Chronic pain - Let's talk

I take 200 mg Tramadol and 900 MG of gabapentin throughout the day. for pinched nerves and arthritis pain. I also take a full aspirin every morning and stil, I cannot walk more than 2 blocks without severe back pain. I am soooo tired. Anybody else who is just fatigued from constant pain?

Pain meds don’t help you, try no hard it is to get off those things Her is a bit of my background.

To start off with I don’t really have much to live for anymore. I’m 60 years old, I am not young, I have had a full life, the person who i loved more than anybody or anything, took her one life, two weeks after I got the infection.

I had an infection on my C5 through my C7 from a disk replacement surgery that I had done on that part of my neck, September 7th, On October 3rd, 2023, I had to be rushed to the emergency hospital from the pain i developed from the surgery, after three emergency hospitals, and tons of test, and when I started to lose the mobility of my body from my neck down, they ended doing an emergency surgery, they took out the artificial disk from the first surgery, and they fused my neck. I woke up completely paralyzed from the neck down, I had a tiny little movement in my right hand, the doctor came in and said I would never walk again. The next day I ended up getting some mobility back in my right side and as time went it continued to improve, a week later they put me into a rehab, to work on getting to place I could take care of myself.

I have numbness and burning from my neck down, my penis and my balls burn, my bladder and bowel‘s work very poorly, my sexual functions barely work and when it does get hard it burns and has numbness and is not enjoyable in any way whatsoever, It’s been ten months and I still have all the the same symptoms, what has continued to get better is my mobility, but now it has plateaued!

Like I stated in the very beginning my girlfriend killed her self two weeks after I got the infection. Which was devastating because I loved her so much!

My left leg is stuck where it’s at. I have mobility in the rest of my body, but I walk very poorly because of the nerve pain and because of the paralyzation, the pain is unbearable most of the time day in a day out.

I am on a lot of pain pills, oxycodone on Lyrica and muscle relaxers, and Benzo’s for my depression. I cry all the time and don’t have anything to fight for. I sound pathetic but that is wear i am at, i feel like eating a gun barrel all the time!

But I finally got off the pain meds and my brain is functioning completely different! I have more than I have had through all through this nightmare I am living, and I have exhausted everything and everyone to find a solution and there is not much anyone can do for me!

@excentrk hello. I am new here. Just joined connect 2 days ago
I am SO fatigued from constant pain as well. I too take tramodol. I have for the last 5 years, but 50 mg tablets. I now take 2 per day. Sometimes they help my excruciating chronic back pain. Sometimes they don’t
I sustained 7 spinal compression fractures 6 years ago, due to severe osteoporosis from taking prednisone for many years for a chronic illness, ulcerative colitis . Had 2 surgeries (kyph) which did help a lot. But I am still left with back pain every day. It has been a monumental struggle. For the first two years I could only walk with a walker. Now I can walk half an hour at a time, sometimes one hour, w/o walker, then take a tramodol and rest. I only use the walker first thing in the AM, to help me out of bed
I wish I knew other people who have suffered compression fractures so I could find out what works for them

@konrad I am sorry for your plight and the loss of your significant other. I hope you are in therapy? You said the benzo’s haven’t helped and you want off them and you stopped pain meds too? Being off benzo’s is a plus I feel but I presume you’re still experiencing pain? You should reach out to #988 to obtain immediate psychological assistance with your immediate issue of grief recovery and suicidal ideation. Since you’ve written seeking help don’t stop with us! Good luck

Yes I am theraphy, yes I still have chronic nerve pain from my neck to my feet! My stomach feels like it’s wrap with duct tape, I have to cath to piss, and only because I went plant base only do I have Better bowl movement, my sexual functions cease to work, I hate my life now, I went to Panama and spent $30,000 for stem Cell and so far nothing! And not one person on my medical team have offered me any hope of relief! I been working my ass off to come back from being completely paralyzed! People tell me to be grateful you can now walk, but what about the chronic pain I live with from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep! Why would anyone want to suffer through this, I am just saying if all this is a place to bitch and there is no solution for people what’s the point of this support group! What you want to pat me on the back and tell me good job, before this happened to me, I had the woman of my dreams, I was surfing waves over six stories and in the ocean 6 hours a day doing things I loved to do! Now I walk like a cripple and suffer from morning to night!
Not the way I want to spend the rest of my life! I will fight a while longer but if change can’t happen then I will move in and people should be alright with it!

@eviejudith you should check out Buprenorphine for your chronic back pain. It has done wonders for me. Please read: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4675640/

I take 200 mg Tramadol and 900 MG of gabapentin throughout the day. for pinched nerves and arthritis pain. I also take a full aspirin every morning and stil, I cannot walk more than 2 blocks without severe back pain. I am soooo tired. Anybody else who is just fatigued from constant pain?

I would love to hear more about your experience with Buprenorphine. I have been taking hydrocodone at increasing dosages for about 3 years. I have undiagnosed chronic pain. My dr has talked about converting me to the Butrans (sp?) patch but I’m hesitant because I like having control over how much medicine I am taking and when I take it if that makes sense. I would really appreciate hearing your experience with it.

Butrans is the brand name for Buprenorphine administered via a patch that delivers 24/7 pain relief. Not having to worry about remembering or forgetting doses. I was also able to stop using Percocet for breakthrough pain by substituting medical cannabis. I use tincture CBD 150mg 4x day and THC 20mg 4x day. I tried higher THC and lower CBD but no effect on breakthrough pain. Good luck with Butrans.