Long story short i’ve just been prescribed tramadol for back pain. Nothing else was helping, well diazepam was a bit but trying to get more of that seems to be a big no, no. I was flat on my back unable to move in major pain and a couple of tradamols with the diazepams and i’m up and moving with hardly any pain. So my first impressions are these things are great but I remember from other threads that a lot of people have said they are horrible but why, what have I yet to learn?

Never been an issue for me either.

My dog was fine on them for ages. The bil was a bit spaced out though.

Can cause temporary blurring of the eyesight, other than that i found it great post hernia op.

I thought Tramadol was lovely when combined with Valium and codeine it very effectively helped me to deal with a fractured back caused by a bicycle/minicab collision. The relaxed feeling of being with the fairies, pain free, and not giving a shit, was most pleasant. Mind you the hallucinations I started to get encouraged me to stop taking the cocktail after a few days – having crazy dreams whilst wide awake wasn’t quite my cup of tea.

it very effectively helped me to deal with a fractured back caused by a bicycle/minicab collision.

Were you driving the minicab?

Trammies are a major prison currency so they must be good.

Hallucinations
Temperature regulation
constipation
wonkey vision
do not operate heavy machinery

It’s an old, cheap generic drug. Potentially nasty side effects but it’s very cheap to prescribe.

they’re a bit addictive aren’t they..? In the same way as opiates..?

and diazepam addiction can be a pretty horrific thing to recover from too..

Were you driving the minicab?

Yes I do part time minicabbing and targeting cyclists helps to relieve the boredom.

Obviously I got unstuck on this particular occasion although the £20k payout which I received was nice.

did nt even touch my back/ neck pain.. just grin and bear it..

I was on Tramadol after I broke my collarbone last year & in terms of pain relief it was fine, but I came off it as soon as I could, mainly because I hate taking medication of any kind. When I did I found myself becoming REALLY depressed, which is completely out of character for me & I truly believe that this was a side effect of this drug. If I had a similar injury again I would definately ask for an alternative pain killer in future.

I originally asked for a larger dose of diazepam because it was working but they made me feel like a junkie begging for a fix. It’s addictive blah, blah. Yes it might be but you have only given me ten and i’d like to be able to stand up and walk further than a meter without being in agony!

If it’s just hallucinations I can deal with that, at one time I used to pay for that 😆

Edit: Cheers for that Headpotdog, I suffer from depression and knowing it’s coming is half the battle.

the withdrawal from the short term, low strength doses that you’ll get legally probably won’t amount to more than some uncontrollable aggression and severe anxiety..

but the docs still can’t let you have ’em

just grin and bear it..

I used to think that.

A handfull of these sound great. How easy is it to get them?

They made it hard to think straight!

When late for/missed a dose I got sweats, shakes, a feeling that my limbs weren’t my own, dry mouth, low mood.
Not nice.

If I kept up a regular dosage it wasn’t too bad, but coming off them was miserable for a few days.

Side effects can be very personal though.

Post Hernia they made me feel drunk and dizzy constantly. Changed to Oramorph and Co codamol and Diclofenac which made me floaty but pain free.

Not that I suggest for one minute this is a good idea but i have used Tramadol a few times on expedition races when I’m a bit broken , chased with codeine you can while a day away in lovely fug of pain free niceness. Not advised but helped me.

Had a few issues with it increasing my psychosis now and again but it has been the only effective painkiller I have ever had for my back so put up with it and the side-effects rarely happen now.

Hate all painkillers. Codiene and tramadol make me vomit. Coproxamol is the only one I can keep down but gives me headaches. Diazepam is just a relaxant, sleep aid and is ok. But really I just prefer whisky and a hot water bottle for backpain and the drugs get in the way of the whisky!

Only had it a few times when back v bad.

Gave me v strange dreams.

I had some minimal side effects- rather vivid dreams and occasional “floatyness” when not concentrating. But still, I was a fan, they got me moving.

(I wasn’t driving at the time, not physically able but I was still doing fine handling millions of quid and didn’t lose any more of it than usual 😉 )

But really I just prefer whisky and a hot water bottle for backpain and the drugs get in the way of the whisky!

Youre either as hard as nails or your back pain isnt too bad, thats all i can say!

Mate back home seems completely hooked on them, has been for 15 years.

Got me up and about and back to work ,oh wait that was the threat of getting the sack!

Constipation (not necessarily a bad thing, short term, depending on predicament), exceedingly weird dreams (again has pros and cons), drowsy/woozy feeling, but they worked for pain. Sort of knew something was up but didn’t really mind, if that makes sense.

As soon as I could manage without them I was off them.

I’m scared. Just been prescribed these for back pain as of yesterday. Not happy about the prospect but the pain is dreadful.

I was given them in hospital when I broke my pelvis and realised that I enjoyed the morphine I was originally prescribed a bit too much. Terrible reaction to them, really, really trippy and just bloody awful.

Tramadol is a synthetic opiate, which carries with it all the problems of addiction, respiratory depression, hallucinations, dizziness and feeling a bit spaced out.

It works quite well (IME) but is on a par with Codeine, which for me had less weird side effects.

We used to give it IV before we had access to Morphine and for a short while it was a back up analgesia if you’d had no vehicle check, it tended to treat patients acute pain well but also caused a high degree of sickness (sometimes alleiviated if given slowly) Though bare in mind this is in relation to 100mg being given IV, as such it was usually given with an anti sickness injection at the same time.

Heroin addicts as a rule aren’t keen on using it IV due to the sickness, but as a tablet it si fairly sow release and keeps the monkey off your back so to speak and is fairly easy to find.

A lot of GP’s are tending towards Co-codamol it seems, and 30/500 is a popular choice for acute pain, weaned down to 10/500 for chronic pain.

they’re ok for use in the acute phase, but for chronic low back pain they’re not ideal..

I’ve never had tramadol due to it being contraindicated with another med, but have taken codeine many times when broken.

Opiates are great drugs, if used sensibly. If you abuse them, they will bite you in the arse. The withdrawal is awful. Nothing compares to a benzo withdrawal though. I swear I will never take those things again……

I had some on Monday IV after a foot op – certainly killed the pain for a few hrs 😆 48hrs and a box of co-codamol later I am now just on Ibuprofen……

Tramadol is a great pain killer, I found after 2 weeks I was had a loss of appetite and became very depressed and had to come off them. Great for pain, not so great long term.

Tramadol & Diazepam! That must be a trip! 😆