Your Opinion Please

I am writing this post for two reasons: 1) M sort of told me to and 2) I am interested in your input.

I suffer from Adhesions which is internal scar tissue that basically “glues” your internal organs together. Any sort of movement including bending, reaching, sitting, even digesting my food when I eat (because my intestines are glued to various organs and to my abdominal wall) is painful. I also suffer from Fibromyalgia, a disorder of the nervous system which affects many things. It causes widespread muscle pain and weakness, sensitivity to light and sound, brain fog (fibro fog- easily forgetting things you would normally remember or not being able to find the right word when conversing). I also have hypothyroidism, hypoparathyroidism, pre-diabetes, anxiety, depression, and migraines. I take a good bit of medicine for these disorders, but lets skip to the one which is obviously a problem in my relationship…the pain medication.

Although I take muscle relaxers for my muscle aches and pains, and gabapentin for my pain, let’s talk about the opioid medications for a minute, also known as narcotics. When you see a pain specialist, their goal is to put you on the lowest dosage possible that still controls the pain to a normal, functioning level. They want you to still be able to feel pain for the same reason…so that you will know if something is wrong with your body. Right now I am using the Fentanyl patch (25 mg) for around the clock pain relief and Percocet (10 mg) 3 times a day for break-through pain. I take these medications exactly as prescribed except for some days I don’t need all three doses of Percocet so I only take two. In other words SOMETIMES I TAKE LESS THAN WHAT HE PRESCRIBES.

You might be thinking “what is the reason for all this explanation?” The reason is that I now know why M told me that the pain is all in my head yesterday morning. Apparently, he thinks that I am making up the pain in order to get more pain medicine. Like I of all people would make up pain. I take pain very seriously. Now, did I ask the pain management doctor for something else to take for about a week? Yes. But first of all understand that 1) I didn’t ask for pain medication from another doctor. I am running it all through the one doctor that handles my pain management; and 2) He gave me a small dose of Norco (a medicine that is weaker than what I am taking now) twice a day for seven days. Apparently he saw the need for added pain relief. Trust me, if he hadn’t, he would NOT have prescribed the Norco. Just ask any chronic pain patient who has had difficulties getting good pain relief. The doctor understands that this is not part of my normal, everyday pain and that also, to be frank, it is a hell of a place to break a bone. I mean, not only is it broken, but I have to walk on it meaning I put my whole body’s weight on it. OUCH!

So, here comes question and answer time…Do you think that it was ok to have asked for one week’s worth of additional medication or was I wrong and therefore I am a “drug addict” as M says? I especially want to hear from those of you who deal with chronic pain on a daily basis, but, I also want to hear from those who do not…in other words, anyone reading this is game to answer the poll below. Feel free to leave comments as well. All comments are welcome.

 

• #adhesions
• anger
• chronic illness
• chronic pain
• depression
• fibromyalgia
• frustration
• pain
• pain management