Stopping medication

[gallifrey]

I suffer from fibromyalgia and other things and am on a fair amount of painkillers.
I take amitriptyline 30mg at night, naproxen 500mg morning and night and cocodamol (30/500) two tablets 4 times a day.
The other day when I picked up my prescription the pharmacist asked me if I was happy with my medication and I had to sign a form to say that he had spoken to me. I asked his advice about nerve pain in my legs and he said that it was more than likely being caused by the cocodamol because I've been on it for 3 years. He advised me to stop it and maybe take paracetamol and tramadol instead. Then he asked me if I had ever stopped taking my medication at all and maybe I should stop taking them and see what happens

To be honest the thought of stopping everything is quite scary but do you think I should give it a go? I know the naproxen in particular is very bad for the stomach.

I would discuss it with your GP or consultant before changing anything.

Stopping fairly high dose codeine suddenly may cause problems, you are already on a good painkiller for nerve pain (amitriptylline) and I would suspect you are on that for pain from the fibromyalgia.

I think it was a bit beyond the scope of the pharmacists role to declare the cause of your pain was the painkiller, TBH. Though they do have a responsibility to ensure you are receiving appropriate medicines and they are reviewed regularly.

I did this. For fibromyalgia, too.

It didn't stop the leg pain. I had to work back up to my usual dose of cocodamol before I could increase amitryptilin to lessen the leg pain.

If you aren't sure about your meds, speak to your GP. Three years isn't that long for fibromyalgia, though. Tramadol has a whole host of other issues, too.

If your stomach starts playing up they'll medicate that, but after 3 years, you'll have more tolerance than you think.

Bloody hell! Looks like I won't be cutting out the meds just yet.

My 2 yr old dd somehow managed to get out of the front door and go across the road, luckily I live in a very quiet cul-de-sac and there were no cars coming. I ran over the road to get her, and now I have a back that's in agony, sciatica in my right leg and a twisted ankle!

I've taken codeine & paracetamol as my prescribed painrelief for RA for 14yrs (+ RA meds) except for last year briefly when I hurt my hip and needed something stronger and the surgeon prescribed tramadol & paraceatamol..... I say briefly as although it took me a year to get to a level I can live with I only managed with tramadol for abou 6-8weeks. It made me sooooo sick, I went back to the codeine & paracetamol and lived with the extra pain.
I'd speak to your dr if you are unhappy with your meds but I'm not sure I'd switch just because of a brief conversation with my pharmacist. Use it as an opportunity to look at whether you are on the optimum treatment.

I swapped from cocodamol to codeine & paracetamol so that I could control my dosage myself. This meant on bad days I take a full dose 2x 30/500 but on good days I can take 1 codeine or no codeine & stick to the paracetamol. It gives me control and generally reduces my codeine intake. This was a suggestion from my consultant and has really helped with the bowel issues that come with prolonged codeine use.