Advice please

[oops777]

I have had cancer twice since 2002, since this ive done all the treatments etc and im cancerfree, but during all the test for the cancers it was also discovered i had herniated disc's, end stage osteocrinoss in my ankles and osteo arthitis in many parts of my body, so with all this i was removed fromt he work force im now 52. I found over the last few days i was feeling the worst i had ever felt in my life being on 30mg of morphine and also percocerts. I stopped taking the morphine and wowsers this is my 4th day im still taking the perks, but you talk about withdrawl. I hope some-one can relate to this as it is worse then anything ive been threw. Is there any easy way to get threw this and how long will i suffer, I want to get off these damn pills totally they are not helping me at all. You are kinda damned if ya do and damned if ya dont here, but i would much rather have the pain then suffer with withdrawl, I do however find that taking hot baths helps with alot and find great comfort in it, but im still not eating and still not getting more then 2 hours of sleep,,,,thanks for reading

[oops777]

hello and thank-you no ive not heard of NIAMS is it in canada, im so full of arthritis and some of it is end stage, im so glad i found this site to get some answers and relief i just feel the DR's only give you pills and out the office door you go, when you want to talk to them they i feel think all you want is more or different pills which is not the case at all,,,,thanks

[Mom4Peace]

Did you ever contact NIAMS? (National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases)

[oops777]

awww shucks thanks so much for listening to me i feel like such a blabbling fool these days. I never wanted any of these health issues nor did i ever want to be on these damn pills, but now im there victum and man the withdrawl is far worse then the pain,,,,so really how much can we tolerate, at 52 im not wanting to go down this road good lord. I do have an appt with family DR in hopes she can help me instead of giving me pills and not fixing the problem,,,im finding after all these years that so many DR'S dont seem to be caring like they were a few yrs back, there was a time they fixed problems now your luckey if you can even get an MRI in less then a yr. But bottom line im also am sick of being the pill victum,,,thanks moon

[moonshyne777]

I have spinal stenosis and find that hot baths help immensely. Some mornings I need to head straight to the tub just to be able to move around some. I am also addicted to pain pills. My doc (drug of choice) is oxycontin and I am trying to figure out the best way out. My suggestion would be to find a doctor who specializes in both addiction AND pain management. They do exist and I have an appointment booked to see one next week. I went cold turkey last June and lasted about 2 months but the pain got the best of me. However I dont think 2 months was enough time without the drugs to seriously see what my baseline for pain is. I wish I had stuck it out even another month or two before giving in and returning to pain killers. I fooled myself into thinking I could take oxys as prescribed and of course I couldn't, I took them for about 2 weeks as prescribed before my addict self kicked in and demanded more, more more. Now months later I am trying to figure out the best way. I had considered methadone but now after researching I think using methadone would be overkill for my 100 mg a day habit, not to mention how I've read that it is waaay harder to kick then oxys. I have also considered using Subutex, often considered the lesser of the evils between that and methadone. Most of what I've read says that subutex doesnt make you as mentally cloudy as methadone does. Because I am a pain patient and an addict I need to come up with a viable approach to get off these things. I have also just started taking neurontin, a non narcotic painkiller that has off label uses for withdrawals to boot. I would find a doctor who specializes in both pain management AND addiction and go from there. Sorry I couldn't help more but in my experience, after day 6 things got better physically for me when I went CT. But PAWS is what gets most of us addicts. Read about PAWS in the health pages here. Its very valuable information and keep posting here. The people here are caring, informative and truly amazing. I wish I had listened to them months ago when they told me I would not be able to take my pain meds as prescribed. They were right of course but I guess I wasn't truly ready to end this madness. Now I am. I am sick to death of being a slave to pills and just am trying to come up with the best way to both address my pain problem and my addiction problem. My guess is that if I got all the narcotics out of my system, non narcotic pain relievers would probably work much better and I would just have to deal with my craving the ''high''. Best of luck, I'm also from canada and we are very fortunate to have medical coverage. You can find a great doctor and it won't cost you a penny (unless its through a private clinic) I would call CAMH (Centre for addiction and mental health) in Canada. Here is a link. http://www.camh.net/

Best of luck to you my fellow Canadian :)