I suffered a "Giant Brain Aneurysm" 2006 (the size of a walnut) that ruptured and bled out in two places at the base of the brain where all five arteries connect. They saved me by using coil and clip. Since, I suffer daily with chronic headaches where they cut the skull and removed my left eye to gain the position needed to work on me and the base of my lower spine is out of this world painful. Does anyone out there suffer the same or close to it? Are there any medications on the market that is safe for someone like us to take for arthritis? My physician prescribed Ultram 25mg TID PRN but now it has gone to a scheduled narc and a true hassle to try and keep a script every month. I am looking for any information anyone might be able to offer on medication possibilities.
Wow TEM, you have been through a lot! Have you been checked out for lower spine issues? I had lower back surgery about a year before my rupture. As a result I have a bit of arthritis. Tramadol did take the edge off, for a little while. PT gave me more control. I was taught some excercises by the PT for my back. If you can get to a PT I highly recommend it. One of the ones that gives a lot of relief is laying on my back and swinging my knees together back and forth, left to right, slowly, never going past where you feel pain. In the beginning, I could barely get my knees two inches from center. Now I’m almost to the bed without pain.
Walking helps tremendously as well. Sitting and being a couch potato aggravates the heck out of my back.
I would really get a specialist to check out your back.
Thank you for the insight. I cannot tell you how much of a Tom Boy I used to be in my younger days. I am 70 now and I have made it 10 years after this mess. I am a single mother and everything in my younger days was fixed around the house by me. I painted, roofed, poured cement even to make my own patio but now; times have sure changed and I do get my daily exercise. The ones you have mentioned seem really great and yes, thank you I will try them.
Hi TEM. Sorry I cannot add to this conversation but just wanted you to know I hope you will be well. That’s it. Just know I will keep you in my prayers.
I've had 8 brain and spinal surgeries and live with bad pain daily. I take flexeril (muscle relaxer) twice a day, Percocet three times a day and when that doesn't help I use Lidoderm pain patches which help immensely.
My husband had a brain bleed March 1, 2008. He was on oxycodone, but now his neurologist has left the Medical Center. They referred him to another who won't answer the phone or call back. He cannot get his Oxy codone . So he has weaned himself off it and now takes Tylenol. His pain was never associated to his brain operation. He has scoliosis and when in the hospital that was his pain. Its six years later, three bouts with cancer and we barely exist from day to day. I have osteo arthritis and cannot find a knee Dr. So Life is so difficult. All of a sudden we are elderly. I'm 70 and husband is turning 65 on his Birthday. I also spray his back when it bothers him with Salonpas. He has involuntary reflex in his left leg now. We just do one day at a time. I say a lot of prayers. Sorry can't help with the medications. I read the Drug Company that makes oxycodone has a new formula that is not so addictive. But I don't hear about Drs prescribing it. A lot of Drs here are afraid to prescribe because many were fined or put in jail for prescribing too many of these narcotic drugs to addicts. Wish you the best.
Firt, God Bless Each 1 of you. I am a survivor of a brain aneurysm and infarct. I had a failed coiling which resulted in a middle cerebral bleed. Then craniotomy to repair the aneurysm. I suffer from headaches almost daily. I take fioricet which helps. As for pain, I was in pain mgmt for severe osteoarthritis as a result of previous surgeries on both knees. I weaned off all narcotic pain medz 4 months ago, with the help of accupuncture. I am scheduled for knee replacement and tendon repair surgery on Jan 28th. Although I may not understand each ones level of pain, I am empathetic. I lived with chronic pain for 10 yearz. Medication did control my pain, but I chose to wean off, as I have taken way to many medz to mention. I was told I will need pain mgmt after my upcoming surgery to get through rehab, I know it will not be forever. I to was athletic in my younger yearz and still have that spirit. When the body fails, it can be very frustrating. I send prayerz to all out there who are on the road to healing. Sharing helps us all!
Blessingz and Love~
Where have you people been all this time!?!?!?! LOL LOL LOL!!!! I swear, I had noooo idea there were so many of us out here!!! I am humbled to see all the emails I have just received from you all and a little teary eyed as well to think so many of you do in fact have the very same situations. If it were not for my daughter, I would never have gotten this far. Thank goodness she loved the medical field and chose to follow it into a wonderful career but, she can only go so far with trying to find the right types of medications to ask my physician about. I was in an induced coma for 12 days and when I woke; I had no idea what the world had in store for me. I am not really looking for "Pain Medications" per say but to find out what is available for me like Celebrex but safe for any one of us that has the bleed potential. My daughter has been reading up on Nortriptyline HCL and all the wonders they are coming across with the antidepressant medication turned super hero. For Loretta Selkirk; since your husband is suffers, please read up on the Nortriptyline HCL and I truly thank you for the in site you shared. Just the reviews she came across online were amazing from actual patients and the information listed is pretty great. We only came across one person that receives the medication following a brain aneurysm but she has been pain free for weeks. I just wanted to see if anyone had any luck with control or controling the daily headaches and pains. You are all FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!! I thank you!!!!!!!
8 months after my brain aneurysm I felt so wonderful. I was back at work and couldn't have been happier. One of my co-worker said "Patti, you are back to yourself!" After break, I had a seizure. Of course, no warning what so ever (no warning for the aneurysm either) I was put on dilantan. I could stop, but I don't want to take a chance of having another seizure. And lose my driver's license for 6 mos?? No way. To return to you, you had a really biggie! I wish I could think of another med to help you. Sorry for talking about myself.
