Flexeril!

[MaryB]

I take a slow release oxycontin and a percocet when I wake up and at 8pm. Right before bed I take another percocet to dull the pain down enough to sleep. 2 lyrica a day for the nerve pain... none of it makes me feel high in any way... just takes the edge off the pain so I can move and get something done for the day

Mary:
your not alone.
I generally took 2 or 3 of them and it was like aspirin.
50mg's of Tramadol doesn't do a thing either and just makes me a little nauseous, but I see people looking like their drunk on 20.

[MaryB]

Doesn't surprise me at all, I carried a 20+ pound tool belt and spare parts on the right side at the casino and my back is curved that direction from it.

You all may laugh but I have had such back problems in the past with severe muscle spasms in lower back until I went to a chiropractor. Every time I hurt my back I would get to the chiropractor as soon as possible and would avoid most of the spasms and all of the meds. Since I have been retired, my back got mysteriously better and have not had any real back problems since. I have decided that it was my carrying a gun for 33 years on my right side that was causing the problems.

Ken

[Greg S]

The only thing it does for me is make me fe3ling like my hair is my hair growing. Parafone forte used to do the trick. Still looking for the magic arrow to replace PF without a bunch on side effects.

[Sasquatch-1]

Walking around in uniform with a 20 to 25 lb. Sam Brown belt and body armor doesn't help much either. Also being hit by a car while trying to break up a fight early in my career didn't help a lot.

You all may laugh but I have had such back problems in the past with severe muscle spasms in lower back until I went to a chiropractor. Every time I hurt my back I would get to the chiropractor as soon as possible and would avoid most of the spasms and all of the meds. Since I have been retired, my back got mysteriously better and have not had any real back problems since. I have decided that it was my carrying a gun for 33 years on my right side that was causing the problems.

Ken

[William Yanda]

" It amazes me how much personality small animals can have." Spoonerism

I recently was the "chicken-sitter" for some neighbors for a couple of weeks. 4 chickens, a rooster and 3 pullets, out in the am, in at night. Didn't take them long to come running when I pulled up in the evening.

[Lloyd Smale]

after 5 back surgerys a hip and ankle replacement sleeping at night is tough. I don't take flexural during the day but take one a trazadone and a couple advil every night at bed time so I can sleep. Bottom line is nothing makes the aches and pains better then good sleep. I started on this routine because I couldn't stand the narcotic especially at bed time. One oxycodone and I'm up staring at the ceiling all night and add to that the fact you have to about live on laxitives.

[Char-Gar]

During my recent back problem Flexarril, Tramadol , or Hydrocodon did anything for me. They were like taking air pills. The Spine Doc finally put together a cocktail of Valium and Delaudin that allow me to get some sleep. It took a steroid injection in the spine to get up and going. I am now off all pain meds.
.

[SP5315]

I never had any luck with Flexeril when it has been prescribed for me. After taking on and off for a few months for severe back spasms, I had no relief at all. A nurse practitioner was standing in for my doctor one day. She prescribed Baclofen. Two days later the spasms were gone. After a week I stopped the medication and didn't have any spasms for several months. I have never found a muscle relaxant like Baclofen that worked so well on me.

YMMV

[Lloyd Smale]

I don't take flexeril to relieve pain. I use it to help me sleep at night and give the muscles a bit of a break. Kind of a preventive medicine. When real back pain comes narcotics don't even do much. they might make it livable if you sit in a chair and don't move but doing that sure doesn't help you get through it. If anything short of a morphine injection gives you total relief of your back pain you don't have REAL back pain, you have a sore back.

[Alstep]

Muscle relaxers do just that. Don't forget that the heart is a muscle. Relax the heart too much and you're a goner!

[gbrown]

Back in the day, Parafon Forte was my wonder drug. One day my doctor gave me Flexeril because he was worried about the aspirin in the Parafon. I have a cast iron stomach and it never bothered me. Anyway, I took a Flexeril and woke up the next morning feeling like I had been on a 2 day drunk. One of the worst hangovers I ever experienced (haven't had that many in my life) About 2 that afternoon, I finally came out of it. I had a gall bladder attack about 8 weeks ago and they gave me morphine in the emergency room--made me feel strange but did nothing for the pain. I just didn't care about the pain. I've been given hydrocodone scripts 2 or 3 times, did nothing for me. Ibuprofen works for me. I'm just lucky, I guess.

