Welcome to Wednesday! If you read my post yesterday than you already know I am going to be discussing pain management with CKD. I talked about this in January of this year. You can read that post here. I also have discussed medications and how they can damage the kidneys. You can read that post here. But, this week all of my thoughts about pain and living with CKD came true. Continue reading to learn more.
I have had Kidney Disease since the beginning of 2017. For four years I have maintained stage 3 and was recently back to stage 2. That is another long drawn out story, but for me I have been lucky that I have not really had pain to deal with outside minor aches and pains. Last Friday I started to have a nagging pain in my right shoulder. I have had this pain in this shoulder before and just brushed it off to over use. Nurses are good like that, lol. Anyway Saturday it was really hurting and my mobility was limited, but by Sunday I was in full on acute pain and very limited movement of my right arm. I told my husband we should probably go to the ER to be sure it wasn’t fractured. So, we did. No fracture but they told me it could be a rotator cuff injury and only an MRI could see that, which of course they didn’t do. I informed them I had kidney disease, and yet they still wrote me an order for Robaxin, a muscle relaxant that is toxic to the kidneys, instead of Flexeril which is not. Nor did they offer me a sling despite the fact I could not raise my arm above chest level at best. They did give me a 7 day supply of Lidocaine patches, which is best as I could tell are definitely not for acute or severe pain. I tried one, but it really didn’t do anything for more than an hour. Anyways I called off sick Monday and made an appt for Friday at the Ortho doctor. That was the earliest I could be seen. Then my primary doctor was not in the office Monday, and the nurse apparently did not give her my message about my pain on Tuesday. So, what is a girl in pain supposed to do? Well for one thing I bought a sling. That made the pain worse. Ice made the pain worse. Tylenol was of absolutely no help at all. So, yes I took Ibuprofen the one family of drugs that I know is not great for my kidneys. But, I didn’t have a choice. I took only 2 Ibuprofen twice a day. Just enough to reduce the inflammation enough to get some relief. The Ibuprofen, rest, elevation and a knee brace applied to my bicep/tricep area of my arm is what helped. By Tuesday I was getting some of the mobility back though the pain was still quite intense. By today I have at least 80% of my ROM back and the pain is tolerable. I have only taken one Ibuprofen today. I went grocery shopping but absolutely could not lift anything over a couple of pounds and brushing my teeth was still quite painful. But, this is improvement. This tells me the rotator cuff at the very least is not torn which is great news. This also tells me this is probably going to be a chronic issue. I am supposed to work tomorrow, Thursday, and I informed my boss I would be more than happy to work but that I would not lift or pull on anyone. He agreed to this and will let the team know. So, this brings me back to the reason for this post. People with CKD are not given a lot of options and definitely not good options for pain management for their CKD or for any other pain. My doctor told me Tylenol was the only option to me for pain. That is totally unacceptable. I live a full and active life. I work and I need to work. I will not tolerate being told that there is no way I can’t not suffer. CBD oil is legal and while I don’t know all of the rules for Florida, I know it is legal to buy. I will be discussing CBD with all of my doctors as a way to manage pain. I have a high tolerance for pain. Plus, I don’t take any medications and I don’t think asking to have proper pain management should be overlooked. Nor will I accept it. I don’t want to be high, addicted or whatever other negative connotations could label me. I just want to know I can have relief like anybody else and not destroy my kidneys.
Here is an article on CBD and pain management for people with CKD, and a couple of other reference items. As far as I can tell it has no negative side effects on the kidneys and works well. As with anything it may interact with other medicines you take, or have other effects. Talk to your doctor if you have pain but have been offered poor pain management especially for acute, or severe pain.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31972598/
https://blog.brightfieldgroup.com/emergence-of-usda-certified-organic-cbd
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