EYES ARE GETTING DRY AND BAD AGAIN WITH PAIN MEDS

[stitch]

Hi Everyone, Most of you all know my story with dry eyes and pain meds. Well I have been going through some bad times lately and have become very depressed again. I did find a new pain dr and I love him and he also knows about RLS.

Well my story is, RLS all my life and now 70 and since Oct 2002 I have had 4 back surgeries. Well the back surgeries really screwed up my legs and after being on neurontin at 1 time 600mg's 5 times aday. Then put on requip and was up to 6mg's aday, way too much for both drugs. And during this time I was on and off pain meds until April 2005 when I had back surgery to fix something. Soon after my right eye was itching me so I rubbed it and did lots of damage to my eye. I have very dry eyes and being on the pain meds my eyes went from bad to worse to not seeing anything out of right eye. After going to Johns Hopkins Eye Center I was told it was the pain meds and to go off of them fast. After 6 mos I could see again and got new glasses.

Long story short, I have been having augmentation from too much requip and I have cut it down to 3 aday and hopping to be off of the requip in about 3 weeks. But the pain in my back has kept me from doing anything so he put me on Lyrica and no more neurontin. But he also put me on 60mg's of oxycodone for pain and gave me 2 injections in my hips yesterday.

Already I am having problems with my eyes and believe I will have to cut back and stop very soon. And when I do then I will only be taking Lyrica for the RLS.

I was so afraid of this happening to my eyes but not this fast. Was hoping I would be in phycial therapy before I had to stop the pain meds.

And yes it would be wonderful if we had an active chat room at nite. Most of us are up late if not all nite. For me its early in the morning because my legs wake me up around 6am. I know there is a chat rm because I have chatted with some wonderful ppl.

I didn't mean to make this so long but I hope you read it all because its interesting about the pain meds and dry eyes. I have just taken my clonopam so I am off to bed, hope there is lots of sleep in the bed for me tonite. And that the RLS stay far, far away. Take care, Jeannie

[SquirmingSusan]

Oh, Jeannie, that's a bummer. Definitely something to discuss with the pain doctor. There are all kinds of new pain management things happening - injections, stimulators, implants, lidoderm patches, physical therapy, massage...

If you have to cut back on the pain meds, maybe you can use the clonazepam to manage your RLS?

I'm sorry you're having trouble with the pain meds, though. We all know how hard it is to get a doctor to prescribe them.

Susan

[ctravel12]

Oh Jeannie I am so sorry for what is happening. For a while your eyes were doing good. It seems that the meds are the culprit; however if you do not take them then your rls gets bad. It is like "Catch 22"

I am so glad that you have a wonderful pain dr and also that he knows about rls which is a definite plus.

I myself have problems with requip and augmented and finally got off of it. I am now taking clonazapem and mirapex and it seems to be doing fine. If clonazapem does help then you may want to continue using it. Good luck to you and hope that you find relief real soon.

Please do not apologize for making a post long. We are here for you and if you just feel like talking, venting and even screaming so be it as we will always be here for you.

I know a few times I have chatted with you on the chat line and thoroughly enjoyed our conversations.

Please keep us posted on how you are doing.