Re: Withdrawals and DT

[Guest guest]

I'm so sorry for what you are going through Kris. 

I know it's a pain (sorry for the pun) to have to think about starting over with

a new doctor but no one should have to go through the pain that you are right

now without help. 

If you have chronic pain then what good will it do to reduce or take away your

meds?  That just going to make you miserable.  I would find another doctor, as

Kaylene said, and I'd do it today!

Robyn

Kris wrote:

I am going through hell right now. I have been too afraid to call the Dr.,

because he has capitalized the fact that I am an addict and that they want to

get me off the meds altogether (which is a joke since my condition is chronic

and degenerative and is not going to get better on it's own.)

[Guest guest]

Kris,

You will get through it. After a couple of experiences with

withdrawls, I still say that if you need the narcotics it is better

to take them with Rx from a responsible doc.

Kaylene is right.

My method was to break the tabs (don't do that to oxycontin if it is

timed release), and take the minimum more often instead of a full

dose just to make it through awhile. That way, there is not so much

fluctuation of the strength of the med and your body gets used to the

lower dose.

Then, stretch out the time between doses. Luckily, I had enough to stretch it

out three weeks. Sure, sometimes it was bad, but not so bad as trying to quit

quickly.

Cheers,

Alan

Raleigh, NC

Kris wrote:

>

> >

> If you have never taken narcotics for pain, I recommend staying

away from them as long as possible.

[Guest guest]

Kris, I'm going to cover a lot of material in this response and I

hope something in it will be useful.

Grasp these princiles and hold on to them, first and foremost you're

a human being with chronic pain, that at the moment requires opioid

based madications that are extremely powerful and can cause physical

dependency.

Having a health issue of any kind is not something any of us choose

to make, managing our health issues takes hard work and sometimes

tough choices.

The three main issues in body of your post if I am reading them right

are chronic pain, amounts of prescription medication being ingested

beyond the prescribed amounts, and uncertainty of your doctor and how

he would react if you told him how much medication you were taking

beyond the amounts he prescribed for your pain.

In order to get your current state of medicating under control and

reduce the dosage back down to the prescribed level, clear thinking

and rational decisions have to be made.

The first decision has to be, do you want to get better?

Once you decide that you want to get better, do the right things for

the right reasons.

I would stop with the " I'm an addict " pattern of thinking completely

and start with the positive " I have chronic pain " and " I am in

control " .

Before you see your doctor, get a note pad and write down what it is

you have concerns about and the goals you would like to achieve with

your current state of health.

Let you doctor know that you are will to and will work with him, this

will help build the doctor/patient relationship.

His attitude towards you will change to a positive one as he see

progress towards recovery in your health.

Arm yourself with knowledge, think of things you can do to relax and

rationalize what needs to be done and how to do them.

Use the resources available to you to work through the problem areas,

and set aside some time to be good to yourself.

A journal can help sort out your thoughts both positive and negetive.

Jot down some short notes throughout the day and they will help you

get past the tough moments, don't forget to write in a goal to reach

for. It doesn't have to be big, just something to help you move

forward towards managing your health issues.

If you stumble when working towards your goal, keep trying and don't

give up.

There's an answer somewhere to every problem, and it's possible to

manage whatever you are going through within reason.

[Guest guest]

Good post, excellent advice comes from those who have " been there " .

[Guest guest]

Just to update on my last post, last night was really pretty bad with the DTs,

but I called the Docs today and they believe I was just having reactions to the

meds since they don't know I'd been taking too many pills to ease my pain and

was left running on empty at the end, so I let them believe that, and they

switched me back to morphine, which I am getting tomorrow night.

I still plan on talking to my regular care Doc about taking over so I can get on

the RIGHT dose of Oxy and live a little more normally, whatever normal is.

Thank you all for your concern and advice, and I hope you are all doing well!

~*Kris

[Guest guest]

Well, that's the problem, trying to work with my Dr., because if I did what he

wanted, I wouldn't be taking any meds right now and I'd be bedridden and gaining

even more weight which causes a vicious circle of pain and worsening condition

from the weight.

They believe I am an addict and should be taken off the meds, they don't think

my back condition is severe enough to warrant high doses, and they don't take

into account the fact that I become very tolerant to the meds quicker than most

people.

So it's unrealistic to expect me to stay on the same low dose for years and

years while they are not offering me any other solutions to stop the pain.

I have told them the minimum dose I can take and still be able to function

enough to live, and usually they are not happy with that. For instance, they let

me take 60mg morphine 3x a day, so I usually take 90mg in the morning and

60-90mg at night, because 60mg rarely helps enough of the pain for me to do much

work.

However, when I told them I wanted to switch to Oxy, but I needed it to be at

120mg twice a day, they would not accept that. Before I was seeing him, I was on

160mg Oxy twice a day, but they refused to even go near that dose, and instead

told me they would put me on the 'equivilent' dose of Oxy to the dose of

Morphine I was on, so they put me on a minimal dose of 40mg Oxy 3x a day, and

after having been taking 90mg Morphine twice a day, this low dose of Oxy just

did nothing for me, and this is what caused the DTs.

I have only been thinking myself an addict because it's what everyone has always

told me. That if I have withdrawals that bad when stopping the meds, I am

clearly an addict. If I need/want to take more than prescribed so I can do

things like going shopping or house cleaning, then I am abusing the meds and am

clearly an addict.

I do know that if I were over 60 years old or so, they would not tell me I am an

addict, they would give me enough meds to keep me comfortable until I die. But

because I'm not yet 25 years old, they assume I am just a druggie, and they

don't take into account that messing with me and keeping this kind of control

over my life and cutting me short of meds like that makes me depressed and

suicidal because of the severe pain and the agony of the withdrawals.

So I am going to have to see if my regular Dr. (please god) will take over my

meds care again and give me what I need to begin living somewhat of a life so

maybe I can lose some weight and maybe even some day get a job and a car!

Keep your fingers crossed and I wish you all a good day!

~*Kris

wrote:

Let you doctor know that you are will to and will work with him, this

will help build the doctor/patient relationship.

His attitude towards you will change to a positive one as he see

progress towards recovery in your health.

[Guest guest]

Physical dependency has nothing to do with addiction. If the drugs improve your

life and make it possible to function better or be in less pain you are probably

not an addict.

One thing that is a red flag to doctors that you are doing is asking for

specific meds and specific doses. Let the doctor decide what to give you and

then tell him or her when it's not working.

Concentrate on describing your symptoms and not the drugs you want. Or if you

have been down this road with a doctor you trust you can tell that doctor

" Remember when? "

Otherwise you just need to keep going in and tellng them what they ARE doing

isn't working and they need to change it. Let them decide what to change it to.

At every appointment while you are having your meds titrated, which means

finding the right dose, ask the doctor how long you should wait to see if it's

working and make the next appointment then.

Approach this as a little more of an experiment than just a smorgasboard.

" Sweet Goat Mama "

Carolyn Eddy

www.goattracksmagazine.com

[Guest guest]

Hello every one

It has been a long time.

Speaking of withdrawls and DT's, My doctor or his nurse put the wrong date on my

refill perscription so I had to make it for 2 days with nothing. I am on 250

mcg/hr fentenal with 30mg morphine sulphate as needed for bbreak through.

By the second day I was hurting so bad I was throwing up. I could not function

at all. I never want to go through that again. I got the meds this morning and

it took almost 6 hours for the pain and nausea to subside.

I wish every one a pain free day

Bill