"what do we do when clean and have severe pain"????

[road2recovery]

I have been thinking about this for a while now...i know most of you here have had real severe pain at one time or another..Whether that is why you first started using, or not..my question is have any of you really thought about what if we have a terrible tooth ache(one of the worst pains for me)..or break a bone, back issues, get in a wreck, etc...What do we do when we are clean? i know some of you are going through this already..
Then i think about being on them and then being in severe pain is probably worst, because it takes so much to work on us..I have been through that and it was terrible..
I know i am way ahead of myslef since i am still using ...But it is something i think about alot..or another situation is, i have heard that most people that have died from a overdoes did not do it on purpose..I have read that they had stopped using tolerence went down then they thought they could use the same amount as before and it was too much..So what happens when we are clean, something happens then need alot for pain?? what then..
My mind is terrible with those thoughts, and i just wanted to know if it is just me or does anyone think of these things..
I hope i don't sound crazy, because when i start thinking about it i feel crazy..But no matter what i am going to get clean..
I just am trying not to think of those possibilities...
someone let me know if they think of this too pleasseeeeeeeeee!
R2R

[road2recovery]

you are right, that is a good thought...but glad you have thought about it too..
For me out of all of those i mentioned, the one i don't want is to me on them and my tolerence is high and nothing helps..So that helps me to want off even more, because i have been there...And at one point i swear i didn't care if i died..That is how much pain i was in, and nothing helped..i don't want to be in that situation ever again.
Thanks for your input Jen
R2R

[lady_m]

I have thought about that a lot, too. I think it's normal, and in a way it prepares us for the future.  I made the mistake of taking one a week or so ago for "real pain" and ended up right where I started.  I just can't do it.  

But I thought of something and even told my husband.  Kids. Think about it.  Kids get toothaches, broken teeth, break their arms, etc and they don't take narcotics.  If a 7 year old can handle a broken arm without narcotics, why can't I?

[Dave W.]

I feel you 100%. I too have these thoughts all the time too. I recently had a molar pulled and
the dentist gave me Percs for the pain. They worked great,but what's really disturbing,is that
my body is used to huge doses of oxy,which doesn't releive the pains in my hips. If I take
Tylenol with the oxys,it doesn't help any better. It must be the way the meds are made.I have
heard that even the Drs. don't even know how that works.LOL. I am so tolerant of any narcotic,
that if I do need the help of pain meds in the future,I'm afraid I'll go nuts from the pain. After my
second hip surgery,while still recovering in the hospital,the Drs had me on the most morphine
they could legally give me after the epidural wore off and I was in so much pain,that I called my
wife on the phone and told her if they couldn't help my severe pain right now,that I would find a way
to kill myself. She got the pain management dr to come in and he gave me a couple or just one
Percocet and in a few minutes,it was like I was a new person,going from trying to kill myself,to
feeling fine in a matter of minutes. My surgeon came in to my room screaming at me saying that
"This isn't a Drug Barn". I started to cry,because it just hurt so bad to be yelled at for something
that I had no control over. What a jerk,right? I never cry from physical pain,but for some deeply
hidden reason,I started to cry that day from the Dr's comments. I knew at that point,that I would
be in trouble in the future for pain releif. These Dr's are so stupid,they have no common sense
at all. They figured if they were giving me enough morphine to kill a horse,that nothing else would
work,but suprise,a couple measly Percs cured my ills in a instant. It just made me not trust any
Dr's opinions.

[road2recovery]

i understand exactly what you are saying..For me i had a incident where i had a tooth that had a abcess (abscess)..Well i went in and they tried to save it by doing a root canal, they gave me antibiotics and some tylox..that night i could not stop crying ( my Doc is lortab)...Well the next day they abcess (abscess) burst and i went straight back in..Crying the entire time..i told him to give me lortab , which he did..he dranined the abcess (abscess) and i went fill it..In a matter of less then one hour it was better..he could not understand because he said tylox was so strong..But it just didn't work for me..

Sorry to hear about your surgery , but i feel your pain...And no one knows until they have been there..I feel the same way as you about doctors , not everyone is the same...And everything works different on them..
how are you feeling now??
R2R

[Dave W.]

