On this long journey of finding pain relief something other than the pain has been hard. Dealing with the fact that to function day to day I need to take narcotics to get just about anything done. Why is that hard you ask? I have a reason right? Try having the pharmacy tech stare at you like a druggie. You can read their mind. ( You look ok to me) Or when you show up at your PM office to pick up your refill. ( narcotics cannot be called in) Am I paranoid? Maybe so. Maybe it comes from being on the other side of the table too.
Working in the dental field for as long as I did you see plenty people sit in your chair with perfect teeth, yet they swear they have a tooth killing them. They come in with the towel and shed some tears. Those tears easily flow because they know how their body will react when we say NO to their Rx request. You learn quickly all the signs. They usually know just what kind they need. They ask for it by name without you mentioning pain medication. I'm sure lots of other kinds of doctors office and the ER see it also. The last doctor I worked for had a strict rule. No treatment, no Rx. and I rarely saw him break it.
I mentioned in my last post that I discussed with my doctor coming off of my pain medications. Let me update you on how long I've taken it. From surgery, June 09 until current. Before I took more ibuprofen at a time that you should, but I never once asked for pain medicine or was I offered any. I used the pool, acupuncture, and anti inflammatory's. I went home from the hospital with a full bottle of Percocet. I hated it, it kept me up all night, made me throw up and feel foggy. At my 10 day post op check when I complained of this, I was given Ambien to sleep and phenergan for the nausea. I'd battled insomnia for years so I LOVED the Ambien. At 3 month check he said, lets ween you off this pain medicine. Great, I was ready. But I had a lot of flare ups and still at one year I was hurting. (your can read about this in posts before May 16th) Just the time I'd be off I'd have to use them again.
At one year when I saw someone for a second opinion I hadn't taken any narcotic for one month and he gave me a script for Lortab. Don't be scared to take this if you need it he told me. How many are you taking a day? Before a month ago 1 a day. That's not a lot he told me. Don't let your pain get out of control, take it before you start to hurt. Did I listen, nope. Why? Because I was so scared to get hooked on taking them. I'd read so much bad stuff about opioids. I've since learned the difference and understand being dependent and being addicted.
Fast forward to 2 years after surgery and I was definitely taking two a day. One in the morning and one when I got home from work. If not I had to stay in bed and get nothing done or see anyone at my home. At close to the 3 year mark I had sinus surgery and took more than regular dose but that is how the ENT wrote it for relief for up to 72 hours after surgery. I only used it that way for 24. I was impressed to see her contact my pain management doctor and ask his permission to give me pain relievers for my surgery. She respected the fact that he was my controlling my dosage of it.
By year three I was up to 3. A few months before I lost my dad (May of 2011) I had bumped up to three because I just couldn't finish my afternoon at work without it. Even though I came home at lunch EVERY day ( I lived less than 2 miles from my office) and skipped lunch and rested in bed to make it through the afternoon. I was also have a lot of pain in my left leg that caused me to limp which exacerbated my back pain.( How I started going through trying the Lyrica, Cymbalta, and Savella.) I've been on 3 a day since then. The only other time I've taken more again was after this SCS implant surgery. For the first 2 days I took 4 a day. A fourth one at bedtime. Mainly because it was so painful for my implant area to be touched and it was impossible not to lying in the bed.
So what's my point? The letter I inserted below I ran across when researching what it would be like to quit cold turkey. She writes about just how I felt at times. Still, all this time I was feeling bad about having to take it. Not wanting my co-workers or friends and family to know I had to take pain medications to function. I just assumed they'd think I was addicted. Especially since "I don't look sick" I was amazed to find the out poor of people who had been through quitting "cold turkey" because they didn't want to do the long drawn out tapering. I found lots of advise of what to have around for the all over death, flu like symptoms you will have. Lot's of sweating, diarrhea ( have something for hydration) and no sleeping.
I asked my doctor about doing this last week. He said tapering would be better, but it would't kill me. I'd just feel like I wanted to die. (some meds will, please make sure to discuss with your doctor before quitting any prescription medications. some can be really dangerous) He thought my dosage was fairly low, he even gave me a comparison to what some of his patients take and I was in shock. How could they not over dose. If you search on detoxing from opioids you will see forums of people who take up to 25 a day. There is your addict.
