Changing Pain Meds (Morphine Sulfate 60mg 3x Daily)

[ChronicPain1]

Hello everyone, I'm looking for some advice on pain management, obviously.

I've had chronic pain for years, ever since my knees got bad and my misaligned patellas basically turned all my cartilage into "Crab meat" as it was called. I had a Lateral release done that failed, and ever since the pain has been just as bad.

Besides that I seem to have an all over issue, either it's something like fibromyalgia or it's related to "Degenerative Disc Disease" (kind of a misnomer) as several MRI's and a Myleogram(sp?) indicated this. Besides these issues I just have muscle spasms and tightness all over, some for unknown reasons, some from past injuries.

I've been taking Morphine/MS-Contin for somewhere around 2 years, and I'm 23 at the moment. I'm at 60mg 3x day, but am starting to develop a tolerance to this level as my pain is coming through. I take nothing for breakthrough pain, as I try to limit how much I take.

I'm looking to switch to something else, perhaps with a slower rate of tolerance increase, if such a thing exists. Problem is, my pain management doctor seems hesitant to change my medication. My other issue is the high dosage, I seem to get worse stomach problems the higher I have to go. I've asked my doctor if there was some derivative I wouldn't have a tolerance to, that I could take at say 10mg or something low. They seem to keep telling me I have to stay on Morphine until I hit the absolute ceiling, then they will consider switching.

Is this a good idea? I'm not concerned about addiction per se as I take it for real chronic pain, and don't get any "high" or pleasure out of it. I just don't like the idea of taking hundreds of mg's of a drug at my relatively young age.

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you.

[nick30]

i had severe chronic pain when i was your age. it was never treated properly and most of my 20's dissappeared amongst the pain. i wish i'd have been given the patch then, i would have been so much better off. i probably could have kept working even. i am on it now, you really should try it. like mollyrae said, the patch doesn't make you feel high, in fact at the right dose it's almost unnoticable. you can shower with it but you need to try wearing it in different places coz some ppl have a lot of trouble keeping it on, there is an old post which discusses this in more detail. i'll find it if you want.
good luck mate.
nick

[ChronicPain1]

Thanks for the response. No I currently take nothing for breakthrough pain as they had given me a short acting Morphine but it didn't seem to work, and I stopped taking it.

Like I said I've asked them for something else, trying to stress I don't necessarily want something stronger, just something I don't have a high tolerance to. They keep telling me I need to stay on this because it's what their program requires.

I've heard of those patches, but the doctor never offers them as a solution. Do they stay on even when you shower and such?

Since you've had CP forever, how is your tolerance to most meds? I guess I'm concerned since I'm only 23 and I'm worried I'll be immune to most drugs down the road if my pain is never solved.

[Mollyrae]

Hello ChronicPain1:

Welcome to the Pain Forum. At this point I think your Doctor should give you a breakthrough pain med. Have you discussed this with them?? Most ppl in your situation do get breakthrough's to help deal with the CP.

You may want to consider a Fentanyl Patch (which I use) for better and longer pain relief. It does not give you a euphoric high as one might think. It seeps into the blood stream at a very slow rate of speed so therefor you only get the pain relief.

I have had CP for the better part of 13 years and the Fentanyl Patch has been one of the only medications that have really worked. It has a 72 hr. life so your only changing the patch every three days. I also use a breakthrough.

I don't know where your Doctor stands on this but it's worth a try.

Please take care and good luck.
Mollyrae