A little about me before you read my story: HW:290, SW:243, CW:170 F/21

Hi everybody, I had gastric bypass surgery on 11/20/17, everything was going perfect up until 2 weeks after my WLS. I was meal prepping, taking vitamins, started work again; everything was great.

Then boom, pain. Intense excruciating pain. Ended up in the ER and diagnosed with a 9mm kidney stone. I was not able to pass it on my own and they could not remove it due to me recently having my WLS. I had to endure the pain for 3 weeks until I finally had surgery to remove it. I had to have a stent surgically placed for a week as well. After the stent removal, the pain went away after two weeks.

I stopped taking the 20mg/4-6hrs oxycodone that were prescribed to me.

The next day I had extreme withdrawal symptoms and contacted my doctor and told her about this. She suggested tapering me. I tapered in a span of 2 weeks and was done.

2 weeks pass

I start to feel severe pains in my lower back to the point where I can’t even sleep. I tell my doctor and she tells me to take tynelol and apply a heating pad. I do. 4 days after the pain has not subsided, I call my doctor again and explain. After a ton of scans and test and my MRI not showing anything wrong, she refers me to physical therapy. She says that I have a musco-skeletal deficiency and need to strengthen and learn how to use my core/back muscles properly. She also prescribed me Norco 10 mg.

Two weeks pass, I am not getting better.

I get prescribed flexeril, acupuncture referral.

I start acupuncture, flexeril does not work.

My doctor prescribed me gabapentin, causes severe side effects. Stop taking.

My doctor prescribed me nortriptyline, does not work. Stop taking.

My doctor prescribed me cymbalta, causes severe side effects.

(All this medication was for nerve/muscle pain)

I finally tell her I don’t want to take psych drugs for my pain and want to discontinue cymbalta. She tells me to keep on continuing my medication until I get used to it. I switched my doctor after that.

After my first appointment with my new doctor and after explaining everything, he refers me to chronic pain management, prescribed baclofen and more Norco.

I am currently awaiting to consult with my chronic pain management doctor and go forth with the classes (05/03/18).

I am still continuing with physical therapy and acupuncture.

I’m sorry my story is so long. I just need to get this out.

My feelings have been all over the place, I have not been able to work for 2 months. I cry everyday. I have severe anxiety. I am constantly light headed, I force myself to eat and constantly forget to take my vitamins. I am always nauseous. I can’t sleep at night. I have extreme pain in my lower back and all over my body. I am on baclofen 3x10mg & 3x10mg norcos a day.

I do not want to be on medications anymore. I don’t want to constantly be in bed. I want to feel normal again. I want to feel like me. I want to have energy. I want to work. I want to sleep normally. I want to find myself again.

I am at a point where I just want to give up. I don’t want to feel anymore. I am lost. I don’t know who I am anymore. This is not me.

I am sorry to hear that, but I don’t think narcotics are going to help. Eventually your body if it hasn’t already will build a tolerance to it and it won’t work which is when they will try to increase it and increase it until nothing more can be done. I would consult with your WLS surgeon again, you would be surprised how many acute and chronic diseases we can develop post our procedure. You could be lacking in vitamins, nutrition, fluids. I would start with the surgeon that gave you WLS- this could be more common than you think. Idk if this will work, but I have chronic back pain all the time too- aquatic fitness classes help soothe you pain and strengthen the core muscles in your back also it may help with alignment. I hope you feel better soon.

Damn! I’m so sorry to hear that... but like Jazmania mentioned .. try to drink your vitamins is very important, specially cuz now our absorption is bad. Don’t give up on yourself. Your body is also fighting! I hope everything goes well !

I am sorry to hear that, but I don’t think narcotics are going to help. Eventually your body if it hasn’t already will build a tolerance to it and it won’t work which is when they will try to increase it and increase it until nothing more can be done. I would consult with your WLS surgeon again, you would be surprised how many acute and chronic diseases we can develop post our procedure. You could be lacking in Vitamins, nutrition, fluids. I would start with the surgeon that gave you WLS- this could be more common than you think. Idk if this will work, but I have chronic back pain all the time too- aquatic fitness classes help soothe you pain and strengthen the core muscles in your back also it may help with alignment. I hope you feel better soon.

Thank you for your response, I did reach out to my WLS surgeon and this was his response:

Aquatic classes seem like a good idea, but money is tight right now since I have not been able to work and I can’t afford to sign up at my gym. I have been taking warm baths and that seems to help sooth my back for the time that I am submerged.

I also will look into getting my vitamin levels checked and balanced thank you.

Damn! I’m so sorry to hear that... but like Jazmania mentioned .. try to drink your vitamins is very important, specially cuz now our absorption is bad. Don’t give up on yourself. Your body is also fighting! I hope everything goes well !

It is hard not to want to give up often, thank you for your response. I need to get my vitamin levels checked and balanced.

https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/kidneystones_prevent

If you’re having nerve pain, please do speak to your pain management doctor about seeing a proper neurologist. Nerve pain is miserable - unfortunately it runs right up against the opioid crisis in that it’s frequently hard to diagnose and doctors get very suspicious if a patient says the pain pills “don’t work” because it mimics the behavior of an addict. Personally I had a neuropathic issue that opioids couldn’t touch but synthetic morphine handled (you can imagine how reluctantly that prescription was given). But you need a specialist who really understands how screwed up nerve pain can be. The pain management specialist should be able to point you to a neurologist.

I’ve been there and it’s the most frustrating feeling in the world. Good luck.

Edited April 13, 20188 yr by sideeye

Thank you for your response, I did reach out to my WLS surgeon and this was his response:
Aquatic classes seem like a good idea, but money is tight right now since I have not been able to work and I can’t afford to sign up at my gym. I have been taking warm baths and that seems to help sooth my back for the time that I am submerged.
I also will look into getting my vitamin levels checked and balanced thank you.

Please do and keep us posted. We are all in this together. I do hope you feel better and get some relief soon. I still think try to cut out those narcotics. They do more harm in the long run.

If you’re having nerve pain, please do speak to your pain management doctor about seeing a proper neurologist. Nerve pain is miserable - unfortunately it runs right up against the opioid crisis in that it’s frequently hard to diagnose and doctors get very suspicious if a patient says the pain pills “don’t work” because it mimics the behavior of an addict. Personally I had a neuropathic issue that opioids couldn’t touch but synthetic morphine handled (you can imagine how reluctantly that prescription was given). But you need a specialist who really understands how screwed up nerve pain can be. The pain management specialist should be able to point you to a neurologist.
I’ve been there and it’s the most frustrating feeling in the world. Good luck.

Thank you so much for your reply. I’m sorry you went through this. It is the most frustrating feeling.
Exactly, I feel like I’m going crazy because they are not able to diagnose me; hopefully the pain management doctors will be able to. I have been prescribed gabapentin for nerve pain and it really worked but I had horrible side effects. Hopefully I will find the right specialists to put me on the right treatment plan. Thank you again for tour reply!