The r/x painkillers my urologist gives me occasionally (when it gets very bad) help, but they make me feel sick, and hurt my oseophagus.

I'm new here and would appreciate some direction. I was diagnosed with a chronic pain condition by my Urologist in January after he did invasive tests that confirmed my disease. I have been told there is no 'cure' for what I have, but I can try to control flares through diet and painkillers. The r/x painkillers my urologist gives me occasionally (when it gets very bad) help, but they make me feel sick, and hurt my oseophagus. My doctor is very conservative and will not prescribe me more than 15 vicodin every 3 months. I don't want to doctor shop or buy meds online.

I want to discuss the option of using medical marijuana as I have heard it works for ulcerated bladder conditions. I don't want to do anything illegal and I am scared my Urologist will think I'm a bad person for even suggesting the use of medical marijuana to ease the pain and flares. I have never smoked pot before, but I'd like to give it a try. I live in WA state. What would you suggest is the best course of action to discuss this option with my doctor without offending him or alienating him, or to go about finding a doctor who will be prepared to prescribe me medical marijuana after reading my medical report?

i would do some networking and find me another doctor, have you tried oxycodone? i know you mentioned that vikes make you sick, i know for a fact that pot will help with pain to some extent but IMO i thought it was used to counter act side effects of chemo and for aids patients. i go to a pain mgt. doc and if pot is in your drug test is an automatic dismissal
do you live close to a teaching hodpital this would be great if you did if i were you that woukd be my first option..and welcome to DB you will find a wealth of info here.
Bill

Is medical marijuana legal in WA? I thought it was only Calf and that being really recent but I may be vry wrong there. It rally should be imo - even though I am not a pot person I have seen it work very well with a friend's condition and it is ridiculous what he has to go through for relief.

If it is legal I would seek out some documentation of the success with your condition to bring to your Doctor. If it's not legal I wouldn't bother mentioning it.

Do the pain meds make you vomit? Is that why your throat hurts?

I was reading about this lately after talking with my doctors about finding relief for my own chronic neuropathic pain. Cannabis has been shown to be helpful in relieving certain kinds of pain, particularly the neuropathic type. It's currently used mostly in MS, spine injury, glaucoma, epilepsy, HIV and cancer, I believe.

According to Wikipedia, it's legal in WA to cultivate/own/use cannabis for medical purposes (including chronic pain) if you have permission. From what you've said it doesn't sound like your current doctor would be too receptive, but perhaps with some searching you could find a doctor who understands the role of cannabis in pain relief and is not opposed to prescribing it. Best of luck to you.

The sickness related to pain killers such as Vicodin tend to cease after you've taken it for a while. Also taking with warm milk can be helpful I've heard.

Ajulemic acid is the alkaloid that has shown promise in animal studies, also known as IP 751.

If I'm right in guessing what your condition is, dimethyl sulphoxide often provide relief, though it has to be instilled, retained for 15 minutes and then voided.

medical MJ has many benefits in my opinion.

but if your pain is bad, i would not rely on it as your sole medication for relief. i think you will find that hydrocodone is a much better pain reliever than hydroponics

the reason it is given to some cancer patients is so they will get an appetite and be able to keep their food down after chemo, not really used for the pain control. at that point, the pain is WAY to bad for MJ to have any pain relieving properties.

don't get me wrong, if it is mild pain, will probably help quite a bit. but as far as severe pain, i would stick to an opiate of some sort.

let me state again. i think this plant has MANY MANY medical benefits, and should be available to people in our country who could benefit from it. i just dont think it will have the pain relieving properties you are hoping for.

unless you are in california, i would think mentioning to your doc that you would like to try pot instead of the hydro he is scripting you, might be cause for him to cut off that vicodin script faster than you can blink.

Thanks Funky. That's what I'm afraid he'll do if I ask him about m/j. I just hate the way Vicodin makes my heart race and my throat feel like I swallowed a mouse and I wanted to try an alternative. At this stage I'm thinking of asking him if he would advise me to look for a pain management doctor to help me, as it has come to the point that I have to manage it. I have never done any illegal drugs before and I would be willing to do any drug tests they want me to take. I'm honestly just looking for a safe alternative to help the searing pain without having to always beg the Urologist for a few measly vicodin every 3 months, or have the chest constriction from the vicodin. I have all my medical records and proof of diagnosis.

