Needing to gripe...

[jccarolina]

I just need to come in and gripe for a bit.

I had a bad feeling last year that I would regret going on this Morphine Sulfate ER.
I swear I have never been addicted to anything in my life until I started I this stuff and I was told that if you don't have an addiction problem you won't go through withdrawal symptoms.
Well, thats a crock of Bull:mad: S:nono: !

My doc was sick when I called for my monthly refill so I had to go without over the weekend and I'm on 120mg a day. So I was miserable last weekend. There wasn't a single nerve in my body that wasn't firing.
It wasn't that way when I was on the Lortab 10, 4 times a day, but because of this damn Hep C I have to be off the Tylenol :mad: . If it ain't one thing it's a frickin' nother.

I made it through the weekend tho by stealing one of my hubby's 75mcg Duragesic patches Sunday morning. I know that's a no-no but, I couldn't stand the pain and lack of sleep anymore and he couldn't stand to see me in tears.

I guess I'm ADDICTED to Morphine NOW!

And if North Carolina wasn't such a tight ass on it's narcotic med laws maybe we could have refills and not run out.
Although I can't gripe there. At least I'm not bound by some contract at some pain management quack place like my husband is who doesn't give a flyin flip about him.
He's stuck at some place who cares more about how much money they can squeeze out of him rather than how they can help with his pain.

OK, this ADDICTS done griping :p

[darkeyed_daisy]

((((((hugs))))) North Carolina really has some crazy laws.....

[zillazangel]

Yup, that was a line of bullshit .... ANYONE who is on morphine for an extended period of time will suffer withdrawal, especially when suddenly stopping when on 120 mg! That is dangerous ... I would give your doctor an earful about having no backup system for you to get meds.

Chad is addicted to OxyContin, so what. It is for pain relief. He has pain. End of story.

Contrary to public opinion, being an addict is not a bad thing always. It just means that your body physically needs a drug. So what?

I hope you get your meds soon .... and you saw the article in the N & O?!?! I am going to post a link to it in life after I get Chad-man in bed. Too bad you weren't in the photo!!

[LaMemChose]

Sorry you went through that, Pam. If you take opiates over any period of time and suddenly stop, you'll have withdrawal. Given what you take daily, I'm not surprised you were climbing the walls from when you ran out.

Having withdrawal doesn't mean your an adict, IMO. There's a difference in physical dependence and addiction.

With physical dependence your body is acclimated to the med and you experience withdrawal symptoms when the med is suddenly stopped.

With addiction, you have an unheaolthy relationship with whatever the substance is. It's more than the physical withdrawal accompanying cessation of the med. With addiction you take more than prescribed or add other meds or substances to it to bump the effect. You take it for the high, not the pain relief or you take it for the high and the pain relief.

If you have an addictive personality keep an eye on any addictive meds. If you don't have an addictive personality, just use caution.

It isn't just your state which requires a prescription for refills. It's a federal law for controlled substances. It's too bad your doctor did not have someone on call who could help you with your medication needs. If your doctor has a partner and your doctor's nurse knows your history, knows you don't abuse your meds, your doctor could have the partner cover for him when he's not in.

Glad last weekend is behind you.

[David Berg]

Sorry to hear you had such a rough time of it. Morphine, and for that matter even narcotics in general, is not alone in that you shouldn't go off it cold turkey. You'd have a drastic reaction if you tried going off something like Neurontin all at once as well.

If I were you, I'd review this experience with your doctor and work out a plan to assure you aren't in this position again.

[jccarolina]

I hope you get your meds soon .... and you saw the article in the N & O?!?! I am going to post a link to it in life after I get Chad-man in bed. Too bad you weren't in the photo!!

Luckily I got them right away last Monday evening. The pharmacist knows me and called me as soon as they came in, he knew I was out. LOL

I was in the actual paper Tuesday, back on page 3 ;) thats me on the left

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s270/jccarolina/msnc.jpg

[rfbdorf]

We had a similar problem a few months ago. Subsequently the pain doc wrote a prescription for an "extra" 2 days to buffer us through any weekend where we were caught short and her office was closed. Of course we couldn't bill that through our insurance, but it was cheap for a little peace of mind.

