ButtterflyLady
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 3,291
- Type of diabetes
- Treatment type
- Tablets (oral)
- Dislikes
- Acceptance of health treatment claims that are not adequately supported by evidence. I dislike it when people sell ineffective and even harmful alternative health products to exploit the desperation of people with chronic illness.
Hi @Wonderingwhy is there any way you can see a different doctor? Doctors are supposed to treat us with basic respect, answer questions, give accurate and helpful information, and work together with us in a partnership where both sides bring something important to the table.
It can be really hard to find a doctor who works like this, but my advice is to keep trying. I have "trained" my doctor to understand that I look for my own info not to challenge her but to fill in the gaps in my understanding. Sometimes I have suggested things that she has agreed are helpful.
I have found physiotherapy good for joint and muscle pain. Here is a website with a lot of good info you might find helpful:
https://www.painscience.com/
I'm a little confused as to why you are prescribed domperidone for stomach lining inflammation, when it is usually meant to treat nausea and delayed gastric emptying. It can be good for reflux. Do you take it 3 times a day? Also, have you tried a proton pump inhibitor such as omeprazole? This would lower the stomach acid and give the lining a bit of a break from being irritated. Long term naproxen can irritate/inflame the stomach lining. Both domperidone and naproxen increases the risk of cardiac issues. You might find that a cox-2 inhibitor like celebrex is better for your stomach than naproxen, but it has the same cardiac risks.
It's such a shame that almost the only effective options for anxiety are drugs like clonazepam, which are addictive and have numerous side effects. If it was my doctor, they would have increased the fluoxetine to the max of 40mg instead of prescribing clonazepam, but I know how much you probably benefit from clonazepam and it would be hard to give it up.
I'm not very familiar with hydromorphone dosages but do you take 1mg a day or several times a day, if so, how much total for the day? If it's not enough, your doctor should let you have more, or switch to another opioid. Codeine causes too much constipation for the pain relief it provides, and tramadol doesn't work for everyone, so morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl are the other options. Slow release forms are usually better too. Super important to treat any constipation you get from opioids, with a prescription senna-based laxative such as laxsol, and fibre such as psyllium. Eating lots of veges helps too.
One thing you didn't mention is Vitamin D3, which is needed for anyone who doesn't get enough sun. I live in a cold-ish climate area where the doctors prescribe D3 to pretty much everyone who has pain issues, because it is assumed we are deficient because of lack of sunlight in winter. Here is some info about it:
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/
You might want to ask for your B12, folate and magnesium levels to be checked.
I know you ask your doctor for answers and he just hands you pills, but with the conditions you have it is very hard for any doctor to give useful answers. To a large degree, those pills are most likely to be necessary. I am in a similar boat, and have had to accept that I need a lot of meds and that my symptoms can't be completely controlled. The meds help me have fairly good quality of life though.
I wish you the best.
It can be really hard to find a doctor who works like this, but my advice is to keep trying. I have "trained" my doctor to understand that I look for my own info not to challenge her but to fill in the gaps in my understanding. Sometimes I have suggested things that she has agreed are helpful.
I have found physiotherapy good for joint and muscle pain. Here is a website with a lot of good info you might find helpful:
https://www.painscience.com/
I'm a little confused as to why you are prescribed domperidone for stomach lining inflammation, when it is usually meant to treat nausea and delayed gastric emptying. It can be good for reflux. Do you take it 3 times a day? Also, have you tried a proton pump inhibitor such as omeprazole? This would lower the stomach acid and give the lining a bit of a break from being irritated. Long term naproxen can irritate/inflame the stomach lining. Both domperidone and naproxen increases the risk of cardiac issues. You might find that a cox-2 inhibitor like celebrex is better for your stomach than naproxen, but it has the same cardiac risks.
It's such a shame that almost the only effective options for anxiety are drugs like clonazepam, which are addictive and have numerous side effects. If it was my doctor, they would have increased the fluoxetine to the max of 40mg instead of prescribing clonazepam, but I know how much you probably benefit from clonazepam and it would be hard to give it up.
I'm not very familiar with hydromorphone dosages but do you take 1mg a day or several times a day, if so, how much total for the day? If it's not enough, your doctor should let you have more, or switch to another opioid. Codeine causes too much constipation for the pain relief it provides, and tramadol doesn't work for everyone, so morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl are the other options. Slow release forms are usually better too. Super important to treat any constipation you get from opioids, with a prescription senna-based laxative such as laxsol, and fibre such as psyllium. Eating lots of veges helps too.
One thing you didn't mention is Vitamin D3, which is needed for anyone who doesn't get enough sun. I live in a cold-ish climate area where the doctors prescribe D3 to pretty much everyone who has pain issues, because it is assumed we are deficient because of lack of sunlight in winter. Here is some info about it:
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/
You might want to ask for your B12, folate and magnesium levels to be checked.
I know you ask your doctor for answers and he just hands you pills, but with the conditions you have it is very hard for any doctor to give useful answers. To a large degree, those pills are most likely to be necessary. I am in a similar boat, and have had to accept that I need a lot of meds and that my symptoms can't be completely controlled. The meds help me have fairly good quality of life though.
I wish you the best.