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I'm going to get a nurse fired--my blood pressure must be through the roof
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 474276" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>The thing about dependency (from personal experience) - if you are genuinely in pain, that pain needs to be treated. if you only take what you need to in order to deal with the pain, you will not get addicted. But you will get habituated to it (which is when the dose increases over time to get the same benefit). But the aim is - deal with the pain!</p><p></p><p>My immunology specialist (former - now retired) used to say, "When the pain goes away, then we'll discuss getting you off the medications."</p><p></p><p>My neurologist says, "morphine is a lot better for you than prednisone." The pain specialist agrees with him.</p><p></p><p>And for whatever reason - my pain levels have reduced. So I grabbed the chance to reduce my opiate levels. My pain specialist is amazed and delighted - he's never had anyone on the high dose I was on, succeed in reducing so much, so quickly. Or ever. As I said to him, "It's a measure of the reduction in pain."</p><p></p><p>Pain is not gone, just improved enough to cut dosage back a long way. </p><p></p><p>Over the years, I've had doctors describe me as addicted (including my former immunologist). I challenged that then and still do. Habituated - yes. Dependent - certainly, because I am in pain and I depend on the opiates to ease the pain enough for me to function. But that's the point - on the medications, I FUNCTION. Without the pain medications, I cannot move. Although at the moment, if I have to skip a dose for a day I can still function, a little. Unlike a year ago when no pain medications meant hospital.</p><p></p><p>It is very easy to get addicted to this stuff. But if you can be disciplined and have good support (as I have had), you can take these medications long-term (for me it's been 15 years) and at fairly high doses, and still stop the medications as pain eases. I have just demonstrated this. </p><p></p><p>And if the patient is terminal, has dementia or for whatever other reason has a limited outlook, then deal with the pain first and worry about addiction next year, if the patient is still around.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 474276, member: 1991"] The thing about dependency (from personal experience) - if you are genuinely in pain, that pain needs to be treated. if you only take what you need to in order to deal with the pain, you will not get addicted. But you will get habituated to it (which is when the dose increases over time to get the same benefit). But the aim is - deal with the pain! My immunology specialist (former - now retired) used to say, "When the pain goes away, then we'll discuss getting you off the medications." My neurologist says, "morphine is a lot better for you than prednisone." The pain specialist agrees with him. And for whatever reason - my pain levels have reduced. So I grabbed the chance to reduce my opiate levels. My pain specialist is amazed and delighted - he's never had anyone on the high dose I was on, succeed in reducing so much, so quickly. Or ever. As I said to him, "It's a measure of the reduction in pain." Pain is not gone, just improved enough to cut dosage back a long way. Over the years, I've had doctors describe me as addicted (including my former immunologist). I challenged that then and still do. Habituated - yes. Dependent - certainly, because I am in pain and I depend on the opiates to ease the pain enough for me to function. But that's the point - on the medications, I FUNCTION. Without the pain medications, I cannot move. Although at the moment, if I have to skip a dose for a day I can still function, a little. Unlike a year ago when no pain medications meant hospital. It is very easy to get addicted to this stuff. But if you can be disciplined and have good support (as I have had), you can take these medications long-term (for me it's been 15 years) and at fairly high doses, and still stop the medications as pain eases. I have just demonstrated this. And if the patient is terminal, has dementia or for whatever other reason has a limited outlook, then deal with the pain first and worry about addiction next year, if the patient is still around. Marg [/QUOTE]
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I'm going to get a nurse fired--my blood pressure must be through the roof
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