Sharon/B

Hi, brief story, injured neck 20 years ago but managed with osteopathy then injured back 5 years ago, no-one knows what happened - all mri scans clear -have been told just have to take meds to manage pain but pain is severe. Gone to three pain management docs but am now sticking to my doctor who is luckily very sympathetic.
Current problem - am taking co-codamol full dose daily, nurofen at times, fentanyl path 25mcg, and diazapan 2mg twice during the day and 5mg at night to help me sleep. Tried lyrica four weeks ago for a week but slept all the time and got very depressed so came off that. Now have been given amitriptaline 10mg at night. Now find waking up very hard and have two kids to get up for school and am not sure it is making any difference to the pain in the daytime. Have only been taking it for five days - is it worth carrying on - what experiece do any of you have with it. Will the sleepiness go. When I first started the fentanyl patch I also slept like mad for nearly four months before my body got used to it but if I had not had the patch I was in so much pain I couldn't have got out of bed. There has been some increase in the pain recently which is why I tried lyrica and amytriptaline but have a teenager doing exams and another teenager so its hard to keep going with family life when you are so so sleepy. So does the sleepiness go or should I just get off this one too.

If you managed to read all that then thank-you - am feeling very shaky this morning. Its so nice to have found this board where you don't feel quite so alone.

Sharon/B