[Blackwater]

TG, FWIW, I had a fairly extensive history with Flexerill after '81 when I hurt my back seriously doing something I KNEW I shouldn't. Let some friends talk me into it, which seems often the case, or simple cussed "I can do that" when we know we SHOULDN'T do it. Long story short, it had the same effects you describe, and I couldn't do my job, or much of anything else, except sleep and laze around, neither of which was what I WANTED to be able to do.

I found relief without the meds (muscle relaxers and pain killers, neither of which agreed with me well) by going to a chiropractor. A buddy with similar problems called me from his office. His back had siezed up so bad he couldn't even walk to his car, and he asked me if I could come take him to his chiropractor. I couldn't deny him, and got off work to comply. Thankfully, it was a relatively "open" time for me. I got there, and parked in front of his office with the passenger side door open. I knew if he'd condescended to call for help, this would be needed. Got in and half helped, half carried him to the door and to the truck, and got him inside my truck. Took him to his chiropractor and half helped, half carried him inside. The chiro helped him back to the treatment room. Amazingly, about 15-20 min. later, he strutted out almost like a bantam rooster!

Now here's where you need to realize that I'd been raised to believe that all chiros were quacks, and they'd probably hurt you rather than "cure" you, and if you went long enough, just might KILL you! Naturally, seeing such a miraculous change in my friend got my attention, and the next time mine went out, I called his chiro and managed to get there on my own. Amazingly, he took me back, did a few twists on me, and I was able to walk out erect and under my own power, with no teetering, etc.!

OK, so now I was convinced! And that chiro was my "salvation" when my back went out for a good number of years, until he moved away. Since then, I've yet to find another chiro who doesn't want to get me on a steady schedule, and none that will do a simple maneuver and send me out "cured," at least until the next episode. I quit all the meds that I hated taking so much, and just used him for my "cures."

My GP doc once asked me why I went to one of those "danged ol' chiropractors," because "Nothing they do is permanent." I held up the Rx he'd just given me, and asked him, "So I guess these pain killers and muscle relaxers are permanent???" He just said, "Oh," and went back to writing and talking about other things. Loved that old doc. He was a tail gunner on a B-25 in WWII and THE doc you wanted to see if you wound up in the ER. But he didn't like chiros at ALL! He figured his "education" I guess, made his ways superior to a chiro's, but that's not how it worked out in practice for me.

However, the fly in this ointment is that each chiro has his/her own set of skills, and very few it seems, subsequent to Ralph, my original chiro, will do a "cure" in one sitting like Ralph did! And I have yet to find a single chiro that could or would do for me what Ralph did. So .... IF (and that's a big and very relevant word here!) you can find a chiro that can and WILL do what you need, treasure him and I'd almost want to buy life insurance on him because they're very rare, and if he is no longer around, the meds, etc. will be a LOT more expensive in addition to being less satisfactory.

IF you can find one of these jewels of the chiropractor's art, stick with him/her! If not, it's really a toss-up in my mind, as to what I'd do if I were still in that shape. ALL chiros are NOT alike, and the only way to find a good one, is to try them all one by one, going down the list when you get stuck bent over and can't get up. Eventually, you MAY (?) find one that can alleviate your taking all those meds and the side effects that you and I hate so badly. But it won't happen overnight, and CAN be almost as depressing as the pain itself. But FWIW, this is what I'd try if I were in your shoes again. Hope you find the key to avoiding the pain AND these debilitating meds! It really affects your life in ways that can't really be understood by those who've never had this problem.

[MaryB]

You would be wrong, narcotics dull the pain enough I can function/sleep. Morphine only dulls it too. I am never pain free anymore, it is the degree of pain... and that pain would put the average person in bed screaming for morphine. You get used to it after years of fighting it. I am sue it will shorten my lifespan due to lack of sleep...

I don't take flexeril to relieve pain. I use it to help me sleep at night and give the muscles a bit of a break. Kind of a preventive medicine. When real back pain comes narcotics don't even do much. they might make it livable if you sit in a chair and don't move but doing that sure doesn't help you get through it. If anything short of a morphine injection gives you total relief of your back pain you don't have REAL back pain, you have a sore back.

[MaryB]

Chiro works if you have misalignment, it doesn't help ruptured discs/no discs/bone spurs like I have... in fact a chiro looked at my CT scan and said NOPE not touching you because a wrong move could put me in a wheelchair. Walking, keeping stomach muscles strong are 2 of the best things you can do for a bad back because it holds things in alignment.

TG, FWIW, I had a fairly extensive history with Flexerill after '81 when I hurt my back seriously doing something I KNEW I shouldn't. Let some friends talk me into it, which seems often the case, or simple cussed "I can do that" when we know we SHOULDN'T do it. Long story short, it had the same effects you describe, and I couldn't do my job, or much of anything else, except sleep and laze around, neither of which was what I WANTED to be able to do.

