When I started seeing a pain manager for chronic leg pain last fall, she said it was nerve pain without doing any diagnostics. She put me on morphine, and I've had ups and downs with it. Now I am considering going back to square one by weening off of morphine and seeing what my pain level is. It is almost a year since I had L4-5 spinal fusion, and I hate the side effects, costs, and stigma that go with taking this class of drugs.
Has anyone tried this? What was your experience? My reasoning is that I could get a maintenance prescription for hydrocodone, which was working just fine for me before. I am pretty sure I need a maintenance drug, but morphine has always seemed to be overkill and not worth the weird side effects. I wonder why they are so OK with prescribing morphine and not lesser drugs like hydrocodone. I always heard it is because you need more and more, but don't you build tolerance with morphine, too?
My only issue with hydrocodone is I can't sleep on it, so I'll need another drug. I am also expecting her to say no for some reason as it seems every time I get a combination that works, someone takes it away. I was using morphine plus Ultram and she made me choose one. I chose morphine and I'm not happy with my choice. Ultram wasn't enough when I was using it before the morphine, and I've read about some risks of seizures and maybe other things with it.
Comments?