Comment:

I found your page by mistake, but I am glad I did. I feel much better reading the stories of others who have to deal with the madness of pain management.

Here is my story:

I am 24 years old soon to be 25, I was a profesional mountian bike racer for almost 5 years until 1997 when at the world cup race in France I had the worst crash I have ever had. I raced down hill, this is a competition of going down the course in the fastest time possible and jumping 10 to 15 feet drops. On this day I had the flu and instead of not racing, the competition side of me would not allow this. So I was not ready for what the course had to offer, "it turned out to be one of the hardest in the word"!! After the crash I had broken my left knee cap in half, fractured my lower spine, had a serious neck wiplash and broke 6 fingers. I was in the hospital for 5 days until I was released with a european form of Vicodin. >P> I got back to California and went to see my doc a.s.a.p.! He put me on Vicodin ES 7.5mg I was allowed 4 a day, I had to take at least 7 to control the pain. This went on for almost 2 years until I was up to 10 Vicodin a day and it still was not working. I ! would run out early and here in California most pharmacies won't fill the refill early. Plus my doctor had me sign a contract that I could not receive early refills, so by the end of the month I would be out of meds and in terrible pain. The only thing I could do is go to the Emergency room for a shot of Demerol or Morphine and deal with the doctors there that think im there only for the drugs. And the dirty looks the nurses wuld give me because I told them what med's work the best. After a while I would just not tell them I have had pain meds and hope they would give me the demerol to kill the pain, rather than deal with all the bull sh*t about being treated like a addict.

My doc refused to put me on a stronger med, for fear of addiction but by this time I had lost my job and had nothing to loose I told him "I would rather be addicted than have the pain" So this went on until 2001 I changed doctors and found a doc that would perscribe Methadone for pain, It worked really good, then out of the blue he decided he would no longer perscribe the Methadone because of fear of the DEA taking his licence.....I felt completely destroyed "what do I do now?" Well it was Feb of 2001 and my wife is German and she was doing allot of research on pain management and because I could no longer afford a real pain management doc, we decided to move back to Berlin, Germany..... This is where everything changed..within a week I found a pain doc and he had me on Methadone and Vicodin for breakthough pain, plus PT and muscle relaxers. With out even blinking a eye he had my pain under control. He even asked me what meds worked the best and I could choose.

I now can live a somewhat normal life, I work again and can do regular things like pick-up a book bag. I have never experenced good pain treatment before, but I must say it makes all the difference. No more having to deal with detox because doc's would cut me off for no good reason with no warning. The pharmacies don't question your scrips, and for the first time I feel like someone understands my pain, and is simpathetic to it. There is nothing worse than being in pain and being treated like your some herion junky looking for a fix.

On a other note I have a warning for anyone on Methadone or Methadict, DO NOT TRY TO SWITCH TO OXYCONTIN,OXYCODONE!!!! you will have total detox!!! My doc here tried me on Oxycontin from Methadone because the Oxycontin works longer and you don't get soo tired like the Methadone makes you feel. If your doctor suggests this make sure you have some Methadone available to ease you into the change otherwise you will feel like the Oxycontin is not working, you wi! ll be in pain and you will detox all at the same time." I went through it and trust me you dont want this to happen!!!"

My suggestion to anyone trying to get real pain management is when you look for a doc be very straight up! ask him or her directly "will you perscribe schedule 2 for long term" Most will tell you honestly if they do or dont.... All I can say to anyone in chronic pain is " Dont take sh*t from doc's if a doc makes you feel bad about the med's that help you find another one, no one in pain should have to deal with this.. If you have any questions about pain management here in Germany feel free to e-mail me at velocityberlin@hotmail.com

DEE