Pregnant and on pain meds

I just took a few EPT tests over the weekend ant today.......all POSITIVE.  Im a little scared though Im a 40yr old mother of three and I have Fibromyalgia.  Im about 4 days late for my period, with my last period Im about 4 weeks pregnant.

Ive been on Vicodin ES 2x's a day for 7 months...........I know that my body is physically dependenat on it now.  How safe is it to take in the beginning if in fact it is safe at all?

I called today and made an appt with the OBGYN, and I asked the nurse.........she said since Im not yet a patient they legally cannot tell me what is best.........which is confusing because they would know better for my unborn baby than my pain management dr!

Should I just stop taking them?  I have an appt for this saturday with my pain management dr ...which im not sure if he's is refilling my med, but I dont know whats going to be worse for the baby..........pain pills or withdrawl (withdrawal)!

Its been 10yrs since my last child.........we weren't trying to have a baby.....so now Im a wreck over the pain I'm in and the fear of what this could do to my baby.

[Waiting4myprincess]

Hi there. I can help you with this....I just had a baby 3 months ago and throughout my whole pregnancy I was taking vicoden. I was actually prescribed them by my OB. What is the dose you are taking? I was taking 5/500's. You are still very early in your pregnancy and I would say if you could get off of the pain pills now, then obviously that would be the best for you. I was well over 4 months pregnant before I even knew I was pregnant (never had regular periods) and was taking the pain pills regularly. My OB told me just to continue with them, it would be more dangerous to my unborn baby to stop them then. If you can stop taking them please do. But also do know that if you have to take a pain pills at some point in your pregnancy it should be fine. I am not encouraging it at all, but I now have a VERY healthy baby girl who has NO problems at all from taking the pain meds. She was not born addicted to them either. If you have any more questions please feel free to email me. My email address is in my user info. You can't put email addresses in bulletins. Let me know if you need anything else.

Danielle

[WhatYouMakeMe]

I've had to be on pain medications and antidepressants this pregnancy (31 weeks), also two surgeries.  If you can I'd start slowly decreasing you amont of medications your taking, don't stop cold turkey, and do get with your pain management team.  They can try to find other options that would be safer for you and baby.  I'd start to get off of it if you can.  The first trimester is the most important cause thats when the baby is forming, less is better.  Also the baby may have less of a withdrawl (withdrawal) now then later on.  I was on an antidepressant and got transfered to high risk ob, the high risk doctors told me to get off.  I did I was 28 weeks and my baby did have withdrawl (withdrawal), she would start shaking spasms in there,  At first they tried to tell me it was hiccups, but I knew it wasn't.  She did do it while the doctor was in the room, and all they said "Oh, thats not hiccups".  It lasted about 2 weeks and I felt horrible the whole time...I thought I was doing the right thing.  Its over now and I'm so thankful...and everything looks great as far as everything else.  Shes a "big healthy baby".  Talk with your doctors, but also go with your gut.  I wish you the best!

[Hope38]

Because of a cancellation ( and my pain management dr is a dufus) I don't have enough pain meds until next appt.  So I will have to do 1 or 2 day cold turkey withdrawl (withdrawal).

Im on Vicodin ES 7.5/750 2x's a day.......Since I've been on it for 7 months I know Im physically dependent........I have went thru withdrawls once before......this man loves to cancel appt thats why I was in the process of finding a new one.....it felt like the flu, and I had bad anxiety.  I had this type of withdrawl (withdrawal) before a looong time ago from an antidepressant.

I'm going to call and ask my regular dr what he thinks, every time I call the pain management dr he NEVER calls back, and if you hear back from the office its the receptionist telling you what he says.

I feel kind of stuck.  Im just hoping at only 4 weeks that Im the only one that will have withdrawls.

[WhatYouMakeMe]

Your going to have to demand to be seen.  I have tons of health problems...I have gastroparesis, a gastric pacemaker, an inter-stem in my bladder, a chemport, abdominal hernia, home health and the list keeps going.  I know what it like to be in pain, so get ready.  Doctors don't like giving narcotics to pregnant women unless the pain is unbareable, I'm sick of being in pain!