I'm doing O.K. now,but I'm still in pain,which is tolerable at this point. Having to take like crazy
amounts of oxy,like 60 to 75mg, 3 to 4 times a day. I don't consider myself a junkie,even though
I take meds like one. I dont want to take any meds to tell you the truth,it's just horrible living
a life in constant pain and being so tolerant to any form of pain med. If the pain was gone,so would
my pill bottles. Thanks for being so concerned,it does make me feel better. I don't want anyone to
feel sorry for me,even though my life has been a tragedy,it was my own fault that I destroyed my
health with my prior 10 year addictions. I just hope that when I go see my new PM Dr.,he or she
will get me on something different that works,so I won't destroy my health anymore. I'm just always
paranoid that I'm going to kill my liver or kidneys from being on such a large lethal dose of drugs
for so many years.Thanks and God Bless you for being so sincere.

[Gypsygirl66]

This is just from my own experience, from having several surgeries and suffering from a debilitating illness. Whenever I have surgery I always have my pain management Dr. handle the pain end of my recovery while I'm in the hospital. Over years of time I built up a very high tolerance. I found that having my PM Dr managing my pain after surgery really makes it so I'm getting more than adequate pain relief.  When you have the tolerances like me and other ppl on this forum, only Dr's with the proper knowledge and training (PM Dr's) it takes should be managing our pain after a surgery or serios injury (IMO)
Most PM's are anesthesiologist that take on extra schooling to become PM specialists. Being anesthesiologists gives them a big jump ahead in knowing how medications effect the body. I personally would not go to a PM Dr unless he was also an anesthesiologist and I researched many PM's before choosing the one I did.
This is course just my opinion from my own experience, you all should do what makes you feel comfortable. Also, I follow this rule!! If a Dr makes me feel uncomfortable, I move on to another Dr. If he/she has been my Dr a long,long time, I'll try and talk it out. If that doesn't work, I move on. Remember, your Dr works for you, if you are trying to get clean and are being honest with him/her, then you should get the help you need. When it's time for surgery or injury, if the pain is intolerable, find yourself a good PM and talk about you issues. Talk about how you are clean or trying, how much of mg you last dose/current dose was/is. Let him know that you want to be treated and be comfortable for whatever you are going through (surgery/injury...etc) and that after you would like to taper off the meds. If that's possible unless you're going to be dealing with chronic pain. Personally I would get off them, I live in severe chronic pain everyday, I chose to get off them. I never abused my meds, but I had a heII of a tolerance built up. I just hated not feeling anything emotionally, I lived as though I was in a coma. I didn't stop because of money or because my family was angry, or because I had hit bottom, I just wanted to wake up, I'd rather feel the pain and live than have the pain somewhat numbed and be in a coma.
Sorry I know I'm rambling here, I didn't mean to go on and on, but there are solutions out there.....yes you'll have to go back on opiates, but this in only extreme circumstances and you would really have to commit yourself to a schedule.

Peace,
Gypsy

Oh R2R, How you doing? I heard about your last trip to the E.R. OMG girl, how are you? You just can't win can you? You poor thing, it must've been awful. Are you okay know? Please let me know how you are and if there anything I can do!! xoxo

[road2recovery]

Great post!! what courage you have...i have missed reading your post..i know what you mean about feeling like i am in a coma..i also want to wake up..
i am doing ok..i have a cat scan tommorrow to tell how big the blood clot is..i don't understand how i can still have one, after all the blood i have passed, but the doc said i still do but it should be alot smaller and my body will just absorb the rest..i just don't feel good half the time..I know it is part to do with the meds but part also from everything i have went through..i want to wake up and feel normal again..just normal, not great ..
Can  you share a little more of your story..i remember some of it.. how long were you using ? how much? and how you did it?
thanks in advance
R2R

[Savas]

I think I've finally come to the terms with the idea that "sometimes, you go through pain, and you just have to deal with it."

I went through the intense surgery thing also. At the time I was furious, always demanding them to take the pain away. God, I was so naive. Doctors like to come across as miracle workers who can do anything. The biggest mistake they make is when they don't simply say "there's nothing we can do for this."
I still have that pain, but now I know it's a part of me and my identity. Once I got past the "This hurts so much, it's got to go away" aspect, I found (after ALOT of time), that...I could live with it. What other options do we have? Pop pills that only help temporarily, then stop working when you become addicted and leave you facing MORE pain from the withdrawals???

