Aa
addicted to fentenyl and morphine
Hi world lets get right to it. For the last 15 years i have been on 300mg fentenyl every three days and 75mg of morphine every 4 to 6 hours for break through pain. I have a fused left leg and multiply disk ruptured and heriated in my back. I have had 3 failed operations on my back. I have tried every thing from tens units to pt, pool workouts nerve blocks, all the xrays under the sun nothing works. only the opiods. well my tolerence is so high even the pain meds have little effect some times. Well my problem is i want off the meds the withdrawles is pure hell and not having any pain meds is even worse. Does anyone out there have any suggestions. on what i can do. I don't need to tell ya that my marriage *****, have no friends, I am retired/disabled and I am only 55 years old. and my family does'nt want anything to do with dad unless he gets help somehow.
Best Answer
Hi and welcome. Many people here have been in similar situations, but yours is made very difficult by your physcal problems. Especially at such a young age. I'm 55 also.
I wish I had some words of wisdom or advice to give you. I have chronic pain also, from Arthrtis, and no cushioning in my knee joints, but nothing so severe as what your having to deal with.
You can taper off your medications. I do not think going Cold Turkey would be a good idea for you at all. After that though I don't know what you could do for pain relief. I don't know anything about your Dr., but if you've been on these medications this long, it sounds like you've been to "Pain Management Clinics or Dr.s."
You haven't mentioned Accupuncture. It's helped me for pain, but I don't have the money for it right now. You say even "Nerve Blocks" don't work.
Meditation is good, and believe it or not, laughter helps people with bad pain.
I do hope you find some relief from what's happening to you. Even if it's just a little from coming on here to "Vent" your frustration.
Please keep posting and letting us know how your doing.
I wish I had some words of wisdom or advice to give you. I have chronic pain also, from Arthrtis, and no cushioning in my knee joints, but nothing so severe as what your having to deal with.
You can taper off your medications. I do not think going Cold Turkey would be a good idea for you at all. After that though I don't know what you could do for pain relief. I don't know anything about your Dr., but if you've been on these medications this long, it sounds like you've been to "Pain Management Clinics or Dr.s."
You haven't mentioned Accupuncture. It's helped me for pain, but I don't have the money for it right now. You say even "Nerve Blocks" don't work.
Meditation is good, and believe it or not, laughter helps people with bad pain.
I do hope you find some relief from what's happening to you. Even if it's just a little from coming on here to "Vent" your frustration.
Please keep posting and letting us know how your doing.
Welcome friend.You're in a touh spot to be sure but we're here to help.Have you spoken to your doctor about wanting off the meds?He/she should be able to safely taper you down to minimize any w/d symptoms.If you are planning on going cold turkey,than,yes,it will be pure hell for approx 1 week.Coming from fentanyl&morhine sux-been there before.You obviously feel you have a problem with the medication and the 1st step is admitting you have a prblem.If you are coming off because they are no longer helping,than you need to talk to your doctor to come up with another plan of action for your pain.There is an excellant pain mgt forum here at MedHElp as well but we are here for you.Stay strong;good luck;and keep us posted.~Anne
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To be brutally honest with you, the pain you have well on opiates is likely around an 8-10 which is hardly managed, but as I said to be honest if you do not have any medication you will very likely kill yourself especially if you are withdrawing well in pain. What I would suggest is that if your tolerance has increased and the trigger point injections just are having no effect is to request to step up from the morphine for breakthrough pain up to diludid which is semi-synthetic morphine and is 8 times stronger. It is hard to find a doc that will prescribe what you need, but my mother whom was in a very similer spot was prescribed either 40mg (5, 8mg pills a day) or 16mg(2, 8mg pills a day) with the 50mcg fentynol patches every TWO (not three but every TWO) days. If you have a tollerance you might try switching to oxycotton for a while, I would say a year or so and as tolerances build switch back. The tens unit, well cool and fun to play with is basically worthless for the level of pain your in. As for the failed surgeries, I would suggest trying a more specialized hospital. Emory here in Atlanta is amazing and where my mother had her back surgeries. I hope this helps-
Doc Hal-