Ihave 5 buldging disc and dds.A specialist said surgery was out of the question.My regular Dr gave me ultram for chronic pain.I decided to take the lowest dosage that gives me benifits which is 50mg in the morning.It dulls the pain for about 6 hrs.If I take more a get the feeling of well being,so I choose not to go there.Is 50mg daily an excessive dose.Will the doctor think I am looking for a narcotic high.I just want relief. Getting high is not in my thinking.But a nurse said I could get addicted.I feel bad about asking for refill when Im out after talking to nurse. Any advice is appreciated
fred
I am so sorry you are having such problem with pain. I have a couple questions for you. What type of specialist did you see? What was the reason he said surgery was not an option? If it was a neuro or ortho with a fellowship in spine surgery, have you gotten a 2nd or 3rd opinion? I really recommend that you seek out additional opinions. There are many people on this forum who have had 5 or more levels treated.
Am I understanding you correctly that you are only taking 50 mg once per day? The max dosage for ultram is 300 mg per day. So if you are able to make due on 50 to even 150 mg per day, you are doing OK. There is a risk of becoming dependent on any pain killer when you are living with cronic pain. Dependency is much different than abuse. You are very welcome here on the back problems board, but you will get a great amount of good information from the pain management board too.
I am so sorry you are having such problem with pain. I have a couple questions for you. What type of specialist did you see? What was the reason he said surgery was not an option? If it was a neuro or ortho with a fellowship in spine surgery, have you gotten a 2nd or 3rd opinion? I really recommend that you seek out additional opinions. There are many people on this forum who have had 5 or more levels treated.
Am I understanding you correctly that you are only taking 50 mg once per day? The max dosage for ultram is 300 mg per day. So if you are able to make due on 50 to even 150 mg per day, you are doing OK. There is a risk of becoming dependent on any pain killer when you are living with cronic pain. Dependency is much different than abuse. You are very welcome here on the back problems board, but you will get a great amount of good information from the pain management board too.
welcome to the back board! I have been taking Tramadol (Ultram) for over a decade, I take 300 mgs a day and have done so that whole time.
They still are effective to me, and since I have been told my pain will be lifelong, I will probably be on this medication for the rest of my life.
I know I am physically dependent on this med, if I stopped taking it, I would feel sick and could even have seizures, unless it was properly tapered.
But thats not the same as addiction. addiction would cause me to take more and more trying to feel high, the best way I know of to know if youre okay or not is just this, Pain management gives you back quality of life. Drug addiction destroys quality of life. Only you can make a decision about if you are addicted or not, but you certainly arent automatically addicted when you become physically dependent.
Good luck, I hope you are feeling better soon.
~Fabby
I am so sorry you are having such problem with pain. I have a couple questions for you. What type of specialist did you see? What was the reason he said surgery was not an option? If it was a neuro or ortho with a fellowship in spine surgery, have you gotten a 2nd or 3rd opinion? I really recommend that you seek out additional opinions. There are many people on this forum who have had 5 or more levels treated.
Am I understanding you correctly that you are only taking 50 mg once per day? The max dosage for ultram is 300 mg per day. So if you are able to make due on 50 to even 150 mg per day, you are doing OK. There is a risk of becoming dependent on any pain killer when you are living with cronic pain. Dependency is much different than abuse. You are very welcome here on the back problems board, but you will get a great amount of good information from the pain management board too.