...is not alone in that you shouldn't go off it cold turkey... My wife nearly died when the hospital misread the amount of a steroid she was taking after her operations & her blood pressure plummeted to the '40s.

- Richard

[wolftrades]

You guys don't know the difference between addiction and depenence.

All of us CP'ers on opiate therapy WILL become dependent. All that means is that if we abruptly stop the med, we suffer withdrawal.

WITHDRAWAL DOES NOT EQUAL ADDICTION!

ADDICTION IS PSYCHOLOGICAL. Addicts take the meds for a high, not for pain. Addicts do not follow Docs' directions. Addicts Doctor shop and buy more meds on the street.

If your quality of life improves on the meds, you are ok.
If the quality of life suffers and you lose your spouse, house and job, then you are an addict.

It sounds to me that you are dependent on ms contin, not addicted.

[David Berg]

You guys don't know the difference between addiction and depenence.

All of us CP'ers on opiate therapy WILL become dependent. All that means is that if we abruptly stop the med, we suffer withdrawal.

WITHDRAWAL DOES NOT EQUAL ADDICTION!

ADDICTION IS PSYCHOLOGICAL. Addicts take the meds for a high, not for pain. Addicts do not follow Docs' directions. Addicts Doctor shop and buy more meds on the street.

If your quality of life improves on the meds, you are ok.
If the quality of life suffers and you lose your spouse, house and job, then you are an addict.

It sounds to me that you are dependent on ms contin, not addicted.
You have a good point. I do understand the difference and perhaps should have pointed it out better, yet again, in my post. Unfortunately, popular culture doesn't see the difference. For example, I enjoy the show House, but it gets under my skin each and every time they make out his need for painkillers as an addiction.

Unfortunately, sometimes people who have a legitimate need for narcotics or other controlled meds have to doctor shop as well. Some doctors have a lot of fear over prescribing controlled meds. Sadly, this fear is not without basis, as we have see from the doctors who have been prosecuted in the past few years. Other docs just don't "get it" when it comes to treating pain. One thing that would help *tremendously* is if there would be a *lot* more formal training in med school on treating pain.

What would help even more is research that would provide a new class of pain meds that is actually effective on neuro pain and doesn't have a street value for addicts, so that doctors don't have to live in fear when they prescribe it. There are some great lines of research out there, but they're badly underfunded.

[LaMemChose]

You guys don't know the difference between addiction and depenence.

All of us CP'ers on opiate therapy WILL become dependent. All that means is that if we abruptly stop the med, we suffer withdrawal.

WITHDRAWAL DOES NOT EQUAL ADDICTION!

ADDICTION IS PSYCHOLOGICAL. Addicts take the meds for a high, not for pain. Addicts do not follow Docs' directions. Addicts Doctor shop and buy more meds on the street.

If your quality of life improves on the meds, you are ok.
If the quality of life suffers and you lose your spouse, house and job, then you are an addict.

It sounds to me that you are dependent on ms contin, not addicted.

Ummmmm, no. I was addicted. I was addicted to oxies and valium and top shelf vodka and anything to numb my brain and soul. After "Betty Fording" myself times two I know the difference in addiction and dependence.

I didn't doc shop. Didn't buy meds on the street. Didn't sell my bod to buy drugs. Hell, my insurance paid for them. Of course, I was on the hook for my expensive vodka habit.

One doesn't have to be a heroin tracked junkie or take illegal substances or even legal ones acquired illegally to be an addict.

I. Was. Addicted.

[jccarolina]

Some doctors have a lot of fear over prescribing controlled meds.

So true and there isn't a doctor just about anywhere you can't go to now a days that wont look at you like "OK another Psudoaddic looking for drugs". The last pain management place my husband had gone to, the doctor ACTUALLY called him a Psudoaddict. Pissed me off :mad: !!! It was the most unethical thing I ever heard a come out of a doctors mouth. If you know anyone who has severe Diabetic Neuropathy, top it off with severe lower back pain, and you know how much pain they can be in. We fired him. Should have filed a complaint to the AMA.

