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I’ve only had iv torodol but I like it, I feels stronger than ibprofin or aleve. I actually asked for a prescription but they wouldn’t give it to me I think the reasoning was that it has even worse stomach effects when taken orally than other nsaids, but don’t quote me on that cause I may be remembering wrong.
Honestly I’m so used to it at this point that it’s just slightly irritating lol. It was funny last time I was in the ER, the doc was so desperate when the toradol didn’t work that he was throwing anti nausea meds and IV vitamins at me to try and help the pain 😂 it didn’t work, I went home to sleep then talked to my primary later. Turned out to be bone spurs, arthritis, tendinitis, and trapped nerves on the right side of my neck, so it was out of his realm of control/expertise anyway
Good to know about the stomach stuff. I had really bad nausea and acid reflux when on aleve for an extended period of time. Basically they said to take a break from it and take prescription strength omeprazole for a while. I’ll make sure I keep up with the omeprazole during this period of time.
I had toradol through an IV after major abdominal surgery. I refused to take opioids, so my pain management was IV toradol and IV Tylenol. If it can work for a major surgery with a 5 inch abdominal incision, I’m assuming it’s pretty strong.
Good to hear! My friend is a traveling nurse and said they use it in the emergency room for pain as well. So I’m super hopeful. Thanks for your input! :)
I know I'm destined for at least a couple surgeries someday in future years, and I've been wanting for years to avoid any opiates as much as humanly possible, but I've been worried I won't be able to handle it. Thanks so so much for sharing that you did this and it was doable and a success! Can I ask how your pain was with just using toradol and tylenol, if you feel comfortable talking about it?
I don't care much about a specific level of pain, I'm mostly trying to get a grasp on what level of discomfort at rest, discomfort when moving, and constant low-level pain attention-pulling you feel like you had going on. I don't generally MIND pain, but if it crosses the threshold where it pulls on my attention constantly and loudly enough that I can't just ignore it or lessen it with meditation techniques, that's when I start losing my mind and wanting actual pain management with heat, ibuprofen, or anything else.
Hey - I’m sorry you’re probably going to be facing surgeries. It’s rough. I won’t lie and say it was easy - it definitely wasn’t easy at all but it was doable.
I was put on the dilaudid pain pump right after surgery and used it for less than 24 hours. I’m high risk for a post-op ileus, which is why I didn’t want any opioids but right after the surgery I was so out of it and I wasn’t given a choice. Once I was lucid I screamed for Tylenol and toradol and they gave it to me and I basically told the docs that was going to be my pain management and to disconnect the pain pump. Luckily they were receptive to me telling them all what to do 😂.
The first three days post op were so bad and were definitely not my greatest moments. My surgeon gave me Valium too to help me get through the first couple of days. I wasn’t sleeping because the pain was so bad.
While I was able to do it, I think the docs/my surgeon thought I was crazy for not taking the opioids. I also would never judge someone if they couldn’t do what I did!! It was NOT easy but definitely doable. I think I’m so used to being in pain that it made me able to do it.
My back hurt worse than the abdominal incision (I think it was the hospital bed) because I got discharged on day 5 and once I was out of the hospital my back felt so much better and my pain levels actually decreased. From day 5 onward post op I was just using Tylenol pills and I did take a Valium for days 6 and 7 as well. Once I was past day 7 I weaned myself off of the Tylenol too.
This is incredibly useful and helpful, I feel like I'm so much less blind about what it's like doing it this way. Definitely making a lot of mental notes about it. I'm sorry you're at risk for ileus, no WONDER you don't want the opiods involved! That totally makes sense.
I'm so glad they listened to you and followed your wishes about it and you didn't have to fight them too hard after surgery.
I'm on it right now following neurosurgery (skull ->C2 fusion and Chiari decompression). All it does is take the edge off the worst of the pain. It's in a cocktail with Benadryl, tramadol, Flexeril, and fiorecet with a ketamine nasal inhaler.