So why do I want to do it and why do I want to just go "cold turkey"? First question, I have often wondered if your body is dependent on the medication could it be causing some of the pain I feel other than the back pain. I asked my rheumatologist about this last year and he said that what he could tell me is that some of the medications I was taking and have taken in the past taken with a narcotic could actually cause pain additional pain. Lyrica, Cymbalta, Savella. They all have several things they are prescribed for but they help with nerve pain too so maybe that's what he was talking about? But it stuck with me and I've wondered every since. I tried several times to not take it and I could, I didn't feel a craving for it like an addict but I was dependent in the sense that I was bed ridden without it. My pain had been covered so long I couldn't function with level 10 pain without it. It doesn't really make it go away, it just takes the edge off. I don't know how I kept working for so long with only taking one in the morning because I was definitely hurting that bad then.
Second question, it would take 2-3 weeks to taper properly. I hope to be out of the recovering stage by then and hopefully by 3 months Mr. R will have a better program for me that covers right area. (thats another post for next time, I'm really bummed about that) While I'm home already and still resting and recovering I want to just fight it out. 4-5 days max and it will all be over. I did the same with Ambien. I was dumb to do it because I didn't ask my doctor and didn't read up on it until after I stopped taking it and found out what was wrong with me. It was a super shock to my body. I had brain zaps and creepy crawling tingling in my legs. 4 nights straight with no sleep. 10 days before it was completely out of my system.
I had read that an Ambien side effect could be back pain. I was willing to try anything to get rid of the pain. What if that what had started the "different" back pain after surgery. I had to try. It was definitely advised not to do it that way. I honestly don't think it will be any worse than that experience was. Just keep me in your prayers. I don't expect it to be easy. I have to see for myself if I can manage my pain with out them or at least just use them for break through pain. If I can't well, then I except that and know the facts for sure.
My plan is to drop to two days of two and two days of one then 0 until I'm not detoxing any longer. So I started this plan yesterday. Only two. At 2pm my back was on fire and felt like it would break, ( I usually take 2rd at 1) I took 2 ibuprofen and held off until 8. I think I'd have done better to take second at 6 so my body didn't go so many hours without because I started feeling pretty sick last night. It lasted from 6:30 until 2 hours after I took second Lortab. Today I took am and second at 6. Just feeling a little flu like. Not to terrible. The real test is have only one tomorrow. I discussed with my husband last night and he thinks I always believe the worst about everything. "you shouldn't believe everything your read" I don't look at that way, I'm just prepared for the worst. Hope for the best. He hasn't all that I have on coming off of narcotics. I could write a book on what I've learned. So could many of my readers who suffer with chronic pain also. Any how, if you've taken the time to read this long post, take a little more to read the letter below it could help you if you need the material.
I copied this from a newsletter I receive called "Dominie's Newsletter" dated November 1, 2006 written for people with Fibromyalgia, CFS, &/or M.E. Well this article could pretain to anyone in severe pain. I not only have RSD, but also Fibromyalgia & Sjogren's Syndrome. I have read concern from members here & from other websites in the past about how we, who take powerful pain medications for severe pain &/or how some of us are scared to take powerful pain medications for fear of addiction or what other people will/would think of us, including our own Doctors. Well Dominie was sent this from another reader of her website/newsletter, who was not named or I would give that person complete credit for what she wrote, on this specific subject. The drug that she is talking about is Oxycontin. But this could pretain to any opiate/narcotic that anyone of us may take for RSD pain.
"People don't become addicted to oxycontin in three days. It just does not happen that fast. Talk to any medical specialist (doctor, nurse, pharmacist) and they will tell you. Yes, after two weeks if you stop cold turkey, you will have withdrawal symptoms. You should NEVER stop a medication like that cold turkey, but that does not mean the medicine is addictive. You should not stop heart medication cold turkey, you should not stop diabetes meds cold turkey, you should not stop steroids cold turkey because you will have side effects if you do. Some can be dangeorus. But you don't hear anyone say they are addicted to heart medicine! Withdrawal symptoms means your body has become accustomed to having the drug in your system, but that is NOT addiction.