What would help even more is research that would provide a new class of pain meds that is actually effective on Neuro pain
I read an artical in this months USA Action Mag. about treating Neuropathic Pain (http://www.unitedspinal.org/publications/action/2007/03/13/%e2%80%9cburning-searing-excruciating%e2%80%9d-treating-neuropathic-pain/) and it was pretty interesting.

[betheny]

Semantics. If you run out, you're going to go through hell, either way. Sorry you got caught short. They should be required to have someone on call for these situations, imo. It is criminal to make someone suffer for taking a prescribed substance as prescribed by a professional.

Your picture is pretty, jccarolina!

Hey, there is a medicine which is hydrocodone w/out the tylenol, don't know what it is called tho.

[wolftrades]

Funny you should mention House. I'm a huge fan.

At first, House's behavior could have been considered psuedo-addiction which is addiction based on undertreatment of chronic pain. But once he started to steal Wilson's pad and steal oxycodone from a dead man, the truth was revealed. House, by definition, is addicted.

[wolftrades]

Pseudo addiction is not a damaging term. It means that a CP'er is so undermedicated, he does things considered to be done by addicts despite the lack of addiction.

[wolftrades]

Well, you took the meds for the high. So in that regard, you were addicted.

I will stand my definition up against anything a doctor or other expert will say. Most CP'ers find a light switch turning on after reading my definitions.

[wolftrades]

Most medical shows do not differentiate between dpendenc and addiction. In fact, Episode 1-11 on House, "De-tox", sees House telling Foreman that he (House) will not suffer withdrawal symptoms after stopping vicodin for 1 week and that all he will have is more pain. Again, Withdrawal does not equal addiction.

On the other hand, a superb episode of Strong Medicine called "Blush" will be on in the next week of 2. The episode deals perfectly with dependence and addiction as Dr. Liu rx's oxy and hydro to a former addict for RSD.

A great episode...I've seen it before....it is on Lifetime....check your local listings! All CP'ers on opiates and Docs and pharmacists should be forced to watch it!

[reedyd]

I just need to come in and gripe for a bit.

I had a bad feeling last year that I would regret going on this Morphine Sulfate ER.
I swear I have never been addicted to anything in my life until I started I this stuff and I was told that if you don't have an addiction problem you won't go through withdrawal symptoms.
Well, thats a crock of Bull:mad: S:nono: !

My doc was sick when I called for my monthly refill so I had to go without over the weekend and I'm on 120mg a day. So I was miserable last weekend. There wasn't a single nerve in my body that wasn't firing.
It wasn't that way when I was on the Lortab 10, 4 times a day, but because of this damn Hep C I have to be off the Tylenol :mad: . If it ain't one thing it's a frickin' nother.

I made it through the weekend tho by stealing one of my hubby's 75mcg Duragesic patches Sunday morning. I know that's a no-no but, I couldn't stand the pain and lack of sleep anymore and he couldn't stand to see me in tears.

I guess I'm ADDICTED to Morphine NOW!

And if North Carolina wasn't such a tight ass on it's narcotic med laws maybe we could have refills and not run out.
Although I can't gripe there. At least I'm not bound by some contract at some pain management quack place like my husband is who doesn't give a flyin flip about him.
He's stuck at some place who cares more about how much money they can squeeze out of him rather than how they can help with his pain.

OK, this ADDICTS done griping :p
in Texas you can fill a script one week ahead of the refill date. i try to keep a few hid for cases like you are referring too. my doc screwed up recently and called in norco. that stuff makes me dizzy and nauseous did not care for it.
i just found me a new pain management doc he refilled my oxy with no problem he made no remarks about addiction. he told me to let him know if i needed an increase he was very professional.
it is hell to run out . i have learned to be prepared.
i compare it to quitting smoking that's a real fun endeavor also
don't be so hard on yourself you seem to be taking it for the right reasons
Good Luck in the future

[Juke_spin]

One thing that would help *tremendously* is if there would be a *lot* more formal training in med school on treating pain.


Yes, or a mandatory infliction of prolonged pain for all Drs in training, with pain meds periodically available.