PAIN - Too Many Pills??? What to do???

[MontanaGurl]

I have a motorcycle accident 3 months ago and almost bled to death from a degloving of 50% of my head.  I broke my nose, my jaw and had to be wired, broke 7 teeth still going to the  dentist, broke all my ribs, shatered my pelvis and have 3 screws and broke my back in 3 places and now have rods in my back.  I am in constant pain all the time, the doctor gives me pain meds, alot of pain meds and I eat them like candy that is the only way I can keep my pain down.  I take 2 60mg long acting morphine a day and up to 25 5mg oxycodone and up to 8 2mg hydromorphone.  I have to eat them like that to keep my pain down and I just found out that I need to have a rod in my back replaced and it is causing me so much pain I feel like I am living in my own personnel hell and I am trapped in my body and can't get out, why did this happen to me??  I don't know what to do I am hoping somebody can help me out!

[OtisDaMan]

Hi,

If you are feeling fairly constantly like "why did this happen to me?" - and this is an entirely understandable feeling to have - then I suggest organising to see a specialist for dealing with emotional side of trauma, such as a psychologist, or perhaps a psychiatrist (psychiatrists can prescribe medication for depression, anxiety, etc), or both. They can't stop your physical pain but they can assist you in getting on top of the worst emotional aspects. A common fallout from events like you've had is depression - once depression crosses a threshold, it is no longer wise to view it as merely a mood, but instead to treat it as seriously as any physical injury. The emotional aspects affect relationships in general, which is why it is so important to find support where you can get it. I've always been a sceptical person with regards to psychology, but that hasn't stopped me from making use of them for dealing with chronic pain. In your case I imagine that post traumatic stress would be an entirely likely occurrence.

In the meanwhile, your doctor and you could have a conversation about your concerns with medication, while being very clear that your pain is not under adequate control yet. Perhaps your doctor can increase the morphine substantially while decreasing the oxycodone by equi-analgesic amounts. It is not a one-to-one ratio. This would help in reducing the sheer quantity of pills taken and also move you to making greater use of long-acting morphine as opposed to short-acting oxycodone pills. My extremely short experience with oxycodone is that it acts quickly and then fades quickly - hardly the best profile for maintaining a stable level of pain control during the day.

Personally, I have been a believer in using pain medication to get pain levels down as low as is possible to maintain. There are a range of medications that you may still try. Both antidepressants (such as effexor, prozac, and many others) and anticonvulsants (pregabalin [lyrica], gabapentin [neurontin], carbamazepine [tegretol] etc) are central nervous system agents that can reduce nerve pain. I've had significant improvements with pregabalin, for example; however, these medications vary in effect substantially from individual to individual.

Hope this gives you some ideas into what to try next. Hang in there!

Regards,

OtisDaMan

[sandee1818]

I wish I could say more than just hang in there and things will get better.
I have no idea why things happen the way they do. I entrust my life and what happens to God. there is a reason why things heppen, we may not see it today or even tommarrow but God knows.