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malin
04-23-2010, 08:47 PM
When it comes to pain meds. I have a few questions. Just out of curiousity!

1. What do you take?
2. What do you take it for?
3. Which pain meds. have you tried/prefer?
4. Do you have different pain meds. for different types of pain?

I myself usually stick to plain paracetamol or tablets with paracetamol and aspirin.
However, when I start to feel my joint pains kicking in I usually start taking diclofenac, for me it's the only thing I've tried that seems to work. It usually even stops the joint pains breaking out and my joints are back to normal the next day.

Before I got the diclofenac I was on a combination of codeine and naproxen which didn't help at all.

elephant
04-23-2010, 10:41 PM
Before I was diagnosed I would get severe swollen/joint pain and I would end up getting a prednisone taper pack and that helped. One time I did have to take Vicodin, prescription medicine.

jola57
04-24-2010, 03:49 PM
At the beginning when pain was unbearable I used extra strenght Tylenol and Advil. I was fortunate that prednisone, 40mg at that time did it's wonder and I was relatively pain free within couple of months. Pain free is a misnomer, because we realy are never pain free. I try not to take any pain meds as they are always bad for my liver.

Sangye
04-24-2010, 11:06 PM
Before I was dx'ed I lived for about 8 months with severe, crippling pain in pretty much every joint. I don't take painkillers. Especially then, since I didn't take any meds at all. It also didn't seem right to cover up the pain since I didn't have any clue what was causing it. The pain was only gone while I was on high doses of pred. Since then I still don't take pain meds. I would have had to be on them 24-7 for the past several years. The only time I took something was during my first kidney stone.

janene
05-29-2010, 04:33 PM
Sorry ,I am new to this. My name is Janene. I dont tolerate steroids well. so the dose is only 15 mg a day. Will the joint pain ever go away.

pberggren1
05-29-2010, 04:41 PM
Maybe you are not in remission yet.

jola57
05-29-2010, 05:36 PM
Janene, I was put on cyclophosphamide, like a lot of others with a high dose of steroids 60mg. When I was put originally on 15mg seroids, nothing happened and I was in pain and lost the use of my left foot (developed a dropped foot). Only after being put on cyclo and high dose of steroids did the pain go away. Please make sure that you have a specialist that deals with wegs be your doc. Do not let this disease get worse because your doc is too conservative in treating it.

Jack
05-29-2010, 07:15 PM
I never normally take pain meds, but I've been relying on them a lot recently. Drug of choice for me is Paracetamol even though it is not very strong. I've tried various Codine mixtures and felt sick so I now avoid them. I have also been warned off Ibuprofen because of drug interactions.

Due to my recent mishap, I've recently been taking Morphine - great stuff! Takes away the pain and makes you sleep really well. When they took me off it after a few weeks I felt quite sad so it was obviously time to give it up!

elephant
05-29-2010, 11:14 PM
HI Janene, I agree with the above statements...need to see a Wegeners Specialist or have your Rhuemy contact one from the Vasculits foundation web site. I too believe that your wegeners is still very active and you need more than prednisone because you can have silent damage going on ( Lungs and kidney damage).

JanW
05-30-2010, 12:28 AM
Jack -- you're back!

I've only taken minimal pain relief for foot pain -- my overall joint pain with WG went away about a month after I started on mtx.

Sangye
05-30-2010, 12:52 AM
Janene, I was diagnosed with Wegs in 2006 and treated with the typical cytoxan and high-dose pred. Once I got below 20mg pred the horrific joint pain came back. My non-Wegs specialist (very lousy doc in general) said it was just pred withdrawal. I was in terrible pain for the next 3 years, even though I was on Cellcept for much of that time. We've only recently discovered that my Wegs was active all that time. I did a round of rituxan last fall and another round 2 months ago. I'm almost off pred and the joint pain isn't coming back. This tells me the Wegs is probably heading into remission for the first time ever.

I don't tolerate pred well, either. You need a Wegs specialist to figure out what to do. It sounds like you need an immunosuppressant to get the Wegs under control. Pred alone won't control Wegs.

Jack
05-30-2010, 03:07 AM
I did a round of rituxan last fall and another round 2 months ago. I'm almost off pred and the joint pain isn't coming back. This tells me the Wegs is probably heading into remission for the first time ever.
That is sounding good Sangye! :) Hope you are right, you deserve a break.

Col 23
05-30-2010, 06:56 AM
Jack is back.. great to have you back on board. Hope everything is healing nicely.
cheers Col 23