You should take great care with ANY medicine and should know the facts, potential side effects, potential problems with other medicines, etc. We must take responsibility for what we put in our bodies. But we should not shy away from pain medicine if it will help us function, particularly if the pain is severe and nothing else helps. Side effects from stopping a medication can be avoided altogether or greatly reduced if you do so according to directions and oxycontin is one you do not stop cold turkey w/o side effects.
As for oxycontin being an abused street drug, yes it is one of many drugs used by junkies. NOT because it is highly addictive but because it is a time-released pill and when you crush it, you get the entire dose at one time. This gets a person very high. It is also extremely dangerous, particularly with the higher dose tablets. The tablets most people are given for pain are the lower dose ones. You only get the higher dose ones when you have something like cancer and only after you work your way up to the higher amounts. When taken properly for pain control, oxycontin is no more addictive than any other pain medicine (i.e. the % are very low). The only reason oxycontin is sought out by street junkies more than some others is the slow-release aspect giving them a bigger high. When taken as directed for pain control, a person doesn't even get a mild buzz from it once your body adapts to the side effects.
If taken properly, pain medicine can be extremely beneficial. Of course if there is a natural remedy that works I would take that before I would take a prescription drug. But sometimes you need prescription medicines. The main thing people need to do is research. Don't put something in your body until you have read, read, read and know all there is to know about it. Some people think just because a doctor writes a prescription, it must be safe and that is a very dangerous mindset. Just as it is dangerous to assume that just because something is sold over the counter, it must be safe. Even water, taken in excess, can kill. Too much water in a short period of time will throw off your electrolytes and cause your brain to swell and you can die.
It frustrates us when the medical community poo-pahs natural remedies, esp. when we know they work. But there are people in the natural healing arena that can be just as close-minded by only accepting natural remedies and refusing to even consider prescription meds. For me, I take natural remedies 99% of the time, but there is that 1% I take that isn't.
I don't think anyone should take opiates lightly, but I also don't think they should be scared out of taking them because there are people that use them on the street to get high. There are people who use pseudoephedrine to make crystal meth, but that doesn't mean people with a runny nose shouldn't take a decongestant. There are people who sniff glue to get high, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be allowed to use glue. It's all in using it for its intended purpose correctly.
It is hard enough to have a disease people make fun of and disbelieve. We shouldn't also have to deal with the stigma of being a "drug addict" when we take pain medicine. People who take insulin for diabetes aren't bad-mouthed. People who take heart medicine or anti-seizures meds aren't made to feel bad for it. Why do so many sit in judgment of those who must take pain medicine?
If you find yourself taking more medicine than prescribed, if you find yourself doing whatever it takes to get more and more drugs (stealing your doctor's prescription pad, buying them illegally over the internet, stealing them from people's medicine cabinets, seeing more than one doctor to get more meds), then you have a problem and should seek help. But if you are taking the medicine as prescribed to control severe pain you cannot control with anything else, then don't let others make you feel guilty for doing so. And don't let others scare you into avoiding them."
I hope this was/is helpful to atleast one person out there. If you would be interested in her website you can find it here:
http://www.fms-help.com/
By the way, my mom has fibromyalgia and my rheumatologist told me four years ago I had many of the 18 pressure points a fibromyalgia patient can have. Even though I didn't have all of them he believed after seeing me for several long visits that I had beginning stages. I still see him because all of those areas I saw him for to begin with still hurt, especially when my back flares at its worst.
I mention in an earlier post before surgery about someone stating that doctors give the diagnosis of fibromyalgia to crazy people who they can't find anything else wrong with. If he only knew how painful fibromyalgia really is. For years there was no treatment for it. My mom also has RLS which there was not treatment for when my mother first starting having severe symptoms. They gave her medication that was given to Parkinson patients. Now they have drugs that work better, same as fibromyalgia, but its a long road to find the correct one for some people.
Some days I just want to get off of everything I take and see how I'd be then. I do believe in medications, but when you still feel the same taking them I really don't see the point. That is one reason I'd like to get off of the Lortab if I can tolerate the back pain with my stimulator then maybe the Savella will work for my other symptoms better.
Sorry to be so long, but it is not a topic to write a little about and express yourself. I guess you'll know how I'm doing by how long it is before you see another post.
Wish everyone hurting a pain free day.
God Bless
No comments:
Post a Comment