Carisoprodol/soma - Need A Doctor To Prescribe It! (Page 4)
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I've been taking soma / carisoprodol off and on for 22 years. When I first took it, I was told to take two 350 mg at bedtime, and it was too much and I nicknamed it Coma! Later I learned that when I first start taking soma after not taking it for a long time to only take 1/4 tab, or even a bit less. Later I can take more as needed, but starting out 1/4 or even 1/8th helps when I haven't take it for a very long time. Now I can't find a doctor who will prescribe it, I read as much as I could find and asked as many, doctors, pharmacists why, and they said various things, but it seemed to come down to the medicine has fallen out of favor because of abuse, "A considerable proportion of carisoprodol is metabolized to meprobamate" (from Wikipedia and that there is abuse. I don't understand why, I've taken it for many years and never noticed any euphoria whatsoever, but apparently some do abuse it. I'm able to manage most of my cervical and lumbar pain without having to take the tylenol #4 I normally take, at most 1/4 tab of Tylenol #4.

So it helps me to do without or almost without opiates, and so my mind does not get that opiate feeling one gets in the head. But since the doctors won't give me Soma, I have to take the Tylenol #4. I've tried diazepam, works great, but makes driving dangerous and has a long half life, so it becomes more dangerous with time. metaxalone/ Skelaxin - ineffective methocarbamol/Robaxin ineffective and caused really bad restless leg syndrome. ZANAFLEX /(tizanidine about 5-10% effective, but caused my head to get cloudy and caused dizziness. I've heard about Baclofen (Lioresal, but haven't tried it yet, though I've heard it is effective. But soma works well without side effects, so I wish I could find a doctor that would prescribe it! any suggestions?

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I'm aware that asking for a particular medication is a red flag, however I'm not sure how to ask if asking is a red flag.

I suppose I could, if my insurance would allow me to see any doctor, but it does not, I don't have a ppo policy, unless I drop humana for a little while and use just medicare to visit a number of doctors about my back pain and then if they ask, what has helped you
, after I tell them what isn't working for me,
I really can't afford to go to a bunch of doctors on my own because I'm just on a disability income.

I thought of traveling 3 1/2 hours to see my old doctor who use to let me take soma and see if he would prescribe it for me, since I can talk to him about it, or could when I use to see him.

but other than that I'm not able to do anything.

I started baclofen today after I told my current doctor that tizanidine doesn't work,

I asked him about soma again, what would be a comparable replacement and why exactly won't he, or other doctors won't prescribe it, and he said nothing, since he said soma was really more a pain medicine he said, that it metabolizes into a medicine that is a pain medicine, he said two pain medicines, I read about it and that it metabolizes into one meprobamate,

anyway the wikipedia article says many countries are not allowing it, and many doctors won't prescribe it not, the dea made it schedule 4 January 11, 2012

before then, somewhere a few years ago, anyone would prescribe it, but it's really got a bad rap because quite a few abuse it.

a similar thing happened with promethazine with codeine, because of drug abusers, it's really difficult to get, though there are a few doctors who don't follow lock step with the majority.

those who abuse medications will find something to abuse, I knew of a guys little brother who inhaled final net hair spray and they found his body three days later in a field during the summer all bloated in the heat.

and there were others who I heard of who inhaled gasoline. and kids in 3rd world countries inhale glue.

so I think it's reverse logic to stop giving effective medicines because some abuse them.

of course all doctors should be careful with potentially abused medicines, but to entirely stop prescribing them seems wrong.

though I talked with one doctor who said he gave up his license to prescribe narcotics because the dea jumped on him because a patient was going around to many doctors complaining of migraine headaches, and obtaining some strong drug, I can't remember it's name.

but what do patients do when they are suffering?

Soma never gave me any euphoria, and didn't cause me to be sedated, when I first started taking it I learned that I had to take 1/4 or even 1/8th of a tab for the first few days until I got used to it.

But it didn't have much affect upon my head, and was very effective for the pain.

It was so effective that I was able to control my pain when it wasn't too bad on just 3 -350mg soma tabs a day without having to take any Tylenol #4's.
the Tylenol#4's do have a big affect upon my head, and it was great to be able to not take them at all.

the doctors who won't give me soma have no problem giving me Tylenol#4, so I asked one of them, "If soma is addictive, why do you give me Tylenol#4, and the reply was, "it's all we have to give you for pain (my pain level) that's effective, if we had something else, we wouldn't give it"
Sounds a bit like when my doctor tried to get the Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) - the electrical unit, and the insurance company denied it,
he called and asked the doctor who approves (or does not approve medical procedures) , "if you won't approve a minor invasive modern innovative procedure like the spinal simulator, why do you approve open back surgery?"

the insurance company doctor said "we've been approving open back surgery for many years, you don't want us to stop approving that do you?"

So while soma is very effective for many patients, I've read dozens of reports like mine, "it works, but my doctor won't prescribe it anymore"

I would much prefer to take nothing at all, or at least nothing that affects one's head, like advil or aleve.

I took elavil, and the dry mouth side effect cost me all my teeth, but other than that (LOL) it was a great medicine.

and then I took neurontin/ Gabapentin, also wonderful, until it had a major affect on my memory. - my doctor said "not everyone tolerates it"
and other than that (LOL) it was great.

Soma helps my pain with a minimal affect upon my head, but no one wants to prescribe it because of abuse and some bad reports.

I managed to make it from may till august with only advils, and physical therapy, but with cold weather perhaps the pain got worse.

I have some soma, but save it for really bad spasms and and restless leg syndrome.

so I am trying to adjust to baclofen, hopefully it will work somewhat well.

thanks very much
steve

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Hello, Steve! How are you?

Any doctor can prescribe it, since it is just a muscle relaxant, but you might actually be shooting yourself in the foot by the manner in which you've been looking for the medication.

Asking a doctor if they'll prescribe a particular medication is something they are taught to see as drug seeking behavior and yes, this one is commonly abused, so you likely set off their warning bells.

What you really need to do is see a doctor, make sure they get a full copy of your current medical records and let them speak for you.

Is there anything else I can help with?

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