Posted by SLS on April 26, 2004, at 18:43:11
In reply to Pain Med, Vioxx or Celebrex, posted by Flipsactown on April 26, 2004, at 18:05:47
> Anyone have any personal experience or knowledge regarding the effectiveness of Vioxx or Celebrex for chronic low back pain from injury?
My grandmother has arthritis in her lumbar spine that is causing stenosis of the exiting nerves. Vioxx is the only drug that works well for her. She prefers that to opioid pain medication. It is the mitigation of inflammation that is the key to managing her condition. Unfortunately, she has diminished renal function, so she has discontinued the Vioxx as it can be taxing on the kindneys. The other COX-2 inhibitor that you might have a look at is Bextra. I don't think that any one drug is universally more effective than the others, so there might be some trial and error involved. The nice thing about these drugs is that they are generally much more tolerable on the GI tract than are the other NSAIDS. However, for the minority of people who don't react well to one of them, the GI effects can be very serious. If one of these drugs turns out to be a miracle drug for you except for GI insult, you might want to investigate whether using a proton-pump inhibitor like Protonix would prevent it.
Have you ever thought of chiropractic? I am very impressed with what chiropractic can do for certain spinal musculoskeletal pathologies. You would probably benefit from some simple exercises and stretching that are designed to address your particular condition.
That's about all I can offer you. I hope you find something soon.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:340313
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040423/msgs/340327.html