Re: Dilaudid Dosage in Medtronics Pain Pump Question

[Guest guest]

>Bill wrote:

>I need help from everyone with an intrathecal pump filled with dilaudid. Two

or three months ago my doctor informed me new research had arrived and my dosage

needed to be cut in half.

>

>I was receiving approximately 8,000 mcg. per day of 10,000 mcg/ml.

>

>I have only had it reduced by about 10% and my quality of life is getting worse

by the day!

>

>Has anybody else heard about this study? Any similar experience?

Bill,

Where to you live? Steve M. Darvon had been recalled and the best

thing to do is sign up with the FDA recall list as they will send

you e-lerts and I am signed up on this. Call your Medtronics representative at

once and ask what is going on.

There is " upper limits' in opiates in " best practices " and the new instructions

by the group called " Interagency Guideline on Opioid Dosing for Chronic

Non-cancer Pain: " and they give there presentations to primary care doctors and

although they state they cannot refuse patients for taking amounts they have

specified as not best practices and the amounts they stated are not even what

the company posts

If it were up to them, you cannot take over 120mg Morphine even if it was time

doses over a twenty for hour period which is less than 10mg an hour.

Check out their site and they are passing the worked and I am sure Insurance is

jumping on and only those cancer patients get the high opiates, boy crushed

lumbar spines and sacral iliac joints just have to deal with it.

http://www.agencymeddirectors.wa.gov/about.asp

I use my pain diary, my alternate treatment and will just die if I have no plan

relief so I hope that the Directors of this Site know how much trouble they

cause and patients monitored with lab tests can safely take opiates and they are

making myths of everything research has based their clarity on.

Here we go again. They state they want to prevent Oxycontin misuse but that is

the addicts no pain patients.

Bennie

[Guest guest]

Hello Bennie and Bill,

I have to apologize for being so scarce, but I have been dealing with a broken

olecranon (tip of the ulna at the apex of the elbow) and two failed surgeries to

fix it. I just had cataract surgery too so at least I can see to type again.

Please accept my apologies.

That said, now down to business. I am on high dose morphine. If they

limited my dose to 120 mg/day I would experience heavy withdrawal

symptoms and agonizing pain. My dose of morphine is more than 3 times

their maximum recommended dose! I just don't understand how someone as educated

as an M.D. can think in such narrow terms with blanket

recommendations for people who are very different from each other.

Needless to say I have seen this many times before. I am amazed that

this kind of thinking still goes on. Every one is different and blanket rules

are not effective.

I am on high doses of every drug I take. I take twice the recommended dose of

two anti-hypertensive drugs. I even take two of my flexaril before bed. It seems

nothing works on me until the dose becomes maxed out. Let me state that I am NOT

an addict. I hate taking these drugs, all of them. If I could get by without

them I would be the happiest man on earth. There is nothing I enjoy about having

to take ANY meds but I am dependent on my hi blood pressure meds just like I am

on my pain meds. Since there is no " cure " in the works for me I know I will

never stop taking these drugs. The point I want to express is that I would

almost certainly end up totally non functional and living an unbearable life if

those guidelines were imposed on everyone.

Yes Bennie you are right, this IS just the sort of thing that we have to oppose.

It is short sighted, based in guesswork and opinion, NOT FACTS. It seems that

every time I start to think the stigma is becoming rare I find it alive and well

in short sighted people.

A few years ago I was interviewed by a newspaper reporter, and featured in his

story about chronic pain treatment in America. During the interview he said

something that I would never have guessed. He said that most people are jealous!

They feel that we are getting special treatment and that we are enjoying our

drug use. Of course nothing could be further from the truth, but that is how

people think.

So we have to deal with short sighted doctors, and as if that weren't enough,

the jealous public who just don't understand that pain is a dangerous disease

that kills people, and ruins lives. It is up to US to educate those people and

doctors/nurses too.

It would be nice if all I had to do was put up with pain and not be forced to

deal with jealousy and ignorance. It is hard enough without all of the stupid

politics. This is the world we live in folks. I hope our grandchildren won't

have to put up with the same madness as we have. Somehow I am not optimistic.

Have a painfree day everyone,

in Alabama

> Bennie wrote:

> There is " upper limits' in opiates in " best practices " and the new

> instructions by the group called " Interagency Guideline on Opioid

> Dosing for Chronic Non-cancer Pain: "