My wife has mid stage dementia and is getting weaker and less mobile. She is 82 with very bad spinal pain and has begun to moan and complain of pain constantly. Getting out of bed is now terribly painful and she needs my help. She is on 3 narco 7.5/3.25 tabs and 3 gabapentin 100mg daily. Her ortho clinic will not increase narco but has increased gabapentin another 200mg. I understand that narco reduces breathing, but I think she needs a bit more, ie one every 6hrs instead of one every 8hrs. Does anyone have experience with independent pain clinics?. Will appreciate any responces.
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Perhaps they were as careless with your mom.
My dad was on gabapentin for neuropathy and a doctor took him off and what a difference in his cognition. He now uses tylenol and is more with it. Not saying that your wife would see similar benefits.
Let us know how it goes with the pain management.
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I am so very sorry for what you and your wife are going through. Caregiving is difficult enough without having to witness so much suffering. However, I don’t believe there is a person on this forum who will offer dosing advice. It’s neither appropriate nor legal. My understanding is that your wife suffers from chronic back pain that has recently gotten much worse. In my opinion that will require an evaluation, either at the dr’s office or an emergency room. Any change of condition should be followed up with the doctor. It could be something simple like a UTI but there could be something else more significant happening. I had a friend with chronic back issues that had a sudden worsening of her pain. An ER visit revealed a herniated disc in her lower back that occurred spontaneously from her very poor bone density. With the right diagnosis, she was able to get the right treatment.
Looking further up the road, you may want to keep hospice in mind. When her quality of life has diminished and she can no longer tolerate the never ending drs, tests, and treatments, it is a compassionate consideration. Their view on pain management is much more liberal and less liability conscious than the pain management clinics.
No matter what you opt to do, I pray for relief and comfort for both of you. Please keep us posted.
Thankfully, we had a wonderful, small- town, family physician who trusted my mom & I and has been our Dr. for a number of years.
I hope you can find something that works & a Dr. that will help you! My mom was a very tough lady & it broke my heart to see her unable to do anything but sit & cry.