Hmmmm....where to start? Been a chronic pain patient since 2000. Followed all rules, did all that was asked of me. I was never, never bad, no red flags, no bad behavior. August of 2012 Dr. says my morphine dose is too high. 90 mg. 4xday. Same dose for over 10 years, no increases. It worked for me. I was TOLD my dose would be decreased, didn't matter how I felt about it. So it started, decreaed doses every month, didn't go well, pain skyrocketed, started getting withdrawals, doc says sorry but...gotta keep going. Wanted me down to 30 mg 4xday. What??? Eventually referred me to pain clinic (this is all happening at Kaiser Permanente HMO). Start pain clinic in Jan. 2013. They start converting me to Fentanyl. I hate it, the Fent. Slow decrease of morphine, increase in fentanyl. It never goes well. Dose increases, frequency increases. It's been 10 months of me crying, complaining, begging to go back to the morphine. My pain has not been stabilized, suffering almost constant withdrawal, all bad, no good. All pleas falling on deaf "we know best" ears. There's been a "paradigm shift" in pain practice, " cross medication tolerance" blah blah blah. What it really comes down to is there was a law passed in Washington state confining morphine prescriptions to 120 mg. per day. I am in Oregon, and they are anticipating a similar law here in the near future. They're being proactive WITH MY PAIN? And no matter that it isn't working, and I'm suffering. I' m lost, powerless, and at the end of my rope. I don' t know what to do, and I'm hoping for advice, suggestions, anything of help.
Thanks,
Chrissie