I used to live in Hawaii where with proper medical documents it is fairly easy to get a "blue card" for medical marijuana. As of last year I know that the following website had good info in regard to medical mj in the western states:

patientswithouttime.com

click on patient resources, and patient groups and
coops.

Good luck,

KG

are you taking 5, 7.5 or 10 milligram hydrocodone when this happens? have you talked to the doc about how the vic's make you feel? the chest constriction and all that...

have you thought of trying, or asking the doc to try a 5 milligram percocet? 5 milligrams of oxycodone w/ APAP.

i am no doc, but maybe percocet would not give you the adverse reactions that the hydrocodone does. it may even control the pain better also.

I'm new here and would appreciate some direction. I was diagnosed with a chronic pain condition by my Urologist in January after he did invasive tests that confirmed my disease. I have been told there is no 'cure' for what I have, but I can try to control flares through diet and painkillers. The r/x painkillers my urologist gives me occasionally (when it gets very bad) help, but they make me feel sick, and hurt my oseophagus. My doctor is very conservative and will not prescribe me more than 15 vicodin every 3 months. I don't want to doctor shop or buy meds online.

I want to discuss the option of using medical marijuana as I have heard it works for ulcerated bladder conditions. I don't want to do anything illegal and I am scared my Urologist will think I'm a bad person for even suggesting the use of medical marijuana to ease the pain and flares. I have never smoked pot before, but I'd like to give it a try. I live in WA state. What would you suggest is the best course of action to discuss this option with my doctor without offending him or alienating him, or to go about finding a doctor who will be prepared to prescribe me medical marijuana after reading my medical report?

Which side of the mountains do you live on? I have a recommendation for you, depending on which side you live on.
If your condition is chronic, no cure(like mine) you might have to reconsider your stance on pain meds and find what works for you.

IOW, trial and error. I found that vicodin does that to me, makes my heart race. I don't like them all that much. The closest I have found to decent relief is the oxycodone products.

Like most CPer's we have to search for what works, and sometimes we have to search for the good docs too.

Be well,
Trixxie

Maybe tramadol would be worth a shot. I know not everyone finds it useful, but it's supposed to be among the more effective opioid drugs for neuropathic pain (along with oxycodone, morphine, buprenorphine and methadone, if I remember correctly). Maybe an anticonvulsant or a different muscle relaxant would help, too. I find Valium quite helpful, and Rivotril (Klonopin), although it can make you quite sleepy.

sheesh... sorry to hear the GS.

maybe you do need to explore PM.

ask your doc about it, and make it very clear that the hydrocodone makes you uncomfortable, even at a 2.5 milligram dose.

if he is a good doc, he should at least try to work with you to find something that works, and does not give you any side effects. or as you said, refer you to a doctor that can.

good luck. and hopefully you will have your pain under control without the feeling of having a heart attack soon!

Thanks for the info, I have never heard of Tramadol, I'll look it up. Actually, Valium is the most effective pain reliever for what I have, but my doctor won't prescribe it. I don't know why, but come to think of it, valium cuts the pain better than anything.

It's probably because he's thinking that Valium is a skeletal muscle relaxant rather than a smooth muscle relaxant, and should have no effect on the bladder. Which is correct, but nevertheless it is used and patients do report benefit, probably because it breaks a cycle of stress associated with the spasms, which makes the spasms worse.

Have you tried the old-fashioned 'anticholinergics' such as atropine and hyoscine? Hyoscine in its butylbromide salt is available from corner shops in the UK for cramping of smooth muscle, though it's absorbed poorly orally.

Amitriptyline tends to reduce spasm as well in small doses.

How did you find out that Valium helped?

There are quite a lot of options here:

http://www.urologychannel.com/interstitialcystitis/treatment-medical.shtml

I think your doctor may be more receptive to non-conventional treatments when all the conventional ones have been tried first. I'd certainly go along with trying oxycodone or another opioid as well. If you use it like you use the hydrocodone, you should not be in any more danger of becoming dependent than you are now.