Over medicating and quality of life on pain medications?

[Guest guest]

Jim: Are you able to stay awake and function some what normally by taking this

much pain medication. I did meet with Brock's pain doctor yesterday and I asked

him if it was normal to fall a sleep with your head bobbing up and down,

drewling, slurred speach, asking strange questions and saying strange things.

He said no that was not normal and that was indeed a sign of over medicating

your self. I can't seem to get Brock to realize this. I had a very dear friend

pass away in June of 2003 because she over medicated herself by putting on three

morphine patches. Her tolerance to pain medication was also very high as she

suffered from chronic pain since she was 22 years old. Brock seems to think he

is invinsable and that this will not happen to him.

Also every morning when he wakes up at about 10:00 am, he says, I didn't sleep

at all last night. I have a hard time with this, because I see him fall asleep,

in a very deep sleep at around 9:00 pm everynight. He rarely gets up to go to

the bathroom in the night. How can he say that he is tired when he wakes up.

I see him snorring and completely asleep all night long.

Once in a while, he will wake up for a few minutes and tell me that he is

hurting, but then he falls back asleep. I just don't understand, if he is

hurting, how can he sleep. I know I couldn't sleep through the pain of

pancreatitis.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Sam

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[Guest guest]

Hi Sam,

Your situation with Brock is very complicated and I don't feel like I

can comment on his specific actions nor interpret what they

could mean. I am sympathetic with how you feel as well as his

moods and frustration.

I can comment on the throwing-up question based on how I

experience it.....as well as a question in a previous post about

pain and sleeping....

First of all, when I have pretty bad attacks of pancreatitis, usually

the three times that I know of that were acute attacks, I threw-up

violently for the first attack basically around the clock for five days

(I was hospitalized then and the AP was a side effect of my

surgery). The other two times, I was very very nauseated and

tried to force myself to throw up but wasn't able to. The same can

be said when I have attacks from my SOD. Conversely, I have

had two incidents of throwing-up out of the blue - no increasing

nausea, no warning signs at all. The most recent one was last

week when I threw-up in my sleep - the throwing-up woke me -

again no warning at all.

So I guess the answer to the always throwing-up question with

attacks is no, not always, at least in my case. I throw-up when I

am not having an attack....and I don't throw-up when I am. But

what I can say, is that throwing-up is one of the most painful

things that I can do to my pancreas. The intra-abdominal

pressure from forcing the stomach and duodenal contents to

expell is strong - those muscle contractions seem to just

squeeze and twist the pancreas. When I had the flu a few years

back, I thought that I was going to die from the pain of my

pancreas. So his claim of the pain could be " valid " (I hate to use

that terminology because I do not feel that it is appropriate to

judge other people's pain....that that is a very hurtful and cruel

thing that many doctors do). As far as needing to go to the ER

everytime you throw-up....again that depends. Usually one time

vomitting is not in itself an emergency. It takes a big fluid loss to

get critical....as well as the pain that is caused by throwing-up

should be able to be managed by pain pills - I just increase my

dose. However, again, it is hard to lay down any hard and fast

rules...... because vomitting can be traumatic, especially if a

person learns to associate the event with an inevitable

worsening of the condition. In that case, a person may want to

head things off before it gets worse, or be in a " safe " place when

it does get worse. Kinda like a comfort thing - reassurance that

you will be taken care of.

As far as pain and sleeping.....again in my case, I cannot sleep

through any spike of pancreas pain. Even if I increase my pain

med dose or try to knock myself out with Neurontin or other

meds that put me to sleep I am usually unable to even snooze.

The pain is basically too severe to get comfortable, or to let my

mind shut off. In addition, if things get worse during the night

after I have fallen asleep, I always wake up. For me, sleeping

with the pain of pancreatitis is almost impossible. But then,

everyone is different. It is so hard to analyze how people react to

pain and interpreting what is normal or not may not be the best

thing to do, although I understand that you are trying to get a

handle on things so you can help your boyfriend.

I just know that in my case, if I feel that people are trying to judge

my claims to pain...or if I find myself in a contest of who has the

worst pain or the more " legitimate " pain.....that I find myself

getting a little annoyed and if it is a doctor doing the judging.....I

take offense. No doubt that actions speak louder than words,

but when it comes to some textbook idea of what a person in

pain ought to be doing, or saying, or appearing, there is no hard

and fast rules. But again, I understand the purpose behind your

questions so I do not take offense........

Hope this helps a little.

Laurie