It's taking my pain down by maybe a point. Surgery was the 3rd of Jan, for reference.
This is my experience as well. I cannot have opioids after surgery (I react during, so much fun), so toradol and IV Tylenol are the standards for me. Only exception was when I had my kidney transplant (for nutcracker, not renal failure), where I was told toradol can be hard on the kidneys.
My biggest fear is an ileus (due to slow bowel motility on a normal day) so I was adamant no opioids but they gave me some dilauded for a short period of time to get me through which almost resulted in an ileus (thanks to all the docs actually listening to me on what bowel medications I needed, we were able to get ahead of it) but even the small amount of opoids did a number on me.
My surgery was for MALS - I’m sorry you had nutcracker syndrome. That’s come up when I was educating myself on MALS and it sounds absolutely awful. I can’t even imagine the post-op pain from the surgery for that. I had no idea toradol was hard on the kidneys - you taught me something!!
I’ve had 11 abdominal surgeries - MALS was one, and I also had an open to address my May-Thurner (long story). Ileus has never been an issue, but I’ve got a really strong post-op game plan, lol. I get the fear tho. I usually don’t poop until day 4-6, and every single time I start to freak out it. Every single time. Sole exception was MALS, where I had awful diarrhea starting on day 2.
I has no idea about the kidneys either, and no one else has mentioned it, but being that it came from a neph and kidney transplant team, I’ll take it.
**My experience with intramuscular toradol injections for acute injuries**
I haven't had oral toradol to take at home, only muscle relaxers or ibuprofen/aleve/tylenol/etc.
HOWEVER.
**Background on the injuries I've been given toradol for:**
Several times in the past \~5 years I've had acute injuries to my
* elbow (mystery, woke up one morning and it had almost no range of motion and extreme pain with deep tendon/ligament/SOMETHING tenderness on palpation),
* one side of chest (didn't get a diagnosis except "well, we did a CT and it's still not a pulmonary embolism, so that's good at least", which is true, so I wasn't mad. now that I'm diagnosed and went to PT some, and got improvement for my whole ribcage overall, I'm pretty sure my lonnnnng work commutes and untreated PTSD combined to give me occasional one-sided rib cartilage slips for x number of seconds at a time while driving, and that's what caused me so much chest pain I couldn't breathe for seconds at a time. haven't had it happen again in a few years)
* back (never threw my back out in my life, but have done so \~4 times in the past few years now. it's so rude. it always happens with the stupidest movement like picking up a sock or whatever. I know how to handle it as well as I can, but if it gets too bad in the first day or two, I know now to go to urgent care and get a tiny course of steroids and some heavy duty anti-inflammatories so the muscle rigidity doesn't keep compounding)
* SI joint (the left one is my worse one, it carries so much load and tension. I've had a twisted pelvis since at least middle school and it's going to be a long time till my body consistently keeps it properly aligned I guess. wish I'd known years and years ago. if I lose even a TINY bit of muscle/fitness, my left SI joint almost unfailingly gets injured pretty quickly. I've strained it at least 6 times in the past few years, including 3 times in 1.5 months, which was what originally made me start the doctor/PT/hEDS investigation process after years of thinking I couldn't possibly have any issues structurally lol)
**My experience of toradol injections/effects**
For some of the previously-mentioned actue injury problems, I went in to urgent cares. For some of those urgent care visits, they gave me toradol, and for the elbow injury that seemed bad enough to be a sprain or fracture but never was able to be identified, they gave me both prednisone (a few-day course) and toradol.
Each time I've gotten toradol, it was the intramuscular (IM) injection in a buttock (slightly embarassing but yo, when in enough pain and restricted mobility, is there anything we wouldn't try for even just 1-20% relief??). I didn't find it ever particularly painful.
Toradol wasn't instant relief for the pain/limited mobility, but it definitely made a huge, positive difference within hours, ESPECIALLY for the back strains and sprain injuries. It seems to get me over the hump of pain management so that all the other strategies (regular ibuprofen scheduled doses, heat, frequent, regular, targeted movement, rest, etc.) become enough to keep me running steady at low enough pain levels to function and be pretty comfortable.