I found relief without the meds (muscle relaxers and pain killers, neither of which agreed with me well) by going to a chiropractor. A buddy with similar problems called me from his office. His back had siezed up so bad he couldn't even walk to his car, and he asked me if I could come take him to his chiropractor. I couldn't deny him, and got off work to comply. Thankfully, it was a relatively "open" time for me. I got there, and parked in front of his office with the passenger side door open. I knew if he'd condescended to call for help, this would be needed. Got in and half helped, half carried him to the door and to the truck, and got him inside my truck. Took him to his chiropractor and half helped, half carried him inside. The chiro helped him back to the treatment room. Amazingly, about 15-20 min. later, he strutted out almost like a bantam rooster!

Now here's where you need to realize that I'd been raised to believe that all chiros were quacks, and they'd probably hurt you rather than "cure" you, and if you went long enough, just might KILL you! Naturally, seeing such a miraculous change in my friend got my attention, and the next time mine went out, I called his chiro and managed to get there on my own. Amazingly, he took me back, did a few twists on me, and I was able to walk out erect and under my own power, with no teetering, etc.!

OK, so now I was convinced! And that chiro was my "salvation" when my back went out for a good number of years, until he moved away. Since then, I've yet to find another chiro who doesn't want to get me on a steady schedule, and none that will do a simple maneuver and send me out "cured," at least until the next episode. I quit all the meds that I hated taking so much, and just used him for my "cures."

My GP doc once asked me why I went to one of those "danged ol' chiropractors," because "Nothing they do is permanent." I held up the Rx he'd just given me, and asked him, "So I guess these pain killers and muscle relaxers are permanent???" He just said, "Oh," and went back to writing and talking about other things. Loved that old doc. He was a tail gunner on a B-25 in WWII and THE doc you wanted to see if you wound up in the ER. But he didn't like chiros at ALL! He figured his "education" I guess, made his ways superior to a chiro's, but that's not how it worked out in practice for me.

However, the fly in this ointment is that each chiro has his/her own set of skills, and very few it seems, subsequent to Ralph, my original chiro, will do a "cure" in one sitting like Ralph did! And I have yet to find a single chiro that could or would do for me what Ralph did. So .... IF (and that's a big and very relevant word here!) you can find a chiro that can and WILL do what you need, treasure him and I'd almost want to buy life insurance on him because they're very rare, and if he is no longer around, the meds, etc. will be a LOT more expensive in addition to being less satisfactory.

IF you can find one of these jewels of the chiropractor's art, stick with him/her! If not, it's really a toss-up in my mind, as to what I'd do if I were still in that shape. ALL chiros are NOT alike, and the only way to find a good one, is to try them all one by one, going down the list when you get stuck bent over and can't get up. Eventually, you MAY (?) find one that can alleviate your taking all those meds and the side effects that you and I hate so badly. But it won't happen overnight, and CAN be almost as depressing as the pain itself. But FWIW, this is what I'd try if I were in your shoes again. Hope you find the key to avoiding the pain AND these debilitating meds! It really affects your life in ways that can't really be understood by those who've never had this problem.

[Omega]

I have a few injuries that still bug me, but my back is the one that bugs me the most. I am prescribed Oxy, flexiril, and Lidoderm patches and cream. I rarely take any of the strong stuff, I just don't want to become immune to their effect when I really need them. If I feel I'll really need it, I'll take a flexiril at night, after using my Teeter hang-up to stretch my spine a bit. I get spasms sometimes that make it extemely difficult to even get out of bed and the oxy makes the pain bearable but I don't like the way it makes me feel, I just can't understand someone wanting that feeling.

I got to say, that the traction really seems to help. If it wasn't for the busted tib/fib and ankle I would use the Teeter machine much more.

[Lloyd Smale]

