Prednisone, Butrans And Autoimmune Disorders

Greetings. I am a 67 year old woman destroyed by auto immune disorders that required prednisone that destroyed me further. I had 8 surgeries in 1.5 years which left me very handicapped and I have RA and osteoporosis. Constant pain and limited abilities. Worst of all is pain in my hands, limiting the crafts that would keep me happy. Constant intense pain which I have been on Tramadol for. Now a pain management center has started me on Butrans 5.

And I am afraid. Because of my auto immune conditions there’s not a side effect my body doesn’t love to grasp. I never read the inserts that come with a med, because I don’t want to know.

Talk me up or down please. I need to live free of this pain. I can’t bear it another day. I had my hips, knees and one shoulder replaced for osteonecrosis, have a colostomy and had cataract surgery. All because of prednisone damage.

I’m so tired.

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I bet you are tired. Auto-immune disorders can be awful. I have Crohn’s myself. This may be a pointless question, but have you tried going low-tech on your hands with capsaicin and the like? That can be problematic, as you’d have to put gloves on after applying it. I get some relief from it. My bathroom is full of rubs, oils and everything else you can think of. It may not do much, but if you can get rid of a little chronic pain for a bit, you can breathe a little easier.
In terms of the change in drugs - Butrans is suboxone, an opiod. It would be more effective than the tramadol you’ve been on. I’m really surprised that they didn’t move you to opioids prior to this. They probably chose suboxone as it’s lower on probability of abuse. You should experience more relief with it. I have to urge you to research your meds. It’s the only way you’ll really know what’s going on in terms of side effects. I’ve also been on prednisone too many times. The last time, I had no choice. Ironically, the Crohn’s drug I’ve taken for over 20 years gave me eosinophilic pneumonia. The only treatment? You guessed it, prednisone. This time it gave me a bleeding ulcer that had me in the hospital for transfusions. Prednisone is the devil. I won’t take it again unless it’s life and death. I totally get that you’re tired. You have every reason to be tired. Hopefully, the butrans will better control your pain (I think it will). But research your meds. You need to know what’s going on. Your docs put you on prednisone so many times, and caused you to have terrible damage. You have to control your own care. And there is a certain perverse joy in looking at a doctor prescribing you some problematic drug and saying “No”. It really stops them in their tracks.

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Butrans contains the active ingredient Buprenorphine, in a time released patch, it is used to alleviate pain.

The FDA warns that Butrans carries the risk of being habit forming, and may cause side effects, such as nausea, dizziness, headache, constipation, and dry mouth.

Ref: Butrans Information

If your doctor has advised you to try it, the only way to see if it will help you is by actually doing so. Are you still on any other medications?

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