have you tried LDN?

I ask because , it supposedly works the opposite way to Opiates and if you react badly to opiates maybe you will do well on this. I hear about people who do very well on LDN for their pain.
 
Messages
236
Location
Medford NJ
Ldn might be an option because you can dilute it to ultra low doses if you are sensitive. It is discussed in another thread. (Ultra low dose naltrexate.) I am now able to use it a little now.
 

Misfit Toy

Senior Member
Messages
4,178
Location
USA
I tried LDN pack into 2008 and I couldn't sleep on it. The less I slept the worse my pain became. I've thought of trying it again, but right now I'm on opiates because I had surgery. And I have to be on them for a while and I can't not take them.

That is one of the biggest reasons I don't know if I want to start it again. Between not being able to take any kind of pain medicine which I need and then on top of it the fear of not sleeping. My sleep is my biggest problem even above the pain.
 

jason30

Senior Member
Messages
513
Location
Europe
Have you tried Lyrica? Lyrica helps me and alot of other people who i have met with Fibromyalgia.
 

Mya Symons

Mya Symons
Messages
1,029
Location
Washington
While I was trying to figure out what medicines worked for me, I found a naturopathic medicine that helped with the pain. It is called Channel Flow by Health Concerns. However, sometimes it does show up as hydromorphone in drug tests if that is a concern. I thought it might be something you could try. Sam-e, Beta Alanine, and MSM have also helped me with the Fibromyalgia pain.

I also had CFS several years before developing Fibromyalgia. First it was CFS, then it was Hashimoto's Disease and then Fibromyalgia.

I agree with the statement about Lyrica and Gabapentin. I lost so much of my thought processes while on those medications that I no longer felt human. Savella, however, has helped both my husband and I with the pain and did not cause more brain fog. Many people get sick when they first try it (nausea and vomiting) because their doctors don't tell them to titrate the Savella for the first three weeks. It will make you sick if it is not titrated. However, it is worth trying.

If you don't have problems with slow digestion, Zofran will help with not only nausea, but also the fibromyalgia pain. It works by preventing the spinal fluid from re-uptaking too much 5-HTP. But, it will slow down digestion.
 
Last edited:
Messages
236
Location
Medford NJ
Tried both Lyrics and neurotoxin. They morphed my pain into another feeling but still is pain. Felt like I stuck my finger in an electric socket. I wish they did help me.
 

Misfit Toy

Senior Member
Messages
4,178
Location
USA
I I drooled on Lyrica. I couldn't sleep and I couldn't talk. Neurontin made me suicidal, or at least feel like I wanted to die.
 

GypsyGirl

Senior Member
Messages
165
Location
North Carolina
Ugh, Lyrica. I sounded and felt drunk without any of the fun of drinking.

Like @SueJohnPat mentioned - it changed the pain but didn't decrease it. The painful areas of my body felt disconnected (like that old allergy commercial where the guy's head is floating above him like a balloon), but I was aware of this heightened sensation of throbbing. Tons of side effects, but my favorite? Incontinence. Sudden inexplicable incontinence. My doctor at the time was completely nonchalant about the side effects I had. All that on 200mg, slowly titrated. I never got to the minimum recommended dose of 300mg daily.

I DID learn how to insist I didn't want to be on a medication and how to fire a doctor. So...thanks, Lyrica?

I have two friends on Lyrica and it works decently for their pain. I was so frustrated that it made mine worse. ...thank you guys for giving me the opportunity to commiserate & rant here. I've been holding that in for a couple years. :p
 

GONZ0hunter

Senior Member
Messages
131
Location
Fragelle rock, USA
It's so sad what they're doing to people with fibromyalgia. Taking them off all their pain meds. It's not right. I'm really lucky that I have doctors that give me pain medicine and I don't abuse it because most narcotics I can't handle.

Bio identical hormone's made my pain worse and more importantly made me feel nuts.

I'm wondering about trying term rack. A lot of people seem to do really well in that and another thing that people do well on which I don't understand all is kratom.
Has anyone tracked fibro suicides after this.

I try and rally against anti opiod groups. Shut one down for a time
 
Messages
36
I haven't found a drug that helps with fibromyalgia yet that didn't cause some degree of mental damage. @Mya Symons : How effective has Channel Flow been for you in regards to treating fibromyalgia?
 

Rebecca2z

Paradise, Ca
Messages
248
Location
Paradise Ca
@Misfit Toy , I can so relate to everything you have written. I have a very very hard time with pain meds.
Extreme agitation are one problem and I am just extremely sensitive to pain meds. I actually have sleep paralysis where my breathing shuts down.

There is only one drug I can take that helps with pain but has NO residual the next day, (allows me to sleep past the pain)
~ with all the fatigue and brain fog we go through this has always been crucial for me.

My knock out drug but can function the next day is Soma. I don't know if you have tried it. At my worst I took two pills at bedtime. But for the last year I have only taken a half a pill to 1 pill at night.