Pain Killer Question

[taniaaust1]

Im so exhausted with pain.. only got 3 hrs of sleep last night due to the pain (and had to sleep in a hot bath to get that). Currently dosed up on 2 extra strong asprin (1000mg) and also on 2 paracetamol (1000mg) (taking one of them every 2hrs). Im wanting to know if it would be safe to take ibupofen on top of this mix? I just want to be able to sleep and not feel sick cause of the amount of pain.

Thank you

 

[heapsreal]

dont think your suppose to take asprin and nsaids like ibuprofen together as they work in a similar way and can increase the risk of ulcers. not sure if u can take codeine, but u can get panadeine extra which has 15mg of codeine per tablet with paracetamol and is the strongest codeine med without a script in australia. Also another pain med i have found helpful if u dont use with other asprin/brufen nsaids etc is naprosen, i find it stronger then most anti-inflammatories. Also theres mersyndol which is alot like panadeine but has an antihistamine which has muscle relaxing properties, just be careful with alot of these meds as they can contain alot of the same active ingredients in them so need to have a good read of them. mersyndol can also help with sleep as it has sedating properties.

cheers!!!

 

[Nielk]

Tania,

Why don't you try a sleep aid instead for the night? If you don't want a prescription, you can try Tylenol PM. This is in the US. I don't know what the equivalent would be in Australia. The ingredients are Tylenol which is a pain med and Benadryl which is a strong anti-histamine.

 

[Boule de feu]

When you wake up at night, you could try listening to a meditation CD or do visualization/relaxation techniques.
I keep my MP3 besides my bed. Usually, I fall asleep right after I start one. My brain is too busy trying to keep up and it can't keep going very long. My focus is not on my pain anymore.

Also, I have found that if I am too busy during the day, my pain is worse at night. I have reduced my activities (more pacing during the day). This way, my body is not as tense when I go to bed.

I am taking Neurontin which helps. Lyrica did nothing for me.
Naproxen was doing wonders until I could not take it anymore. It would make me sick.

 

[Enid]

Just to add I found Neurontin very helpful too - allowed fairly high dose when sleep was impossible (prescription only) for about 4 weeks a few years ago - it was something of a turning point for me as I recall easing pain and sleep.

 

[Wonko]

The type of painkiller to use depends on the type of pain, a good general rule is if over the counter painkillers arent effective at 1.5-2 times the max recommended doze then they wont be at any dozage. If your having to take a full dose every 2 hours instead of 4 then that counts as double the max recommended dose and another solution should be sought - as sustained use of painkillers at a high dose can actually make you more susceptable to pain (as well as the known health risks).

If a hot bath is helping is the pain inflamation related? If so then ibuprofen would be my first approach - I'd try 800mg but definately no more than 1600mg in 4 hours (you cant take this level on an ongoing basis - it's just to see if you can break the back of it and get some sleep which will help with the pain tomorrow). I would not take anything else at the same time at least until you determine wether the ibuprofen is helping (it could take upto 2 hours to have a significant effect). You could also take (as has already been suggested) a standard antihystamine (there is no advantage to taking more than 1, it will either have an effect or it wont).

I know it's difficult to do but you need to take a controlled approach so that next time this happens you know exactly what worked.

I hope you feel better and get some sleep soon.

 

[Lynne B]

Tania, I'm really sorry to hear of your pain and lack of sleep. My husband and I have given up on painkillers in the day as they don't seem to work for us. Instead, we rely on wheatpacks. You mention being able to sleep in a hot bath so that's why I'm making the connection to hotpacks. We heat them in the microwave for two or three minutes depending on their size and then sit with them behind our backs, usually, or on any other affected spot for a while. I get a burning pain across the top of my shoulders on very little activity and we both get a lot of pain in our backs. But really any part of me that gets cold becomes painful.

It's awful not getting enough sleep, I know, and you need to be fairly active about trying to get more. Recently, I've started to take two panadol before bedtime, to avert my sensory overreaction to the feeling of the sheets, and it's meant that I've been able to sleep for about five to six hours straight for the first time in years. I often can't go back into proper sleep in the early hours, but it's great to at least have that one big stretch of sleep. Maybe hotpacks could help there? Good luck.

 

[Tony Mach]

For my migrane, ibuprofen did so much more than either aspirin or paracetamol. If aspirin or paracetamol don't work, I would not take further aspirin or paracetamol, but instead switch and ONLY take ibuprofen. But as far as I know, you can take it on top (but I am not a doctor and surely don't know all drug interactions).

And don't take much paracetamol, it can damge the liver. You sould take N-acteylcystein (NAC) to counteract a possible overdose.

 

[taniaaust1]

Im fine now (until next time) .. I forgot I'd posted this post (with the lack of sleep I wasnt thinking straight).

