Stopping Prescribed Morphine

[mummy2maxx]

Hi All,

New to the forum but i have read quite a few posts and everyone seems very helpful.

A little bit of background but i will warn you its quite a tale...

I had my gall bladder removed in 2009 after the birth of my son. I had continuing pain and they discovered a stone in my bile duct which was removed however the episodic pain continued and required hospitalisation every few months for antibiotics, pain killers and fluids.

The doctors diagnosed Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction a complication of gall bladder removal and i have 4 sphincorotomies to try and help however it made the situation worse and caused more scare tissue.

During this time i was prescribed Tramadol to take daily and Morphine when the pain was really bad.

Last year i had a hepaticojejuostomy to try and help, it has stopped the infections but not the pain. My pain team then prescribed a huge number of medication - Amitriptaline, gabapentin, metoclopramide, zomorph 100mg BD.

I questioned this at the time as i do not have pain ever day, in fact i can be pain free for months at a time and then unwell for months. They advised this was the best long term solution for me.

I have now been told that there is nothing further they can do and it needs to be managed with pain medication but i do not accept that i need to be taking medication every day. Some doctors agree and some don't.

I have now stopped taking all medications apart from the Zomorph which i have cut down to 30mg twice a day and i am now going to go cold turkey and stop the remainder.

I know when i have a flare up i will most likely need to be treated with a short acting morphine.

Thanks for reading this, i would just like to hear from other who have gone through the same.

Many Thanks

A

[ActingBrandNew]

I suffered from some Gallbladder issues (acalculous cholecystitis) secondary to Chronic HCV so I can somewhat relate although your GB condition seems to be a lot more serious than mine was. Anyways, I just wanted to tell you I sympathize with you as I was in pain for almost 2 years behind it. After I treated the HCV my condition improved.

I think you are wise to get off the long acting pain medication because if this is going to be a lifelong condition that you have to manage you dont want to have a high tolerance where the pain medication doesn't work anymore. Having the medication for "breakthrough" pain seems ideal.

I also wanted to share that there is a Gallbladder forum here on MH as well where you may find others in the same situation OR you may be able to help others if you are interested. It seems like with all you have been through with the surgeries, you may be able to guide others just starting there journey. Just an idea anyway.

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Gallbladder/show/1208

If you have difficulties while your detoxing...please post and Im sure many can help with ideas on how to deal with the symptoms. Wish you the best.

Always,

ABN

[mummy2maxx]

Thank you for replying, you are doing fab, well done!

I do suffer from a chronic/acute condition and i am in a great amount of pain when i have an episode. My main reason for coming off the long acting daily morphine is that i am not in this amount of pain all the time and so dont feel i should need to take such strong daily pain killers.

Stay with the fight, i am sure it will be worth it.

Pain is just weakness leaving the body x

[jenkrist]

Congratulations on taking control if your health. You are in a tougher place I think than me at least. Physically I have no reason to take opiates. I do it for the high. Have I should say. Im on day 8 off them. When you start detoxing it sux. If you haven't already Google the withdrawal symptoms so you know what to expect. It's only a few days. I truly believe some people need to be on the pain killers for true pain. My husband is on huge daily doses of straight codiene but he is on it for severe pain. I respect you for wanting to quit but am glad to hear that you respect the fact that you may need to use periodically for your pain. There are allot of people on this site that can offer great support. I've been on it 8 days and it truly helps to have all this support. Good luck and message me anytime. You can do this