chronic pain and opiate dependence

[caiti87]

I have chronic intersticial cystitis, which is excruciatingly painful. I have been on pain meds for at least four years now, including methadone and then subutex to get off the methadone. It has been a nightmare, im only 24 years old and have had three surgeries in the past year. so here's my question, i'm prescribed percocet 10/325 mg i tab four times a day, what my pain management doctor doesn't know is that i take more like six to eight a day.Needless to say I always run out of my meds before im supposed to. I ran out last week, after tapering myself down as much as i could handle, when it ran out i started taking tramadol to fight my pain and especially to help with w/d, i also tapered myself down on that until i ran out yesterday sometime, today i was lucky to find a left over 8mg suboxone. The relief was soooooo sweet, but tomorrow or twelve hours from now when it leaves my system, will i go back into withdrawl? I wasn't in terrible withdrawl when i took it but still pretty bad, did i make it worse by taking the suboxone when i should have just pushed through the w/d's? Also I have an appt with my pain doc on march sixth and im soo damn tired of this opiate merri-go-round from hell, are there really any options for severe pain that dont include opiate addiction? for example can subutex be used to treat chronic pain? and how honest should i be with my doctor without him cutting me off completely? I would really appreciate any answers to my questions. Thanks in advance!

[apike31108]

I don't know the answer to your question, but the reason why I am posting is because my doctor thinks I may have intersticial cystitis which is causing my chronic pelvic pain. She gave me some kind of antibiotic. Nothing for the pain, which is a good thing because I am on day 8 of no Lortabs....but then I am having days that the pain is so bad I want to break down and find pills. But yet, she won't prescribe them. She is my OBGYN that thinks I have this. I know what you mean about the pain though. It's horrible. What kind of doctor do you see, a Urologist? I'm not sure where to go or what to do because I don't want to go back to taking pills, especially the way I used to take them, but I can't hardly work or live like this. I'm having legit pain. It's so aggravating. I am only 27.

[caiti87]

It's honestly some of the worst pain I have ever endured, including child birth, kidney stones, and broken bones!!! my obgyn was the first to suspect it as well, she did an exploratory lap to see what was causing all of my pelvic pain and she found a ton of scar tissue and removed it thinking that was the source of the pain, but after surgery the same pain and symptoms were happening, such as severe pain, lots of blood in my urine, and swelling of my bladder seen through ultra sound. You will have to see a urologist to be properly diagnosed, it's a hard thing to diagnose and it took me four years of hell before i got any answers. also i think a pain management doctor is a must, just don't do it the way i did! because i was jaded from past doctors calling me a drug seeker because they couldn't find a source of the pain, i was jaded and have been afraid to tell my doc that the meds aren't controlling my pain at the dose he has me on, because i have been so worried that if i say anything my relief will be taken away for fear of drug seeking. Honesty really is the best policy im finding out! i plan to let him know everything that's been going on during my next appt. If you don't get a diagnosis right away keep trying or find other doctors, get second opinions.... it's basically diagnosed through process of elimination or with a scope looking into your bladder to detect any deterioration in the lining, there is also another test where they inject potassium (i think!) into your bladder and if it burns and hurts like crazy, you've got it! Good luck, and i hope you have better luck with the narcotics, its a pretty nasty trade off, severe pain or opiate dependence. doesn't leave you with a whole lot of options.....  

[allmymarbles]

I think a distinction has to be made between addition for kicks and addiction for pain. The latter is legitimate as the purpose of opiates is to relieve pain. Yet you seem to feel guilt for relieving your pain with opiates. Is there something here that I don't understand? Or are there side effects which that are problematical?

[caiti87]

I think that the guilt you're talking about it associated with the crap i catch from people for having to use opiates in the first place, for further explanation go to my profile and read the 45 comments posted about a question i asked about hep c which i was recently diagnosed with. I also do beat myself up because i run out of my medication early because the dose prescribed just isn't controlling my pain so I take two at a time instead of one. I know I need to be honest with my doctor about it, but I'm afraid of being flagged or labeled a drug seeker and then have NOTHING to help relieve the pain.... and of course i wonder, can I really stay on opiates forever?  if so, which are the best ones to control long term pain. the percocet seems to be very short acting leading to me having to take more medication than prescribed when the pain is intolerable........

[allmymarbles]

I understand your predicament. I wish you had my doctors. A few months ago I had a serious accident which resulted in pain for which I took opiates. My problem was that my doctors wanted me not to stint on the medication butg to take what I needed to rid myself of the pain. It is much easier to recover if you can do it without pain.