OK Folks. You will find that I am not a person to mince my words, but I can also be a comfort to someone in need.
About Discontinuing Pain Medication.
Let's get real and stop rolling reality in powered sugar. WE ARE HAVING TO ACCEPT THE FACT THAT WITH THE PAIN OF LUPUS-IT SENDS YOU IMMEDIATELY ON THE PATH OF ADDICTION. Period, I said that.
People by nature, get to a point to where 1-2 every 3-4 hours can very rapidly and suprisingly approach to taking 3-4 every 3 hours to taking 3-4 every 2 hours to taking 4-6 every 2 hours.
Addiction is, in a whole and in it's self, is a disease that tries to kill you. Do NOT attempt to stop taking hydrocode on your own. Go to your doc, or public health office, and they have a way to wean you off of the medication within 7 days. Stopping medication such as this is VERY dangerous! You can suffer an elepic siesure, total body organs stutting down (AND HOURS IS ON THE VERGE OF THAT AS IS!) You can (as I did) have your entire Urinary tract-to include your kidneys shut down and not respond to the 7 day treatment that usually funtions on its own.
Simply put, as they say on TV, is DO NOT ATTEMPT detox at home.
Judi, thanx for your info and thoughts on Hydrocodone... scary but true..unfortunately, without it, i am unable to function...i am also afraid of addiction since i've been on it for ~10 years... i guess that might make a difference..i try to stay on a schedule..but i feel my body needing it if i get behind schedule...the creepy crawlers come out...i hate that, and i know its a sign that i am addicted probably... but, again without it.. i have no life.. amy
Ok. This now leads me to my next concern. Although I am on my way to work, I just had to join in on this. I have been taking them for a year now. When I do wean off, I feel ok for the first few days into a week. Then I begin to feel ill again. Ill, because I am? or Ill, because I am no longer taking the pills. I am afraid to mention this to my MD. Any of them as a matter of fact. I get scared when Dr. Drew says you cant go off of them by yourself and would probably need rehab. I dont take that much, but, it is beginning to increase with time. Generic perhaps? I feel these are like Advil anyway. I was taking six to eight Advil per day. Over time from two. Now, I see I have gone from one pill to three per day. I am worried.
Thank you JC...I want to get a handle on this before it becomes a problem. I would hate to add that to the pile!
John "JC" Colyer said:
This 1st step s recognizing there is an issue, good for you . Next reaching out for help , don't try alone. Everyone has a different approach, just keep trying, stay strong!
JeanJeanne said:
Ok. This now leads me to my next concern. Although I am on my way to work, I just had to join in on this. I have been taking them for a year now. When I do wean off, I feel ok for the first few days into a week. Then I begin to feel ill again. Ill, because I am? or Ill, because I am no longer taking the pills. I am afraid to mention this to my MD. Any of them as a matter of fact. I get scared when Dr. Drew says you cant go off of them by yourself and would probably need rehab. I dont take that much, but, it is beginning to increase with time. Generic perhaps? I feel these are like Advil anyway. I was taking six to eight Advil per day. Over time from two. Now, I see I have gone from one pill to three per day. I am worried.
Thank you Ann. I need a team. I need physical therapy of some kind. I joined the gym, but ended up inuring my shoulder. I didnt like going by myself and living in New York, no one talks to you. I am not from here and very social. I made an appointment with a pain management MD. After three hours, I left crying. They were horrible. Tested me for drugs without my permission. Call me naive, but I had no idea percocet was such a problem. Seriously. Now, when a legitimate person comes along looking for help, they cant tell the difference. I was in so much pain it was unbearable. It turned out that my body was in shock from abruptly stopping a medicine that I had been taking since 1997. Who would have thought a regular little pill that caused me no problems, would be such a problem. When I refilled the medicine, took it, within an hour or so, the pain was gone. I figured it out myself.
And, I am going to take your advice and inquire about some other forms of help.