Cause of all my issues the doctors don't like to see me come in.  If you go in with a broken arm, they can fix that.  My condition is chronic, I keep coming back.  I've been trying to get in contact with my surgeon about my port for the past two weeks!!  They never return my calls or if I do get a person they say "Ok, well I'll email Dr. so-and-so and tell him about it".  All I want is an apointment can't get one untill he says they can.  Pisses me off.  I have so many doctors they like to push me off on the others and I end up going around in circles.  I've learn you have to demand a answer and not take no for an answer as well.  

I was in the er a few days ago about my port and they wanted to do a CT Scan and try to flush the port with TPA to see if it had a clot... They kept going back in fourth with OB to see if the TPA was baby safe, no one knew the answer.  I've had enough surgeries and xrays durning this pregnancy and I didn't think gettin the CT scan was a good idea.. so...I left.  Trust yourself and keep on top of them.. you have a baby to take of so you need them to help you out.  If he can't see you then he needs to call in some more for you until you can see him.  That bad for you, but worse for the baby.  

[Hope38]

Im calling my GP today.........its gonna be impossible to talk to him but I will be very firm......this is an unborn child and it needs proper care!  I can only do so much, the Drs are the ones who are suppose to help me do this!!!!!!!!  I don't know if withdrawl (withdrawal) this early is bad for the baby.....they need to tell me!

If he cant tell me I will call my pain management dr, I will ask If maybe instead of Vicodin ES he can prescribe the Vicodin 5/500.......and wean from there.

Wish me lots of luck ...... I will need it with the retarded Drs I have!

[cantwait4baby]

I would not stop. I have a family member who just had to go through withdraw from them (nonprescribed - just an idiot who got addicted) anyway - it was a very bad withdraw and that would be worse on the baby.  Get in contact with a doctor now - the one who prescribed them to you and ask to be changed.  I believe the catagory on those pills is a C, which is not too bad.  I am sure it is not good to be on them but not proven to harm a fetus.  call your doctor.  Good Luck.  

[Hope38]

Well the nurse at my GP's office said he can only advise me on what he has me on, he cannot say a thing concerning the vicodin.

Soooooo, I call the PM Dr.........I explained everything to the receptionist......told her 4 weeks preggers and I need to know ASAP.  I have one pill left for tomorrow and my appt isnt til Saturday.  I even told her if Im to wean off Id go to the regular Vicodin 5/500 instead of the Vicodin Es 7.5/750.  I told her I will do what is best for my baby!  I will not take these the entire pregnancy, I want off asap......but in the less stressful way for the baby. Baby comes first :)

She said she will email him.......if he was SMART he would contact an obstetrician and see what would be in the best interest of the baby.........but since he doesn't have a brain he probably wont.

Im prepared for his nurse to call back and tell me "COLD TURKEY"...so I will be in hell for a week but I am strong and there is no better reason to stop than this :)

Thanks to all of you for all the support at a scary and exciting time in my life.

[WhatYouMakeMe]

it is bad.  if she takes them up to delivery the baby will have withdrawls, even outside the womb.  Do it now or do it later, and personally I think it would be worse to have to watch a day old infant suffer like that.  I just went through this and thats what my doctors told me, and I'm considered highrisk.  

[Hope38]

umm ok, I do NOT want to stay on these, I think you have misunderstood me!  Im only 4 weeks I just found out Saturday!  I wanted to know what was safest for the baby!

No one called me back from pain management and I will be officially cold turkey when I wake up!  So I will start going thru withdrawls...........I can handle a week of hell, I don't take them for fun, I take them for my Fibromyalgia.  

Im sorry if you think Im not thinking of my baby, that is totally not it..........I want the safest thing for him / her.

I have 3 other children, I never had this situation........first time Ive ever been on pain meds.

My child will not suffer withdrawls........luckily the baby isn't getting anything off of me yet.  So this child will not have any vicodin in its system