I am only looking at options. I would appreciate your candidness and I understand if you don't want to respond.
I have chose not to do morphine as I don't want a "monkey on my back". So far I have not given up hope to get stabilized and live pain free days. Truth is, I have been experiencing more pain than ever. My life is at a standstill. I have been offered morphine but would like as much information from those that are taking it as possible.
With love and respect
I take Morphine Sulfate ER (extended release) 15mg twice a day. When my meds are working there are times that I do not take it all. Like today, I will probably only take it once since the pred is kicking in and the swelling, pain, and inflammation are going down. I have not expereinced any withdrawl symptoms from not taking it. I feel that morphine was a good option for me because it really does control my pain well for me and it is long lasting. 1 or 2 doses a day. Instead of every 4 hours.
When I first started to take it, every 4 hours I would get a little bit of a wheeeeeeeeeeee. That has gone away. If I take it on a empty stomach I get a huge wheeeeeeeeeee so I always eat something first. I found this out the hard way at sis-in-laws and it was quite embarrassing lol. I do continue to get dry mouth from it. I always have gum in the house and the car. Or mints would work if you prefer mints. Or something citrus. Morphine WILL without a doubt make you constipated (it slows down the motility of the intestines) and your doc should prescribe Miralax along with it. It is a powder that you measure out in a cap and pour in water or juice mix up and drink. Tasteless. Works great too.
I like my morphine (not like THAT so shush Katie lol) as it really does control my pain for 12 hours or more. I can also add a vicodin to it if my pain is extreme. As it has been with this flare.
I looked at my doc like he was out of his mind when he suggested morphine (and I trust my doc but still thought he was nuts) because I don't want to be addicted to something. But he explained the vics weren't working and I ran a higher risk becoming addicted to the vics because they weren't working anymore and my body needed more and more to control the pain. He said if I take it properly and it continues to work then the risk of addiction is very low.
Making a med choice is a personal decision. I can only tell you what works for me and why I like it.
Roxy I have had chronic pain for many years. I have been prescribed almost all of the different opiates, long before I was ever diagnosed with RA.
I have to tell you, when you have this kind of pain, very little else will touch it. I, too had a true fear of addiction, and my doctors tried everything else first, and finally told me there just was no choice.
My wonderful PCP was the first to explain to me that for the kind of chronic pain I am in all the time, I ran very little risk of becoming addicted. The medicine goes to the pain not to your brain to make you goofy. These meds have never made me high. In fact, all the do, if anything, in that respect, is make me tired. I guess that's why no one recognized RA right away.
The dosages I have taken are quite high due to the length of time I've taken them, the fact that the pain has been constant for many years, and changes have to be made periodically, just to find something I'm not tolerant to.
Morphine is just one of many pain meds. It just got a bad rap over the years. At the moment I am taking Methadone as my primary pain med and Dilaudid for breakthru pain. I don't take much Dilaudid because I can't tell much difference with it. I also take Topomax for nerve pain, Mobic for inflammation, and several other meds.
Basically, what I'm trying to tell you is that, if you follow the doctor's directions, don't take more than prescribed, etc you shouldn't have any more problems with these drugs, including Morphine, than any others.
Best of luck, Sweetie, I know how much pain you are in. Just let them do what needs to be done to try to break the cycle. Sometimes just to make the pain tolerable for now will help.
Big Gentle Hugs and Blessings,
Nini
Hi Roxy - I tried the slow release morphine but it did not work for me. My pharmacist said it doesnt work for everyone. I think morphine is used far more freely these days for pain relief than it was in the past which maybe indicates it is not so addictive. If this is the case then maybe try it short term just until your flaring settles down. I took the morphine for a few months & had no trouble stopping it. I find that pharmacists are really helpful with advice on RA both from a natural perspective & a pharmaceutical one.
Hey Roxy...I am just gonna put my 2 cents in here...and so this is just my opinion...but I think that as long as you have the pain at a tolerable level then you are making the right choice to pass on the mso4 for now. But if you are at a level that it is unbearable, a short term run may be in order. That is just what I would do if I were having to make that call. I am leary about moving onto the strongest stuff....because after that, what else are you left with? Like I said that is purely just my opinion...thought I would share.
This is a tough decision Roxy. I know how you feel.... morphine... seems like such a hard drug, but after reading some of the posts, maybe it is the best decision for now, if all the other crap isn't working. You are a too strong a person to let it become addictive and you know about addiction, so I know you'll be very careful. If the pain is so bad, and it is disrupting your life, then maybe this choice is the one for you~~ a temporary choice, until your life settles down a bit and you can function better.Roxy,
I have taken time released morphine in the past. The brand name is Avinza. You take one every 24 hrs. I take it only for very bad flares and I had no problem w/stopping it as I only took it on the worst days. You can also take something like vicoden or percoset for break-thru pain. It really helped when I was bad.
I hope this helps
Crispy
I have never been offered morphine for any of the RA stuff. However, when in the ER or the hospital with other illnesses I was given Morphine and it helped tremendously. This is exactly why I would not use it for daily RA pain caus eif anything should happen , and it always does with me, I want something that I know will help in a crisis.
That is my opinion. It would be a hard call to make though cause there are so many days when the pain of this disease is so intense that I would take just about anything to make the pain stop.
My knees have begun to give me some trouble so I do mild exercises and will try to get this xtra 10 lbs off. Other than that I know what the future brings because my mother, sister both have trouble with their knees and I had 2 grandparents that had bad knees.
It seems as thoug it never ends huh?
Jode
Roxy, we have talked about this offline and online. The docs want me to try this, but I am hestitant because of what I see my daughter go through and the fact that I don't want to be maxed out on pain meds especially when I know I have multiple surgeries coming up.
Julie is not on the extended relief morphine. It didn't help with her pain at all. If she misses her morphine dose, she goes into withdrawal. This has happened when she had gallbladder problems and just he last couple of weeks where something is making her throw up her medicines. The withdrawal is horrible. I couldn't make it throught that. My body couldn't handle it. Watching her go through it has just been a nightmare and really jades my opinion on it.
I read here how much relief others are getting from it and I think, wow, I want that. But I'm going to be living with this disease a long time and I worry if I take this step that I will have to be on it the rest of my life because so much of my pain is from damage now and not just symptomatic of the disease.
But I know you are in so much pain that you cannot even do the essentials in life. That, I think is the deciding factor. When you have no quality of life, then you may have to take this step. I don't think I'm at this point myself. I still want to try other things. I have knees that can be fixed, maybe my shoulder can be fixed. I still have some other options.
But if it gets bad enough, I may decide to go this route even with all the negatives. If you cannot live life, even to do the basics, then it can be liberating.
Whatever you decide to do, you have to get the pain under control.
I think I still have some options. The doctor said they were concerned about my liver to raise my percocet. Maybe on Monday they will look at my liver test and let me take more percocet. I should change to Percodin I think. Pain sux. It totally incapacitates you. I tried to watch a movie last not and could not focus at all. I think Kelsey's illness makes her more understanding. She has been in so much pain. She knows this is real and does anything she can to help me. I love that girl so much. I just am going to make it through this weekend. I don't know if my family will come, but I hope they do. RoxanneI will tell you - if I could have someone come out and give me morphine today - I would take it. I need a break