That is a tremendous injury you had! I was fortunate that I had a simple aneurysm that could be treated with coiling only and by some miracle it had stopped bleeding en-route to being flown from Big Island to Maui so my damage was not so bad. Unfortunately two years later I was in a head on car accident where the other driver was driving in the wrong lane,my pain is mostly in my body and I was started on naltrexone which makes all of it more manageable,I still feel sore but am not out of it like I was on oxycontin.
Oh, TEM, I can’t imagine have such pain on a daily basis. It’s time to bring in the professionals. There’s an association, the AmericanAcademy of Pain Management, that will connect a patient to pain expert physicians. if there is a non-drug, or better drug, for pain management, you need someone who understands pain specifically. I faced the choice between the drug side effects versus living with the pain way too long. Doctors just want pain patients to go away so they are quick to write a prescription and often don’t do a close and careful examination of the body and take the time for a discussion of all the options available to you. This should not go on without trying other techniques to supplement the drugs. Maybe even acupuncture. Cold and/or heat packs. Yoga. Massage. Braces. As I came of age in the 1960s, I considered marijuana for pain management and if you are in a state with that option, you might consider it. If one doctor doesn’t help try another and another. Living with ‘out of this world’ pain is not an option. I have been known to use a glass of wine instead of a pill to take the edge off, but my chronic pain wasn’t as bad as yours. I wish you the best in finding a solution!
Burst Annie 08…God awful dizziness daily,off kilter and so afraid I might fall.
Had oxycontin but like you it is now scheduled narc…so I am using Tylenol w codeine 600 mg. I do stretching type exercises,try to walk every day,Omg this is as close to Hell as I ever hope to get!..the codeine tylenol helps! I am 68 yrs old, slender, so in pretty good health all things considered. now they tell me I have degenerative spine issues…painful!Who would have thought this would be my intro to old age,made harder by selfish unkind inlaws! oh well I AM ALIVE…so they have to put up with this old Irish gal a little longer! hang in there! XxooRP
Try acupuncture, it takes time to work but I’ve managed to cut down my endone and panadine forte and will eventually cut them out. I have to take both together for either to work, but the acupuncture is taking the pain levels down. I have arthritis and muscle pain that grows through the day, if I don’t go to physio it gets worse, so exercise is helping too. Good luck, hope all goes well for you xxxx
TEM -I can relate to your skills and being a Tomboy:). For my headaches from my rupture I tried many things but back in the beginning of Dec I did an SPG block with a SphenoCath. The doctor used lidocaine. It’s been very successful. If I see him again, I’m going to hug him! It immediateley stopped the excess mucous drainage I developed since my second coiling. But by and by my headaches are usually not worth mentioning. Now with headaches rarely getting out of the three or four range, I don’t have my internal signal that tells me I’m doing too much.:). The only other thing I take for my head and it’s supposed to help my back is Magnesium Oxide. It’s an otc but the mg level is high and in our area kept with the pharmaceuticals. Have to ask and the pharmacist talks to you to see why you need it. I still get headaches if I do too much bending so I try to remember to squat down, also get them if I’m on an electronic device too much.
After my rupture I had headaches for months on a daily basis and had to take meds pretty much all day long - my doc had explained that I could take 2 advil followed in two hours by 2 tylenol since these meds both work on the headaches but are different formulations so no danger (eg-ibuprofen vs acetaminophen) but sometimes in unison are more effective and he was right so when desperate that is what I did - other times advil or tylenol alone would do the trick and even now 6 yrs later I will resort to this method before taking the heavy artillery 'Amerge' by Glaxo which is a migrane med and extremely effective, doesn't make me nauseous or sleepy or groggy - only problem is they are extremely expensive so that is why I use them when I am really desperate - hope I could help
Yes, it is hard but we are alive and breathing!! Hard to believe someone can actually has such a thing happen to us let alone survive it. I totally REFUSE to take any of the pain medications!!! They had to force me into the Ultram but I must say; I am a totally different person when I do take them. I seem to be picking up on a pattern here with a lot of people. Seems the lower back or base of spine is always the problem later on.
rosalie porter said:
Burst Annie 08....God awful dizziness daily,off kilter and so afraid I might fall. Had oxycontin but like you it is now scheduled narc...so I am using Tylenol w codeine 600 mg. I do stretching type exercises,try to walk every day,Omg this is as close to Hell as I ever hope to get!...the codeine tylenol helps! I am 68 yrs old, slender, so in pretty good health all things considered. now they tell me I have degenerative spine issues...painful!Who would have thought this would be my intro to old age,made harder by selfish unkind inlaws! oh well I AM ALIVE....so they have to put up with this old Irish gal a little longer! hang in there! XxooRP
I was blessed to have the Annie discovered before any bleeding or rupture. However I suffer with pain from a knee replacement due to osteoarthrits.... I have lumbar, hip and other pains. I was prescribed multiple oral meds.... which I don't like taking oral meds....
You can ask your doctor to prescribe a pain cream... orthopedic doctors should be familiar with the various creams. My cream is called Musculoskelatal L Cream and NC Neuro Cream #2. I first used the L cream with some breakthrough pain then the neuro cream with some break through pain.... I tried them together....with great results. One is for muscle pain and the other for nerve pain. I spoke with the pharmacist and was told many patients use them together.
These are special formulary creams...costly but well worth it.
I am 34 and had a ruptured anereuysm in September. Was in hospital for 3 1/2 weeks. I have daily headaches and all they give me is tylenol 3 which does nothing. Do not know how to ask for stronger meds. I am also suffering major depression and cannot find a phycharist to get into. It is very bad and have horrible thoughts that I can’t control. I have a 9 year old who is my life but lately feel she is better without me. Any suggestions?? This anereuysm has ruined my life