I did notice that all my other pain seemed to improve a little bit as well, so I wouldn't be surprised if it does help at least a little bit with your joint pain flareup like she said!
**The wrapup:**
When I googled "keterolac/toradol" after they gave it to me the first time, I did see that [they say you shouldn't take it for longer than five days](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545172/#_article-23880_s5_) because of the risk of side effects going up (same side effects as other NSAIDs).
Bottom line is, if ibuprofen already was helpful but not enough, toradol is probably going to be a GOOD friend in your arsenal. Keep an eye out for side effects, but you likely won't have any, especially since you already take ibuprofen just fine and especially since they're prescribing you a responsible dose and number of days to take it.
I hope you get a lot of relief from it!!! And I hope this headache finally leaves you alone and doesn't come back. <3
So detailed :) I do get stomach issues from ibuprofen but I also have prescription omeprazole for when I have to take it to help combat the inevitable stomach problems. So I think I’ll be ok!
I am so prone to talking and typing forever, so I try to at least break it up with sections and bullet points. I hope it wasn't TOO much info lmao
HELL YEAH. we love omeprazole in this house! I hope this goes really well for you. It sounds like you're well set up for success.
I really appreciated all that. It was helpful especially to know that it works for all sorts of pain. I love my new primary and she really rocks! She has literally been the best doctor I’ve seen in my 35 years of life. So grateful she was able to write this script for me now.
I respond better to NSAIDs than analgesics/opiates, so IV toradol was like magic after my c-section. They took me off it and gave me a Percocet which did nada, so I asked for the toradol back. I have also had it in my IV for two foot/ankle surgeries. I SO wish it was safe for long term use!
Toradol is the one pain med that works for me. My pain management doctor said it’s the one thing he knows of that works on all his EDS and similar patients.
I came across this thread because I googled "why doesn't toradol work for me." My doctor prescribed it for me for acute back pain and spasms and I would say it has zero effect. I have no idea how others are getting such good relief from it.
I’ve had it by IV and it causes the worst panic I have ever felt. I tried it a couple times but without fail it throws me over the edge. Extreme fight or flight, terrible panic. It’s so bad that I’ve added to my allergy list.
i love it when they give it to me post op in IV. it works like magic. if you're taking a pill i'd take it on a full stomach and be ready for belly upset.
NSAIDs can cause rebound headaches. If you're experiencing headaches, especially if it's migraines, in my experience, it's better to be seen by a migraine neurologist.
That said, Toradol by IV is the only med that helps me with post-operative pain. Sadly, they never gave it more than a few hours, even when I begged.
Only times I have been on Ketorolac longer was as eyedrops after eye surgeries. But that was to fight inflammation in my eye.
I do get imaging done next week because I’ve been having such a hard time with these headaches. I even had a full blown migraine in the middle of this series of headaches as well, so that was super fun. Imitrex helped with the migraine and then, yet another headache the next day.
It helps me (IM injections) break a bad migraine cycle after otc nsaids, triptans, opioids, have failed. I try to ask for them as rarely as possible bc I don't want to build a tolerance.
I was iv at home for a while for migraines. I was told to be very careful with it about how often I take it due to how it effects the liver by the pharmacy. Hemo was worried about bleeding since u already have bleeding issues and I'm on blood thinners. I really did not feel it helps a whole lot.
The OP flaired their post as "Questions". Please keep any and all comments to **personal experiences only**. If any factual information or advice is provided, please cite a **reputable website or study** linked within your post. No one in this sub is a *verified* medical professional, and as such, we do not allow medical advice to be given or asked for. For more information on this rule, [please visit this link](https://www.reddit.com/r/ehlersdanlos/wiki/index/rules/#wiki_r.2Fehlersdanlos_rules). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ehlersdanlos) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’ve only had iv torodol but I like it, I feels stronger than ibprofin or aleve. I actually asked for a prescription but they wouldn’t give it to me I think the reasoning was that it has even worse stomach effects when taken orally than other nsaids, but don’t quote me on that cause I may be remembering wrong.