Several people mentioned ibuprofen.. I sometimes use that instead of the asprin.. and end up using both panadol and ibuprofen at the same time .. as the ibuprofen doesnt seem to work any better then plain asprin alone and without extra pain meds at the same time.. it makes no difference at all (and the panadol works even less then the asprin does).

dont think your suppose to take asprin and nsaids like ibuprofen together as they work in a similar way

That's what I was thinking and hence never have taken that combo together and was asking for clarification.

I was on Naproxen when I tore my shoulder tendon and had impingement which later went to frozen shoulder but that didnt stop this other kind of pain I get.
........

I'll get some panadol with codiene in it to try next time I get this pain... I havent tried mixing it with asprin and heat to see if i can get rid of pain like that. I have never tried Tylenol either when I cant sleep due to pain issues.

When you wake up at night, you could try listening to a meditation CD or do visualization/relaxation techniques.

Ive tried that and it didnt help at all. The pain takes away my focus to focus on anything else well .. very hard to relax in pain state as even when I do manage to switch off of the pain for a moment.. it very quickly hits me again its there and jjust keeps coming in. I try not to focus on it as much as I can as if I do.. I end up just crying due to pain so when Im in pain I have to keep constantly trying to distract myself. Im able due to my past effortss to have some effect on not allowing myself to go into crying with pain (as that only makes it worst).. so I try to detach.

I can now at times go from an envolving pain state right to going unconscious with pain.. without having tears (I know only too well not to do that as it puts me into sheer hell) .. but it still does cause me distress till I pass out with it which is relief when Im that bad. When I dont manage to switch off some from bad pain.. Ive gone almost into hysterics due to it. (the effort of trying to deal with it exhausts)

. My husband and I have given up on painkillers in the day as they don't seem to work for us. Instead, we rely on wheatpacks.

Nods.. I tend to use hot water bottles along with the pain killers. That night I ended up sleeping in hot bath.. I had got to the point where I was too exhausted to keep refilling them up (they only tend to work for me if they are really hot.. and making my skin all red). It had got to the point where the filling of the hot water bottles, the effort to do that was starting to make the ME/CFS worst. (hence why I just went and jumped in bath at that point.. It takes 4hrs for me to run completely out of hot water and i doze between turning hot tap back on and letting some water out.

Lynne.. are you the Lynne who once wrote me a supportive letter? after a time i ended up in hospital???? (I was going to write to a lynne who wrote to me but then cant quite remember if I replied back or not). Has a feeling you may be.. thank you... sorry if my memory is too poor to to exactly rememer.
.............

Thanks all.. the posts have given me a couple of other things next time to try.

 

[heapsreal]

http://www.prohealth.com/ME-CFS/lib...m=em&utm_campaign=MECFS&slvor=&forumid=331851
interesting article on pain in cfs.

 

[LaurelW]

The part about putting the patient in the Mast trousers is fascinating. Makes me want to run out and buy some compression hose!

 

[Lynne B]

Hi, Tania,

I'm glad to hear you're over the bout of pain stopping you sleeping. Yes, I wrote to you earlier this year. I hate the thought of any of us being defeated by this thing. Like heapsreal, I thought the pain post he mentions is very interesting. (2 posts ago) The idea that lack of blood circulation to the brain is increasing our perception of pain is a very interesting one.

I try to be active about shifting my body from a bad phase back to a more normal one. That means that if I start feeling off after I've been reading or sitting for a while I'll start moving around, doing the washing, etc. to get my circulation going again. If I'm starting to get breathless or dizzy or I'm getting pain when I'm being active I'll make myself sit with my feet up for a while: pacing and switching are my main techniques through the day.

At night I try to keep all my body warm so I get less of a reaction trying to get warm in bed. (My toes go straight from icy cold to burning hot with stabbing pains, which gets me back out of bed for a couple of hours. Maddening.) I try to warm the bed just enough before getting in; too hot, and it's straight into the burning toes routine. Unless the sheets are fairly old they feel really sharp against my skin. The pain starts at my feet and pretty soon I can't bear to either lie still or move so much as a hand. That's why I've started taking the two panadol before going to bed. So far, (about two weeks) that's really helped a lot. Silk things next the skin are very soothing and help me go to sleep fast. If all else fails, I'll make myself get up and get a glass of rice milk, toast or cereal, and maybe a second valerian pill if there's four hours of possible sleep left in the night.

I'm very lucky I'm not as badly off as others on this site but my difficulties get to me all the same. My philosophy is that we don't know quite when medical science will crack this thing and in the meantime we've got to use our ingenuity and try everything reasonable to alleviate our symptoms and improve our lives.

cheers, Lynne