At the end of July, I got a new medication from my doctor that hugely reduces the pain in my spine. It has been a long time since I was able to do much of anything. I had taken this medication before, but only occasionally and not in such a high dose. It worked well.

With winter coming on, my doctor, who is a really great doctor, thought if I could tolerate the medication daily, it would help me get through the cold, damp winter months and maybe I’d still be human when the warm weather arrived.

I am not supposed to take NSAIDs. This includes aspirin and ibuprofen as well as no-longer-available medicines like Vioxx and Celebrex and a wide selection of other NSAIDs. All are dangerous to what remains of my stomach and can cause internal bleeding and a return of the ulcers that tried to kill me.

They all make me sick. I’ve lost my stomach twice to ulcers and I’m pretty sure the NSAIDs had a lot to do with it.

Vioxx worked well except it was killing people, so it was taken off the market. I moved on to Celebrex which didn’t work as well as Vioxx, but was pretty good — until they took that away too. It was also killing people, just more slowly. I think they took it away right before the second time they removed my stomach for ulcers. Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time on Tramadol (Ultram) which is sort of like a narcotic but isn’t. It doesn’t work as well as either Celebrex, Vioxx, or (now) Sulindac — but it doesn’t make me sick or try to bore holes in my stomach.

I took demerol for a few years until they stopped making it. It’s a chemical narcotic. An opioid (sort of), but mild. It couldn’t compete with the more powerful opioids on the market. After they stopped using it in hospitals, very few people used it. Everyone preferred the really powerful stuff which is why we have such a massive addiction problem, but I digress.

Demerol was the only narcotic I could tolerate. It wasn’t great, but it helped. It didn’t remove the pain, but it gentled it down. In the end, there was only one manufacturer — and they quit making it. So when my doctor said that Sulindac might help me, I figured I didn’t have a lot to lose. Sure enough, it’s a NSAID — the category of medication I’m not supposed to take and the only type that works,

Taken at the full dose, it made me ill yet eliminated almost all the pain. I started taking it at the end of July. I struggled with it for months. I was also struggling with a pretty serious case of anemia, so it was hard to figure out which thing was causing what.

The doctor said to give it up. It was clearly not good for me. I compromised and cut the amount in half. And the result? It takes away about half the pain. All things being equal, losing half the pain is not half bad. The iron infusions (so far so good) dealt with the anemia. How long will they continue to work? I don’t know.

So now I take one Sulindac, cut in half, early morning and after dinner. I don’t dare take it if my stomach is empty. This medication is my last hope of being able keep moving like a reasonably normal (old) person.

The medicine is not kind to my stomach. I have to watch out for signs of internal bleeding. Because remember those ulcers? This is a medication that could bring them back. I’m not sure I have any more stomach to lose. It’s my choice. My decision. I can give up and return to being a calcified lump OR I can keep taking it at half the dose and hope it doesn’t burn another hole in my stomach.

Sometimes, there isn’t a good answer. All solutions have negative side effects. Maybe they’ll invent something new, but right now, there’s nothing else that makes the pain go away. Narcotics make me even sicker.

There must be a Murphy’s Law about this. If not, how about this?

The one medication that works will be
the one that makes you sick.

Categories: #Health, Anecdote, Arthritis, medication

Tags: Health, Marilyn Armstrong, medication