My neuro has given me two things before for severe pain and neither made one ounce of difference. Oxycodon and Hydrocodon. Does anyone else have success with these, what else have people tried when you have those days the sharp pain strikes.
Thanks
Hello,
Just wanted to say that opioids are not usually effective for TN
Any thoughts on medical marijuana?
Yes, Oxicontin helps. I take 5mg twice a day.
I have TN2 and hydrocodone works for the burning, gnawing kind of pain that I have. I usually take half of a 5mg tablet a few times a day as needed
It may not work if you have T1, but it’s a lifesaver if you have TN2, the burning pain. I don’t have to take it often, but 5mg of hydrocodone is the only thing that takes the pain away for a while. I also take nortriptyline which is very helpful also.
I have used both and they do help with my T1, but the doctors now are all getting
reluctant to to prescribe these “opiates”. I am taking tramadol, which do as much
good as a poorly flavored cert.
It didn’t help me much. I take anti seizure meds.
Hi, I have tired both and found the same as you that it after a time does no good I am now on a new one and I am scheduled for MVD Oct 11 of this year. Well any be this will stop it. I have had PNR, and cyberknife and Tn always came back. I was told by my surgeon that to have cyber or gamaknife first is a bad idea to the fact is makes scaring and thus MVD will not be able to work as well. I’m only given about a 65% chance. So in answer t o your question neither of those or any other drug seems to work very long. Good luck but the pain does come back.
I have a good friend, and a support group leader like myself, and his TN was caused by a botched root canal. He had to take a disability retirement and now uses daily morphine to control his pain. He functions normally with the only side effect being constipation which is resolved with Miralax. I am not suggesting that you take morphine but you should see a pain doctor to advise on the right course of attack. I don’t believe Hydrocodone or Oxycodon will really get to TN severe pain and they are opiods also just as morphine.
Opiates don’t work on nerve pain and you’ll only become an addict. Anti seizure mess will disrupt the signal from the nerve and slow the pain down.
Everyone needs to realize this is a painful condition and that you’ll never be free from pain.
I took oxycodone during a surgery and it did actually work. It really incapacitated my mind at least that prescribed dose. Lower doses would likely be less incapacitating and it’s up to the individual to decide what is an acceptable trade off with any medication.
My opinion is there is a moral panic occurring regarding the war on drugs in general and pain patients were caught in the crossfire.
Opioids were prescribed steadily by the medical community and then suddenly removed from chronic pain patients once the moral panic, DEA and media fixated on them. Many patients were forced to withdraw cold turkey and face excruciating untreated pain.
Some pain patients died/overdosed/chose suicide, some went to street alternatives like heroin and potentially overdosed with un-measurable quantities/qualities of street drugs or sometimes they receive mysterious substances that aren’t monitored to be what is advertised.
Basically, if you take a steady dose of most FDA monitored medication (chemically monitored for consistency), and things are going steadily well. You’ll likely become dependent on most medications. I’m dependent on duloxetine currently. If a moral panic starts to surround that drug, and if doctors were to force me to stop taking it, my life would be at risk just like any other medication.
I had a similar experience with benzodiazepines after taking a small steady dose for years with significant benefit. But moral panic started swelling around that drug and society deemed it morally bad. So I was taken off cold turkey and had severe life threatening side effects. Benzodiazepines aren’t worse than alcohol which is completely legal over the counter and alcohol causes much more deaths, they both act on the GABA A receptor and benzodiazepines are used in alcohol withdrawal to save people’s lives in a more safe way.
Reality is, I can take something like study to a doctor’s office, but it doesn’t mean they will to prescribe it:
Addiction is when people escalate doses to get high. There are people who do that with various substances, but the vast majority of people who have pain take medications to manage it, not to get high. With some medications, people develop tolerance. And might need to escalate the dose to achieve an identical effect. I’ve known people who found anti depressants stopped working after awhile. There is also the possibility that some tolerance will develop but you’re still better than baseline (without the medication). For me that was the case with the benzodiazepines.
Would opioids work for you? I don’t really believe anyone can really answer that except for you. It’s your body, it’s your pain, your life. There’s no objective test for pain. So if people try to tell you what works or doesn’t work for your pain, they lack objective qualifications to measure your pain.
I would recommend all viable alternatives first. Partly because of society’s emotional state regarding the medication at the moment. But if you ever do try it, due it at a very low dose cautiously to see what, if any benefit it provides and be prepared to wean off if tolerance is prevalent enough you require rapidly escalating doses. That’s where most of the danger resides.
If someone is fine on a stable dose or maybe requires a small dose increase every 10 years or so but gets good benefit it’s not a big deal. If you require rapid increases to get the same benefit, most medications become toxic.
For me Oxycodone 7-5-325 (Percocet) works sometimes, and sometimes it doesn’t 
I just don’t know anymore what else to take, I am on so many meds, I feel loopy all the time, it’s no way to live.
When I had a three-week bout of severe pain I begged for anything that would help. Ketorolac did nothing. Acetaminophen with codeine did nothing. Ibuprofen worked better than any prescription as it took the edge off the pain. However I was taking as much as 3200 mg a day which can lead to kidney damage. My neurologist told me to lay off the Ibuprofen for awhile and prescribed hydrocodone. It did absolutely nothing. I took 15 pills over the course of five days. After I stopped taking them I started going through withdrawl. That’s right. My body was dependent on them after only five days! The withdrawl lasted another five days and included insomnia, anxiety, jumpiness and a sensation that made me want to crawl out of my own skin. Never again. When I have pain now I take baclofen. It doesn’t take the pain away but it knocks me out and I never have pain while I sleep.