Well after 2 years of haing to take hydrocodone, darvocet, flexeril and some others I finally got with my doc and we sat down and came up with the start of a long term pain management plan.
We had 2 simple goals to start with and they were to 1- get me off all meds with acetaminophen and 2- provide a level of pain management that would allow me to resume some activities.
We ditched the old pain meds and started 20mg of oxycontin as needed up to 2X a day. This was a med that I looked at seriously as well as the duragesic patches but a call to my insurance helped me decide this one. The patches are expensive!!! The oxycontin is time released so I no longer have to pop pain meds every 4 hours or so.
We switched the muscle relaxers from flexeril and then skelaxin over to robaxin and then we switched from a SSRI (lexapro) to a tricyclic (elavil) antidepressant to aid in the pain management. And we added naprosyn for the NSAID.
I see the doc in two weeks to see how things are going and to make any needed changes in dosage or brands.
Thanks to all the gret advice I recieved from many of you. Without it I would not have known were or what to look for. I gathered information and even printed out some to bring with me as I expected some issues over the request for long term oxycontin use. Some studies suggest that the addiction factor for oxy is minimal when used in a pain management role, even when it is long term.
Again, thanks for the info and I will keep you all posted as to progress.
In the meantime I do keep a blog if you want to follow my daily ramblings.
http://ihavearachnoiditis.info
http://ihavespondylolisthesis.info
http://opforsoldier.blogspot.com
The blogspot address is the host and the 1st 2 are just re-directs to the site. I am hoping to get my software soon and then I will be hosting it on my own domain.