Chronic Pain, Neurological Disorders, and possible Drug Addi Posted: 01-14-06 14:10pm
My wife and I were in a car accident in
98. She suffered a compound fracture of
the rt tib, fib and femar. As a result she
has a neuropathy and rsd in her right leg
which has spread over to her left leg. She
has broken both ankles from falls since
the accident. She was hospitalized 2 years
ago on christmas day, her oxygen levels
were low enough to make her unconcious.
She spent 3 days in ICU and 3 more in
recovery. The CT scan showed changes in
the white matter but on the Mri there was
nothing. Approxamitly a year later she
began have myoclonis jerks/seizers that
would happen just occasionally. She would
not lose consiousnes but she would lose
memory around that period. She then had
another episode of myoclonic seizures this
Christmas and has been experiencing them
on a daily basis since. We went to the
hospital last Wed. and they did a CT of
the head and blood work and everything was
ok they said.
She has a pain management doctor who
prescribes 100mg of mscontin 2x daily and
30mg msir up to 8 a day as needed. This is
for her daily cronic pain from the
accident. (She experiences pain in her
feet, knees, hips, back) She says daily
she is between a 6 and a 9 on the pain
scale.
She sees a neurologist who prescribes
2mg zanax 3x daily (which she has taken
since 95) and klonopin 2mg 3x daily. She
also gets firocet for migraines and
occasionally imitrex injections. Also
takes 600mg of seroquel 2x daily. (I
believe this is for her bipolar)
She also takes previcid for daily
heartburn and singular for asthma. She
just started reguip for her restless leg
syn. and takes lunesta to sleep.
This seems like a lot of medicine but
she still cannot sleep at night. Maybe a
few hours then up all night. She then can
sleep some during the day.
With her recent myoclonic episodes
she has had a tingling sensation on here
head and sore spots. Here balance is way
off and has been very dizzy.
I am extremely worried about my
wife, as she seems to get worse each year
and not better. No one seems to be able to
figure out a specific problem and i feel
like no one cares. Her neurologist just
fired her saying he can’t help anymore,
so now i am trying to get a new
neurologist.
She stays at home everyday and goes out
only for doctor’s appointments and this
is worrying me now because it seems to be
getting worse.
Her bipolar seems to be mostly in
mania.
I have never posted on sites before
but i feel extremely desperate, it seems
that no one is really helping her and I am
beginning to have daily anxiety worrying
about her. I took this entire week off
because i did not want her to be
alone.
I’m sorry for your wife because her life
is really difficult. I’m sorry for you,
too, because you are also suffering with
her. Unfortunately, she is suffering from
many diseases: bipolar disorder, partial
epilepsy, neuropathy of the leg, migraine,
gastro-esophageal reflux, asthma…
Insomnia is probably the result of manic
episodes due to bipolar disorder. There is
another great problem: many of the
medicines she take can cause an increase
in physical tolerance and eventual
dependency if they are used for long
periods (especially the opiate analgesics
and sedatives). Tolerance means that in
time the medicine will no longer be
efficient, so its doses have to be
increased to achieve the same original
effects. Dependency means that a person
cannot function without the medicine any
longer. Coming off these types of drugs
can cause "abstinention syndrome", which
may be life-threatening. Your wife need
expert help from a neurologist, mental
health professionals, and addiction
therapists to break a cycle of dependence.
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