Re addiction to Pain Killers--

[Izzy_*now*]

hi all,

Anyone know about the topic, or understand it. I've been doped pretty heavily, at times, for the past month+ and the Tylenol 3, with codeine is what I'm on now 1 every 6 hours.

When the pain goes away there is no more reason to take them, and all is okay, eh?

So is it people who are in constant pain who become addicted, to make the pain stop? People who are unaware of possible addiction?

My mind still does funny things, like feels like I've fallen asleep in a nanosecond, and the view in front of me does a 45 degree flip, like I've fallen asleep for a nanosecond, someone speaks to me and I answer out loud,  I sense someone/thing beside me, yet know if I look there will be nothing out of the ordinary, yet the movements make me look anyway.

If I keep a close watch, I don't have to become addicted eh? (They're constipating....reason enough to avoid, as pain lessens)

xx
Izzy

[debkor]

Hey Iz,


You can take your pain meds.  If your pain is not that bad then take over the counter.  My son was on IV morphine in the hospital then down to Perks then released with vicodin.  It was a total of about 3 weeks and he didn't even finish the vicodin.

I think you will be fine.  A little buzzed right now but fine.  No addiction for you.

Maybe you'll want to play a little Air Guitar but Addiction No...Just a slight wasted you are. 



Now if you were to take them for Years with no Pain as my friend did you would move on to bigger and more and chew them 7 at a time swallowed down with coca cola, cocaine here and there and more here then it should be, drink, oxy cotton and now added in a  Morphine Patch to wear.
And the latest I have learned you can suck it right out of the patch...Bam!  She would laugh and refuse the tylenol 3 with codeine. 

Now that's an Addict!!  And it started many moons ago not for Pain...for a high. 

Love
Deb

[Izzy_*now*]

Thanks deb, for that encouraging reply

The parallels you drew help put it in perspective.

Diazepam is addictive, but apparently not known, when I was given it in Rehab, 1970. A muscle relaxant for me, for those 'jumps' you might often see in people in a chair, and the legs never jump the same, always opposite and it's embarrassing. Also, when I used crutches a spasm could 'bring me to my toes' and throw me off balance, and I'd fall. I read about it's addictive qualities and began to wind down my prescription to just one pill and was managing not too badly, then one day was hit with some bad ones. My crutch cuff took a sweeping arc out of the plaster wall on the way to the floor. I took that last pill, called the Dr. and he said, "No no no!" and ordered more for me, only 10 mg a day.

Then I saw the movie "I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can" (Jill Ireland?) and I just couldn't see why her case seemed so much different from  mine.  She'd go "ape-sh** and run for her Valium, and I saw later what the difference was.

....and here, 39 years later, I am still on it, 7½ mg a day, in such a small dosage, but my legs would notice in about 5 days if I ran out and didn't take it.

Izzy, The pill-poppin' Granny from Kalamazoo, Da-Dum!

[lighter]

The docs consider you on the low end of pain management scale.

You're concerned about the constipation.... ready for it to stop?  You sound like you're not a fery good candidate for addiction to T3, Izz.

Don't freak yourself out and stop taking your meds..... it's just to hard to fight the pain back down, once it becomes very bad.

Thank goodness you have the pain under control now. 

Keep poppin those pills and being careful ((Grandma)).

[Ami]

Dear Izzy
 I think you have the proper respect for the power and addictive capacity of the drugs. I think that many addicts do not see this until it is too late.
 It seems like you will use them as needed and not abuse them. I am sorry you are revisting another painful experience.     Ami

[Hopalong]

Hey Izzy,

My understanding is that as long as drugs are being used to counter pain, your brain doesn't take on the addictive response. Don't be a hero.

Wait. You ARE a hero.

I'm just sayin'. You can use them as long as you need to. Some people need them for acute things, some for maintenance.

That's why they were invented! Nothing to do with illicit drug use.

I used narcotics for very long stretches with my back. When my back began to ease, I knew I could take less, etc.

You got enough trouble. Don't beat yourself up for such a reasonable thing, imo...

xxoo
Hops

[gratitude28]

Izzy,
Although I had troubles with alcohol, I never had an issue with pain meds. Maybe I knew I could not get them for long enough to make it worth the effort... or maybe they just did not do enough for me... Who knows. At any rate, I was on severe pain meds - Tylenol 3, like you (which depressed me so much), Vicodin, and finally Oxycintin when my pain was at its worst. I think I was in such pain I just did not get anything out of the pain meds except the ability to make it one day to the next. If you have the pain, do take the meds. It will help with your quality of life. No one should be in severe pain for extended periods of time - that is much scarier than taking the prescription.
Love, Beth

[teartracks]

Hi Iz,

Yes!  Take your pain meds.  And take the old faithfuls, stool softeners for the constipation if the doctors don't object.  I'm not schooled (except for observation) in the differences between all the pain meds, and won't offer up an opinion on that.  What I do know is that at the level of pain you're experiencing must be debilitating.  My thinking is that it will be easier for your body to heal if you can take your focus off the pain than if you weren't able to. 

Bless you friend.

tt

[Izzy_*now*]

Thank you all,

Mo2 for the low end.

Ami for seeing a comparison here.

Hops for as long as drugs are being used to counter pain, your brain doesn't take on the addictive response. This is what I felt about valium. It went to counteract the muscle spasms and I never needed to gobble more, but I've seen 2 people who were put on Valium for the sedative effect and both on only 2½ mg per day, sounded 'drunk/garbled' all the time.

Beth"  As Hops said about going to the source for relief. Alcohol, now, is it ever a pain killer or just a mind alterer? I wonder.

TT" Yes the pain is debilitating and I am allowed 1 every 6 hours, but have taken an extra, as the first prescription read 1 or 2 every 4-6 hours. This kind of pain is due the 1st instructions, but the less I take, the less difficulty with constipation, the horror of every spinal cord injured person.


Am going for follow-up x-rays on Wed. and hope there are no more foreign objects in my leg. It is still seeping and I have daily dressings.

Love all
Izzy

[lighter]

Good heavens, Izz.

I hope they were very very careful, about removing all unecessary objects, and taking making sure all was done right.

This time.

Mo2