Apparently, it has been proposed to have a secure online database for doctors and pharmacists only, so that they can check whether patients are making the rounds of doctors getting multiple prescriptions for "scheduled drugs" (i.e., pain pills).
I'm hoping that this will make it a little easier for those of us with legitimate pain to get a legitimate prescription for the pills we need, since the doctor can check and verify that we're not abusing the pills, this is the only prescription for them that we have.
As has been brought up before by someone who worked in a medical office, and is worth repeating here, if your doctor tries to tell you he won't give you narcotics because it requires a lot of extra paperwork, he's lying. That longer form was done away with. The only "paperwork" required is that he has to use a special three-copy prescription pad instead of the normal single-copy one. He writes the exact same information on it, just that there are extra copies for tracking the prescription.
The pain of fibromyalgia is neurological pain. NSAIDs are for inflammatory pain. They won't work. They're for a different type of pain. The only thing that works on neurological pain is narcotics/opioids. Following the rheumatologist's instructions to take Advil gave me an ulcer, but no pain relief; even taken by the handful, Advil did nothing for me, because I didn't need an anti-inflammatory. (I keep it around for when my arthritis is acting up in winter, but easing the pain in my hands and knees doesn't help the pain in the rest of my body.)
Tramadol is so mild that it's sold over-the-counter in Canada. For me, it's usually all I need. If I combine it with a heating pad or a hot bath, I'm functional. It's a good compromise between my need for pain relief and my doctor's preference for using the lowest-impact treatment, and since I work at home, I can use a heating pad all day or take frequent dips in a hot bath, which I couldn't at an office.
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