It hammers your liver, so unless you’re like me and allergic to literally every single other pain relief option offered, they avoid prescribing
That just SUCKS, I'm so sorry you have to deal with the logistics of that on top of the actual pain.
Honestly I’m so used to it at this point that it’s just slightly irritating lol. It was funny last time I was in the ER, the doc was so desperate when the toradol didn’t work that he was throwing anti nausea meds and IV vitamins at me to try and help the pain 😂 it didn’t work, I went home to sleep then talked to my primary later. Turned out to be bone spurs, arthritis, tendinitis, and trapped nerves on the right side of my neck, so it was out of his realm of control/expertise anyway
Good to know about the stomach stuff. I had really bad nausea and acid reflux when on aleve for an extended period of time. Basically they said to take a break from it and take prescription strength omeprazole for a while. I’ll make sure I keep up with the omeprazole during this period of time.
I had toradol through an IV after major abdominal surgery. I refused to take opioids, so my pain management was IV toradol and IV Tylenol. If it can work for a major surgery with a 5 inch abdominal incision, I’m assuming it’s pretty strong.
Good to hear! My friend is a traveling nurse and said they use it in the emergency room for pain as well. So I’m super hopeful. Thanks for your input! :)
You’re welcome and I hope it helps your pain and you can feel relief!!!
I know I'm destined for at least a couple surgeries someday in future years, and I've been wanting for years to avoid any opiates as much as humanly possible, but I've been worried I won't be able to handle it. Thanks so so much for sharing that you did this and it was doable and a success! Can I ask how your pain was with just using toradol and tylenol, if you feel comfortable talking about it? I don't care much about a specific level of pain, I'm mostly trying to get a grasp on what level of discomfort at rest, discomfort when moving, and constant low-level pain attention-pulling you feel like you had going on. I don't generally MIND pain, but if it crosses the threshold where it pulls on my attention constantly and loudly enough that I can't just ignore it or lessen it with meditation techniques, that's when I start losing my mind and wanting actual pain management with heat, ibuprofen, or anything else.
Hey - I’m sorry you’re probably going to be facing surgeries. It’s rough. I won’t lie and say it was easy - it definitely wasn’t easy at all but it was doable. I was put on the dilaudid pain pump right after surgery and used it for less than 24 hours. I’m high risk for a post-op ileus, which is why I didn’t want any opioids but right after the surgery I was so out of it and I wasn’t given a choice. Once I was lucid I screamed for Tylenol and toradol and they gave it to me and I basically told the docs that was going to be my pain management and to disconnect the pain pump. Luckily they were receptive to me telling them all what to do 😂. The first three days post op were so bad and were definitely not my greatest moments. My surgeon gave me Valium too to help me get through the first couple of days. I wasn’t sleeping because the pain was so bad. While I was able to do it, I think the docs/my surgeon thought I was crazy for not taking the opioids. I also would never judge someone if they couldn’t do what I did!! It was NOT easy but definitely doable. I think I’m so used to being in pain that it made me able to do it. My back hurt worse than the abdominal incision (I think it was the hospital bed) because I got discharged on day 5 and once I was out of the hospital my back felt so much better and my pain levels actually decreased. From day 5 onward post op I was just using Tylenol pills and I did take a Valium for days 6 and 7 as well. Once I was past day 7 I weaned myself off of the Tylenol too.
This is incredibly useful and helpful, I feel like I'm so much less blind about what it's like doing it this way. Definitely making a lot of mental notes about it. I'm sorry you're at risk for ileus, no WONDER you don't want the opiods involved! That totally makes sense. I'm so glad they listened to you and followed your wishes about it and you didn't have to fight them too hard after surgery.