Ann A. said:
Dear JeanJeanne,
Before I started taking hydrocodone I went to see my favorite psychiatrist and talked to him about my concerns. Since my mother was an alcoholic and so were all but one of her brothers, I was positive that I had been born with the genetic potential for addiction. He referred me to a clinical social worker who specializes in teaching people nondrug ways of coping with pain and anxiety. They laughed at me, saying that they usually saw people after they had become addicted and were trying to get off prescription meds. I think that using the techniques she taught me helped to keep my dosage from escalating over the years. What she taught me has also been useful in helping me to discontinue the small dosage of hydrocodone that I was taking without needing to go to a rehab facility for detox. And of course, I have also been seeing a pain management psychologist. She is employed by the same physical rehabilitation hospital as my pain management physician and my physical therapists. They are all important members of my health care team.
If you are afraid to discuss these concerns with your MD, you might consider discussing them with a well qualified mental health professional. Over the past month, I have had to deal with the very question that you asked. I was able to draw upon what I learned from these professionals to find the answer that was specific to me. These guys specialize in helping us with our worries.
I wish you the best of luck in deciding what is best for you but strongly recommend that you speak with a professional sooner rather than later.
Hi Amy just wanted to say that i am totally with you in understanding this, i too hate the thought of being addicted but the thought of living my life in the pain i was in is much worse, its a no win situation and we must all do what we need to do, each one as different as the next, thank you for being here and thinking of you.
Amy H said:
Judi, thanx for your info and thoughts on Hydrocodone... scary but true..unfortunately, without it, i am unable to function...i am also afraid of addiction since i've been on it for ~10 years... i guess that might make a difference..i try to stay on a schedule..but i feel my body needing it if i get behind schedule...the creepy crawlers come out...i hate that, and i know its a sign that i am addicted probably... but, again without it.. i have no life.. amy
Hi Jon, and thankyou for your reply...i am on my own here and its nice to know someone understands the proper medical use for pain relievers...i would be a veg without them...i thinki read somewhere that your wife said you have 7 kids! wow! you're so lucky to have a loving family, i hope they take good care of you! xoxo amy
I was in terrible pain last fall with adhesions and other things. I couldn't function with out percocet, and I am grateful that the doctors didn't make me suffer. However, my physicians warned me about the seriousness of addiction, which I wasn't concerned about. I just needed to get through until I could have surgery to solve the problem. Then I found out about Lupus. I still have residual pain, but I can tell that it is improving. I told the pain med. Dr. that i only needed 2 per day, though he was going to go ahead and prescribe my regular 3. He told me I was doing a great job and that felt good. I had been taking more than prescribed for a time, and I don't want to have problems coming off of it. My only worry is that I feel so horrible in the morning, I don't know how I will get out of bed without it. I think that's going to be the hardest-but I know that a slow taper; breaking the pills in half is the best way to go.
JON I'm so glad you said that. MY OPINION WILL NOT BE POPULAR HERE. JUDI, I love you and this is nothing personal, it's just my attempt to insert some education about a VERY misunderstood problem that has made most of our lives pure hell when the doctors don't even understand. Most people who commented here so far seem to think that if a person is put on pain medicine, they will automatically be addicts! It's not true! If a person has the body chemistry that makes them easily addicted to anything, even cleaning or eating, or any obsessive-compulsive behavior, then those people will have to be extra diligent when they need pain meds for a surgery or something. But the statistics say that only FOUR PERCENT of people in serious chronic pain actually get addicted! You WILL become physically dependent on the drug, so that your body gets used to functioning with the drug in your system, and when you try to quit, you get the cramps, diarrhea, and everything else. ADDICTION means that a person gets high from the drug, and they take more and more, can't get enough, abuse their prescription, can't wait until the next pill, go from Dr. to Dr., try to buy them illegally on the black market. Most people in serious chronic pain are VERY obedient/good with their prescriptions. They take less than prescribed, they don't crave more and more, they don't seek multiple prescriptions for the drug or seek it illegally. They don't even get high from the medicine. All it does for them is neutralize the pain. My mother and I are 2 such patients. I have never felt high in my life. I only tasted alcohol one hour of my life, I tried to get drunk, and my body would not do it. I just don't have the addictive body chemistry. It makes me crazy when doctors assume that because I am on strong pain meds, I am an addict! My heart stops due to my pain, so I was given this medicine to keep me alive and try to prevent pain getting bad enough to make my heart stop. So what's worse? Being physically dependent on something that helps me, or dying from pain? Pain itself can cause a whole host of long-term, damaging symptoms. I’m sorry if a few of you here agree with the opinion that any chronic pain is a fast track to addiction...because for 96% of people, it’s NOT! Going through withdrawal does NOT mean you are addicted, it means your body is DEPENDENT on it. If anyone IS getting high on their meds, the Dr. needs to change meds or lower the dosage or combine a lower dose of that medicine with a different medication so you don’t get high anymore, so it just helps the pain. Even doctors are only taught HALF A DAY about pain medicine and addiction in medical school. Even THEY don't know the difference between addiction and dependence, and decide that anyone who takes those meds are addicts...and treats them like criminals. The only thing we are addicted to is being able to think and function with less pain! IMHO! (In My Humble Opinion).
