I was misdiagnosed as having IBS a couple of years ago, and became addicted to oxycontin, because the pain was no severe I couldn't go to work without it.
At one point I had to have a colonoscopy, and I had to stop taking oxycontin 48 hours before the procedure, the withdrawl was hell.
I remember being scatter brained, unable to focus on anything for more than a few seconds, I was sweating and shivering, and it felt like my bones were on fire. The withdrawl caused a deep pain, especially in my joints, ankles and knees were the worst. It was a strange pain I had never felt before, like fire and electric. Even my teeth hurt.
It took 24 hours or so to get past the worst of it, and I have been VERY lucky to get another diagnosis and some medication that helps. I will never take oxycontin again, but sometimes, you just cant help it.
Coming off that was absolutely horrible, about as ill as I've felt since I had the flu and nearly ended up hospitalized.
I have a spinal condition and opiod's have been suggested by multiple docs but I simply won't take them until the equation balances, withdrawl and potential depency vs not be able to function.
This might sound dumb, but I think part of it might depend on your experience with recreational drug use. The effects of Oxy are...off-putting if you don't know what to expect, and I'd agree that it might mess with your "focus". But, personally, I've found altered mental states to increase focus, once you can "harness" it.
Note: I'm not advocating experimenting with OxyContin, as it has serious physically addictive properties.
I refuse to use opioids anymore, I can't code on them, they muddle your brain. But I wouldn't wish this life on anyone, not even the morons who glibly state that all you have to do is not take drugs.
Please tell me your post was ment ironic. There are people out there who cant move without pain medication - and who regularly hear a "Get a job." from the same guys who recommend "Dont do drugs!".
It may come as a shock: I know, its a strange thing to contemplate- but others might not be a copy of you. Like, there are other people, but they are diffrent?
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg173/chapter/1-recommendat...
http://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/low-back-pain-early-man...
http://pathways.nice.org.uk/pathways/opioids-for-pain-relief...
(There's lots on NICE. That's the organisation that assesses effectiveness and cost effectiveness of treatments, and makes recommendations about whether they should be used in English National Health Service. I guess this is one of the "death panels" we have in this country.)
BBC Radio Four have a programme called Inside Health. They had an episode on the benefits of exercise, including exercise as a treatment for arthritis pain. Sadly, BBC geoblock some programmes. (I have no idea which ones either.) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vkg24
doctors are full of alternatives, but people loooooove opioids so that's what they prescribe. people also think doctors always make the best decisions, but that's horseshit, they commonly make terrible decisions because they're overworked and their patients are terrible at communicating.
the last time i went in for pain they immediately offered me opioids, i said nope and LO, AND BEHOLD, an alternative was immediately offered.
and GUESS WHAT, they were SUPER CHEAP. hmmmmmm....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketorolac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylprednisolone
Those people are not "doing drugs", they are following (bad) medical advice.
People with long term pain need better access to pain management clinics; better access to physio therapy and exercise therapy; better access to different meds; and if they're still in pain better prescribing of opiates carefully following protocols.
https://www.fpm.ac.uk/faculty-of-pain-medicine/opioids-aware
https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/FPM-Opioids-Aware-Press-Releas...
> There has been a sharp and sustained increase in the prescription of opioid painkillers in recent years. The latest figures from 2014 show that 22.75 million prescriptions were written in England with a total cost of nearly £305 million to the NHS. Similar rises in prescribing in the US and elsewhere have been accompanied by increases in harms related to these drugs including addiction, unintentional overdose and death. Opioid painkiller problems in the UK have not reached the epidemic proportions seen in the US but we know that over 5% of adults in England and Wales have used opioid medicines that were not prescribed for them in the past year.
> Of more concern is that nearly all the rise in prescribing has been for treatment for long-term pain however, opioid medicines are often ineffective for this condition. About 4% of the population in England and Wales is in receipt of a prescription for opioids and once opioids are started they can be difficult to stop.
In the UK opiates are commonly used for suicide. Self poisoning is the second most common method, and opiates are the most common medication used (and opiate + paracetamol combinations are in the top 5 too). Most of these are legally obtained.
While I am sure this is true in many cases, my personal experience was the opposite. I had significant nerve pain after an accident, which kept me from being able to sleep or focus on anything very well.
The physician I saw after my hospitalization was apparently worried I was trying to satisfy a drug-craving? So instead of giving me a pain-killer gave me a prescription for an anti-depressant (which potentially treats nerve pain at 4X the normal dose used to treat depression) - withdrawal from that was extremely bad and certainly much worse than anything I've experienced after pain-killers.
Was that in the weeks or months after the accident? Or was it some time after that?
Pain after accidents is short term (acute) pain, and I'm only talking about long term (chronic) pain.
EDIT: Either way, it sucks that you didn't get good enough treatment, and I'm sorry you went through that. Pain freaking sucks, and being looked at as a drug seeker doesn't make it any easier.
> Pain after accidents is short term (acute) pain, and I'm only talking about long term (chronic) pain.
It was a month after I was discharged (so two months after the accident). Probably given the sentiment here and on other media I could have shopped around for a different physician - but when you are recovering from an accident that really isn't an initial concern and one is inclined to trust medical decisions of professionals - my overall takeaway is that this anti-prescription drug-abuse wave that ran through the media/public and it's impact on healthcare had a distinctly negative effect at least on my personal treatment.
Sure, it's anecdotal but I really would be curious to know what percentage of doctors are contributing to prescription drug abuse vs. the weight of the contribution; somehow I think it's more likely that a very small percentage account for the bulk of the abused prescriptions.
They didn't work for me personally, opioids did, but prescribing such antidepressant type medications first seems a reasonable course of action
I'm well aware of this. If you read some more research the dosage prescribed for nerve pain is as I mentioned ~4xish of anti-deppresant dosage. More so I recommend you look into some research on withdrawal effects of antidepressants (of course there is less of it since drug companies have a vested interest in the actual lack of such research).
Why not? Because they can be dangerous and require precautions to be taken before use? Should I stop driving cars too?
Coming soon.
That's a great suggestion! however if I do it's quite simple, don't do drugs, can you do it's quite simple don't be an empathy lacking idiot?.
Next question please.