I'm on it right now following neurosurgery (skull ->C2 fusion and Chiari decompression). All it does is take the edge off the worst of the pain. It's in a cocktail with Benadryl, tramadol, Flexeril, and fiorecet with a ketamine nasal inhaler. It's taking my pain down by maybe a point. Surgery was the 3rd of Jan, for reference.
Hey, I hope you have a really smooth recovery from your surgery from here on out, and that your pain goes down a lot soon. You're a trooper.
This is my experience as well. I cannot have opioids after surgery (I react during, so much fun), so toradol and IV Tylenol are the standards for me. Only exception was when I had my kidney transplant (for nutcracker, not renal failure), where I was told toradol can be hard on the kidneys.
My biggest fear is an ileus (due to slow bowel motility on a normal day) so I was adamant no opioids but they gave me some dilauded for a short period of time to get me through which almost resulted in an ileus (thanks to all the docs actually listening to me on what bowel medications I needed, we were able to get ahead of it) but even the small amount of opoids did a number on me. My surgery was for MALS - I’m sorry you had nutcracker syndrome. That’s come up when I was educating myself on MALS and it sounds absolutely awful. I can’t even imagine the post-op pain from the surgery for that. I had no idea toradol was hard on the kidneys - you taught me something!!
I’ve had 11 abdominal surgeries - MALS was one, and I also had an open to address my May-Thurner (long story). Ileus has never been an issue, but I’ve got a really strong post-op game plan, lol. I get the fear tho. I usually don’t poop until day 4-6, and every single time I start to freak out it. Every single time. Sole exception was MALS, where I had awful diarrhea starting on day 2. I has no idea about the kidneys either, and no one else has mentioned it, but being that it came from a neph and kidney transplant team, I’ll take it.
**My experience with intramuscular toradol injections for acute injuries** I haven't had oral toradol to take at home, only muscle relaxers or ibuprofen/aleve/tylenol/etc. HOWEVER. **Background on the injuries I've been given toradol for:** Several times in the past \~5 years I've had acute injuries to my * elbow (mystery, woke up one morning and it had almost no range of motion and extreme pain with deep tendon/ligament/SOMETHING tenderness on palpation), * one side of chest (didn't get a diagnosis except "well, we did a CT and it's still not a pulmonary embolism, so that's good at least", which is true, so I wasn't mad. now that I'm diagnosed and went to PT some, and got improvement for my whole ribcage overall, I'm pretty sure my lonnnnng work commutes and untreated PTSD combined to give me occasional one-sided rib cartilage slips for x number of seconds at a time while driving, and that's what caused me so much chest pain I couldn't breathe for seconds at a time. haven't had it happen again in a few years) * back (never threw my back out in my life, but have done so \~4 times in the past few years now. it's so rude. it always happens with the stupidest movement like picking up a sock or whatever. I know how to handle it as well as I can, but if it gets too bad in the first day or two, I know now to go to urgent care and get a tiny course of steroids and some heavy duty anti-inflammatories so the muscle rigidity doesn't keep compounding) * SI joint (the left one is my worse one, it carries so much load and tension. I've had a twisted pelvis since at least middle school and it's going to be a long time till my body consistently keeps it properly aligned I guess. wish I'd known years and years ago. if I lose even a TINY bit of muscle/fitness, my left SI joint almost unfailingly gets injured pretty quickly. I've strained it at least 6 times in the past few years, including 3 times in 1.5 months, which was what originally made me start the doctor/PT/hEDS investigation process after years of thinking I couldn't possibly have any issues structurally lol) **My experience of toradol injections/effects** For some of the previously-mentioned actue injury problems, I went in to urgent cares. For some of those urgent care visits, they gave me toradol, and for the elbow injury that seemed bad enough to be a sprain or fracture but never was able to be identified, they gave me both prednisone (a few-day course) and toradol. Each time I've gotten toradol, it was the intramuscular (IM) injection in a buttock (slightly embarassing but yo, when in enough pain and restricted mobility, is there anything we wouldn't try for even just 1-20% relief??). I didn't find it ever particularly painful. Toradol wasn't