Well Said, Ann! They are a blessing when we need them, and it's wonderful when we can lower our dosage when we don't need them, and because you did want to lower your dosage and go off, shows that you do not have an addiction, because addicts would keep wanting more just to get high. So you are proof that the majority of people on opiates don't get addicted. I'm so happy for you that you didn't have any withdrawal symptoms, but then just 5 mg. is almost nothing anyway.
Sheila
Ann A. said:
I too support opiates for pain management. I am very glad that at this stage in my life my pain level has declined to such a low level that I do not currently need opiates to manage my pain. The fact that I was using the opiates as prescribed and lowered the dosage every time my pain level went down is why over the month of May I was simply able to stop taking them with no problems and no detox program required. I wasn't sugar coating anything. I was simply telling my story as it played out.
If my pain level goes back up, I will go back to the opioid medications. I know that medical dependency is not addiction.
First, I would like to say I love your name, cause I loved jujube's when I was little! Second, I went through the demylination process and it lasted six months. It was horrible. If I can say this, it was like I was tripping for six months. They did not know if it was caused by the West Nile Virus or onset Lupus. Although I was not in serious pain eight years ago when it happened, I suffered with chronic fatigue endlessly. I took advil for my pain when it started and when it reached eight a day, I asked for pain meds. But that was after eight years. When I run out of the pain meds, the body pain is so severe that I want to "die." I recently had to ween myself off so I can determine what this pain is. As of today, I took Advil. We will see how the day goes. Tomorrow I will see my MD and tell her that I want to start to stop taking these. Fill in with Advil and on bad days take pain meds. I was up to 30 mg per day and got very upset and weened down to 5. I think I did it too fast, but I dont want to add addiction to the list of problems.
So, Jujubee, I just wanted to say thank you for telling me that the pain comes from the demylination of the nerves in my brain. Eight years searching for an answer and I find out here. It is bilateral, on both sides. I was lucky enough to finish my masters during that time, so my thinking portion of the brain is ok. Now I truely understand. When I attempted to research this years ago I became overwhelmed and stopped.
Have a wonderful, beautiful day!
jujubeee said:
I'm with Sheila here, which is why I stopped mostly responding to this thread. Judi, I love ya, and I feel for all addicts, I'm very sympathetic to your plight, but the truth of the matter is that the majority of people on pain medications DO NOT ABUSE THEM and ARE NOT ADDICTED TO THEM.
This is a FACT!
IMO opiates have saved my life more than once. When you lead a life full of chronic pain from conditions like the ones Sheila and I and many people experience, trigeminal neuralgia and nerve damage., they are necessary. The kind of pain we experience is enough to physically STOP YOUR HEART.
Trigeminal neuralgia, aka, tic delouroux is considered to be the most painful condition known to man and is nicknamed the suicide disease. Enough said.
It is relevant here because it can be caused by LUPUS doing damage to the cranial nerves destroying the myelin sheath (sort of like what happens in MS) and the inflammatory process.
PAIN IS RELATIVE, what is devastating to one is not to another and visa versa.
I support Sheila and I support Jon and I support opiates for pain management.