I'm going to try to keep this concept *really* firmly in my mind for the next surgery I have. I have to have a screw removed from the bar in my leg, it's come loose and of course, hurts like hell!!!

I'll use the after surgery stuff, but after a few days...

[grievingwidow]

I donated a kidney to my late husband seven years ago.  At that time I was taking methadone 10 mg three times a day and nothing else.  After the surgery, no matter what they gave me, it was just like going through this horrendous major surgery with absolutely nothing for pain afterwards.  It took them two days to finally get the pain to an acceptable level, they ended up giving me 5 times the normal amount of Dilaudid, and that only took the edge off but that was all I wanted, I just wanted it to be bearable, I did not want to feel high or completely free of pain.  I was treated like a drug addict by the nurses, everyone except the pain management doctors, they could tell that I was truly in severe pain, I even let them try two epidurals with me lying in the bed (not sitting up) so they knew that I was really hurting, I was not just after narcotics.  Anyway that experience has me scared to death as far as any future surgeries go.  I remember going in that the transplant surgeon told me I would probably feel the worst on day 3 as I would be getting up and around and off my IV pain meds, but for me it was on day 3 that I actually thought I might survive.

[DeezNuts]

this is exactlly my biggest fear. I work 7 hour shifts as a busser at a very fast paced restaurant and for me to work without atleast 20mg hydro is unbearable. Naproxen works...I think. But i think of everyone else that works there and has extreme discomfort. They don't need narcotics, they just keep on workin then go home. Maybe have a drink or two at home and call it good.
Can't wait until i'm there.

my question is...will we ever get to where eveyrone is at or will pain always be a problem because the brain has lost its ability to produce its own pain killer for good?

[Dave W.]

I know what your talking about,about your body losing it's ability to produce it's own pain killer
for good. If you wouldn't mind telling everyone,what is causing your pain? I have had two hip
surgeries at age 30,and I've been in chronic pain ever since. I won't go back to the 2 different
sugeons,because does anyone actually beleive that they will admit they did something wrong.
I think it's all nerve damage that's causing all my debilitating pain at times. Everyone has this
type of stigma about having joint replacements,that after having them done,you will be totally
pain free,that's a bunch of BS. If that were the case,then why would my PM Dr. give me huge
doses of drugs and risk his career,then? I bet your right about my body completely not being
able to help itself with pain without introducing drugs into my system. I wish you all the best.

[justlikeyou]

i believe the body will heal if given the oppertunity

i believe drug use can slow down that process.

[tzt2lady]

I had tummy tuck surgery on July 19.   Prior to that I got of narcotics/opiates for about a month.  I thought that would be enough time for my tolerance to go down.   WRONG!!!!   My gosh, I was in so much pain the first week!!!    They sent me home with Demoral, it barely touched the pain.  They gave me 7.5 percocets, they made me nauceos AND did little for the pain.   Finally I got my primary to refill my 5 mg Norcos and three of those are the only thing that helped.

My surgery was on a Thursday.   On Friday night I had taken all the demerol AND was half way through the Percocet script.   My dr. said "No more narcotics till next week, you could hurt your liver".  He would have let me suffer all weekend, basically "cut in half" by the surgery.   Luckily a godsend of a friend gave me some norcos to get through the weekend.  

Now, this is major surgery.  They cut the muscles and repair them, remove extra skin, etc.  But I go to another forum where women have had this done and been off all meds within a few days.  So its me.    I have screwed up my ability to handle pain.   This is scary.  I hope with time this fixes itself.

If I should get in backpain that is so bad I cant go to work I dont know what I will do.   I guess take a day off but if its an extended time I would have to take the meds that work for me.  Then just go through wds all over again I guess.  

In Narcotics Anonymous' basic text it tells how to handle legit pain.   When we MUST take drugs, they suggest that we hand the script over to a trusted person and have them only give us what is prescribed.    

tzt

[Dave W.]

When you have any surgery that involve cutting muscles,it takes a long darn time to heal.
I know,I had 2 hips replaced and they cut so many muscles,that I couldn't even lift my leg
for like 2 months,with the help of Physical Therapy,also. I feel your pain. The meds usually
won't even help much if you've been on them for along time  before the cut.Hang in there.