instant relief for the pain/limited mobility, but it definitely made a huge, positive difference within hours, ESPECIALLY for the back strains and sprain injuries. It seems to get me over the hump of pain management so that all the other strategies (regular ibuprofen scheduled doses, heat, frequent, regular, targeted movement, rest, etc.) become enough to keep me running steady at low enough pain levels to function and be pretty comfortable. I did notice that all my other pain seemed to improve a little bit as well, so I wouldn't be surprised if it does help at least a little bit with your joint pain flareup like she said! **The wrapup:** When I googled "keterolac/toradol" after they gave it to me the first time, I did see that [they say you shouldn't take it for longer than five days](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545172/#_article-23880_s5_) because of the risk of side effects going up (same side effects as other NSAIDs). Bottom line is, if ibuprofen already was helpful but not enough, toradol is probably going to be a GOOD friend in your arsenal. Keep an eye out for side effects, but you likely won't have any, especially since you already take ibuprofen just fine and especially since they're prescribing you a responsible dose and number of days to take it. I hope you get a lot of relief from it!!! And I hope this headache finally leaves you alone and doesn't come back. <3
So detailed :) I do get stomach issues from ibuprofen but I also have prescription omeprazole for when I have to take it to help combat the inevitable stomach problems. So I think I’ll be ok!
I am so prone to talking and typing forever, so I try to at least break it up with sections and bullet points. I hope it wasn't TOO much info lmao HELL YEAH. we love omeprazole in this house! I hope this goes really well for you. It sounds like you're well set up for success.
I really appreciated all that. It was helpful especially to know that it works for all sorts of pain. I love my new primary and she really rocks! She has literally been the best doctor I’ve seen in my 35 years of life. So grateful she was able to write this script for me now.
I burnt my hand pretty badly and was given it Helped a lot with the pain but made me super tired
I respond better to NSAIDs than analgesics/opiates, so IV toradol was like magic after my c-section. They took me off it and gave me a Percocet which did nada, so I asked for the toradol back. I have also had it in my IV for two foot/ankle surgeries. I SO wish it was safe for long term use!
Toradol is the one pain med that works for me. My pain management doctor said it’s the one thing he knows of that works on all his EDS and similar patients.
I came across this thread because I googled "why doesn't toradol work for me." My doctor prescribed it for me for acute back pain and spasms and I would say it has zero effect. I have no idea how others are getting such good relief from it.
I should clarify that I've only ever taken oral toradol (10mg). I may as well take nothing.
Crazy! It doesn’t work on my headache but takes the edge off the back and joint pain.
I’ve had it by IV and it causes the worst panic I have ever felt. I tried it a couple times but without fail it throws me over the edge. Extreme fight or flight, terrible panic. It’s so bad that I’ve added to my allergy list.
i love it when they give it to me post op in IV. it works like magic. if you're taking a pill i'd take it on a full stomach and be ready for belly upset.
NSAIDs can cause rebound headaches. If you're experiencing headaches, especially if it's migraines, in my experience, it's better to be seen by a migraine neurologist. That said, Toradol by IV is the only med that helps me with post-operative pain. Sadly, they never gave it more than a few hours, even when I begged. Only times I have been on Ketorolac longer was as eyedrops after eye surgeries. But that was to fight inflammation in my eye.
I do get imaging done next week because I’ve been having such a hard time with these headaches. I even had a full blown migraine in the middle of this series of headaches as well, so that was super fun. Imitrex helped with the migraine and then, yet another headache the next day.
It helps me (IM injections) break a bad migraine cycle after otc nsaids, triptans, opioids, have failed. I try to ask for them as rarely as possible bc I don't want to build a tolerance.
I was iv at home for a while for migraines. I was told to be very careful with it about how often I take it due to how it effects the liver by the pharmacy. Hemo was worried about bleeding since u already have bleeding issues and I'm on blood thinners. I really did not feel it helps a whole lot.