I hope they treat husband's pain issues appropriately and don't assume that ALL the pain medications are addiction-related. It's a fine line sometimes. I take opiates long-term for pain management, over the years I've had various specialists in other areas outside pain management, try to label me an addict. I was even admitted to hospital for a range of things which included getting me off pain medications "because she's addicted" and that was very quickly dropped when I was able to demonstrate that I AM in pain constantly, but will put up with the pain without medications if I have to.
I can't do that any more - the pain is worse now.
Most recently, a rheumatologist found that my pain reduced considerably on prednisone. I felt that was useful information, but to take prednisone long-term was far more dangerous to me than long-term opiates. However, he finally admitted to me (when he again insisted I had to stay ion prednisone) that his aim was to get me off opiates entirely. All my other doctors said this was a mistake. The damage the prednisone has done in the few months I took it, is considerable. I have bone thinning (ironically, in the areas where I needed the rheumatologist's treatment), my weight loss was stopped and I began to gain and I began to head back towards Type II diabetes after having recovered. My liver began to get bad again, and in general it was a big mistake. It should only have ben used as a diagnostic aid in me, not a treatment regime. A classic case of a specialist dabbling outside his field and causing problems for other specialists (as well as the patient). Sure, my pain was reduced and my opiate dose was reduced. But at what cost?
The troubles begin when you have genuine chronic pain issues, but the patient subsequently also develops addiction problems and escalates the medications to a point where their main kickback from the medications is the high, and not merely the relief from pain.
Something I have learned - if you use the medications to try to eliminate all pain, you are much more likely to develop an addiction issue. When you have been in pain for a long time, the chance of being pain-free is euphoric. That can then link in to a euphoric high from the heavy medication dose itself.
If you do develop an addiction to the medications, but you also have genuine chronic pain problems, you need to be re-educated on how to manage your pain appropriately; how it should still feel, how you should NOT feel etc. I guess to a certain extent I'm self-taught, but always feeding back what I discover to the pain specialist. For example, I learned that I get a specific feeling in my throat muscles if I take a little too much opiate. I've learned to avoid that feeling. But I've also learned to avoid the under-medication of pain too, because that can actually end up pushing me to take more over the same period of time. Never try to cope without, then have to take a bigger dose (loading dose) to get the pain under control. Maintenance is best.
Pain relief always has a price to it. Pain medications including opiates should not sedate you, if you match the dose to the need. Doctors can only guess at how much you need; their guess can be close, but there is always some fine-tuning. That is why the patient has to be a member of the treatment team. But like all members, that requires acting ethically and honestly in full frank communication with other team members. Once you start down the addiction road, the patient has to become deceptive and that is a bad thing.
With varying pain medications - I take opiates, a lot, and function a great deal better. People comment on the Morning threads on how much I report doing each day. I do it by careful management of my time and energy and could not function without pain medications. But mother in law can't take opiates (they make her violently ill) so manages her pain with paracetamol. She is so UNconditioned to pain medications that one paracetamol tablet will sedate her. mother in law came through triple cardiac bypass, on paracetamol only.
I hope that as part of husband's necessary treatment they can find some adequate and appropriate pain management for him. Has he tried TNS? Non-drug, it can help especially if the pain can be localised. For me, I'd need the electrodes to come in a body suit! But until he can understand his own pain, putting him back on opiates is going to be problematic. Unfortunately. It's the price yo pay, for becoming addicted.
Marg
y, I want you to tell me and I will try to chill out. 
