5 replies to this topic

[draco12]

Has anyone ever heard of a pain management doctor taking a patient off their pain meds to reset their opiad receptors? I had a baclofen pump put in and it worked really good except the morphine he put in it too did nothing for my pain. So now I am on oral morphine, still in pain, and he has taken the morphine out of my pump, and is about to start me off of the orals. Now the orals are somewhat working on my pain, but I am still in pain most of the time. Without the orals that I am currently on, I am in severe, severe pain. I have no idea how I will get through the 6 weeks of having no pain meds. Does this sound like something I should even be doing? Should I try to find another doctor?

It just so happens all this i going to start on my summer break. I am a high school science teacher. I have never not been looking forward to the summer.

[bobm]

I am no medic but I don't see why you cannot try a non-opiate while you are off the drug you have been using. There is lots of stuff here about people's experience of Gabapentin, Lyrica et al.

I take Gabapentin, which is not, I believe an opiate. So trying it would seem to be worthwhile when you are not on morphine...?

[T-Crip]

I have never heard of that! And why should you have to suffer in pain? Yes yes yes!! Get a new doc! There are tons of medications available out there! And you might be like me, morphine just doesn't do anything much at all for me. I can't live without my medicine so I understand. Find some other SCI's in your area that have a good pain doc. Good luck! And DON'T suffer just because the doc thinks you should! They don;t know everything! Go with your gut instinct!

[E-DOG]

Pain is nature's way of telling you "SHIT, that hurts."

[Travelling Blackbird]

It never hurts to get a second opinion. Explain the whole situation, and how your feeling, and see what another doctor says.

It's good to have continuity in medical treatment, so I wouldn't break ties with your current doctor unless the second opinion is wildly different to the current guy's; however, it's also good to find the right doctor for you, so if after you've resolved this issue, you find that you're really not happy with your current guy, look for someone you are happy with.

Finally: have you really, really communicated with your current doctor on this issue? Insist that he explains everything to you. Why are you doing this? Is there nothing you can do to ease the current pain level? Does he understand what this is physically costing you? What does he want to find? Doctors should never be allowed to just do things with no reference to the patient, with no discussion and explanation.

[john S.]

When taking a patient off opiods it is common practice to give them methadone.