Mary that's just what I said. I said if narcotics give TOTAL relief from pain you don't have real pain. That make your pain livable. Aint my first rodeo. I lived on them for 8 years taking them 4 times a day and liquid morphine for a booster so times. It never totally removed my pain. Luckily for me that level of pain isn't there anymore. I think physical theropy (walking ect) helped me more then anything. It was unbelievably painful at first. I was lucky to walk up the road a 100 feet and back but I bucked up and kept at it and eventualy could go farther and farther every day. Right now I'm kind of going the other way. I have bone on bone (discs gone) and you just don't fix that with exercise. I still refuse to eat narcotics again. When I get so bad that I just cant take it Ill got to the emergency room and get a couple shots. Been a few times that I would have liked to have some narcotics just to get me to the emergency room but I know that if there here they probably will get used and I just don't need the side effects that go with them. They just take away your quality of life more then the pain. Maybe twice a week youll find me up all night in pain. The other nights between the flexural, trazadone, and over the counter advil I can get 4-6 hours of sleep. I'm not knocking someone that takes them but I can spot a druggie in a second. Just tell me you eat narcotics and your pain free and ill tell you your full of bs and take them because your a junky. Like I said if you take them and they do give you TOTAL relief then your pain level is low enough that you could get by with advil. No such thing as a 60 year old man or women that actually WORKED FOR A LIVING to be pain free everyday. Some are just wimps and pop pills for a paper cut. In the last two years ive had a hip replacement and an ankle replacement. I was bone on bone with both of them. Add that to my back pain and I still got by without narcotics. Even after both of those surgerys I threw the narcotics away three days out of the hospital. This country is so over medicated its insane.

You would be wrong, narcotics dull the pain enough I can function/sleep. Morphine only dulls it too. I am never pain free anymore, it is the degree of pain... and that pain would put the average person in bed screaming for morphine. You get used to it after years of fighting it. I am sue it will shorten my lifespan due to lack of sleep...

[TexasGrunt]

Thanks everyone.

I take 45 mg of morphine SA twice a day, that amount cuts the hurt to a dull ache most of the time. I also take 500 mg of naproxen twice a day, 600 mg of gabapentin three times a day for the leg pain, that's just the tip of my daily pill intake.

My problems are L4/L5/S1. At age 35 I was told I had the back of a 80 year old man who had had a life of hard physical labor. That was 22 years ago.

I quit taking the Flexeril on Saturday as I as starting to feel better.

Now I'm pretty much at the "please shoot me" phase. Didn't sleep good last night. Couldn't carry my breakfast to the table this morning because it hurt so bad.

I know I've got molds to send out. If nothing else I'll talk my dear wife into helping me get them packaged up tomorrow.

She's going to a birthday party for one of her friends today so I'm not going to bother her today, she really needs the break.

Again, thanks everyone for the kind thoughts.

Munchkin, my little buddy is really happy that I'm out in the family room right now. I've got his box of toy parts sitting beside me and we're going to build him some toys later today. Right now he's having fun rooting through the box.

[Lloyd Smale]

Thanks everyone.

I take 45 mg of morphine SA twice a day, that amount cuts the hurt to a dull ache most of the time. I also take 500 mg of naproxen twice a day, 600 mg of gabapentin three times a day for the leg pain, that's just the tip of my daily pill intake.

My problems are L4/L5/S1. At age 35 I was told I had the back of a 80 year old man who had had a life of hard physical labor. That was 22 years ago.

I quit taking the Flexeril on Saturday as I as starting to feel better.

Now I'm pretty much at the "please shoot me" phase. Didn't sleep good last night. Couldn't carry my breakfast to the table this morning because it hurt so bad.

I know I've got molds to send out. If nothing else I'll talk my dear wife into helping me get them packaged up tomorrow.

She's going to a birthday party for one of her friends today so I'm not going to bother her today, she really needs the break.

Again, thanks everyone for the kind thoughts.

Munchkin, my little buddy is really happy that I'm out in the family room right now. I've got his box of toy parts sitting beside me and we're going to build him some toys later today. Right now he's having fun rooting through the box.

Feel for you!! Sounds like your one here with REAL pain.

[Battis]

It always amazes me when someone thinks they can determine if someone else has real pain or not, or that their pain is so much worse than your pain, or that you're a whimp if you take pain meds, etc.
Awhile back, I went through 35 days of intense radiation after major surgery to remove a malignant tumor from my leg. Percocet did take away all of the pain, and no one in the world can tell me that an Advil would have done the same. Now the leg won't bend, and I have to put my sock on with my leg behind me. I have to wear a lower leg brace so I can walk. The radiation damage pain is pretty intense and keeps me up most nights, but all I ask from my DR is one Percocet a week, which I ration, and it still takes away all of the pain. Does that make me a pill popping junkie whimp?

[dragon813gt]

It always amazes me when someone thinks they can determine if someone else has real pain or not, or that their pain is so much worse than your pain, or that you're a whimp if you take pain meds, etc.

It's human nature and it's one of our bad traits. Everyone has a different threshold for pain. If you have/had children it's readily apparent. When my son scrapes his knee up you'd think he's dying. When I almost cut the entire pad off my thumb I considered gluing it together before going to the hospital for stitches. No one can judge another's pain and it's quite foolish to do so.