Morphine

[cooki]

Hello all I am looking for some help, and Im hoping someone may be able to give me some information. I am trying to help someone very close to me. He is a Disabled Vet and has Sever back pain. He currently takes Morphine, and Percocet (sp?) for pain. He seems to be going through WD's (withdrawls) all the time, because the VA in his area is not on top of things, he calls and reorders when he is supposed to and still he seems to always run out and have 3-7 days worth of WD's. Now for many reasons this is such a bad thing, 1-because of his pain. 2- because of the physical reactions of his body due to WD's, I am truely frightened that one of these times he is going to have a heart attack or some other kind of sever reaction to his WD's. I am hoping someone may be able to tell me of a medication that he could suggest to his DR. Something that will take care of his pain, but possibly not cause such sever WD's. I am willing to try anything at this point, so any suggestions would be welcome even if its not meds related. Thank you for your time in reading this.

Sincerely,
~Cooki

[lrrwife]

You may want to check and see if your friend is taking the proper dosage. Morphine is controlled and should only be taken as directed. My husband, who had a severe fall and injured his back, was on morphine for the past 3 years. He recently died from gall bladder cancer. The morphine was masking the symptons of the cancer until it was too late. You should advise your friend to be extremely careful with morphine!

[feelbad]

I also have a good friend who gets his meds thru the VA and has the same exact problem.it is really appalling to do this to people who are on opiates as these docs are totally aware of what they put the patients thru when they go into Wds because someone is not staying on top of things.i wonder if this could be reported to the AMA,as the docs are still just docs afterall.things thru the VA are way different than if you were just seeing your own regular doc.is there any way he could start seeing an actual pain management doc not affiliated with the VA?or maybe you could go with him to his next appt and advocate for him and tell them just what this man is having to go thru because of someones ineptitude.it really does disgust me what these VA hosps can get away with.I would start complaining to anyone and everyone there who will listen.this is malpractice by way of negligence and should not be tolerated.when you know you are on the right side of things,I would push this as far as possible til someone listens.I am sorry for what your friend has to go thru.Marcia

[georgie430]

Withdrawel from opiates in my opinion is harder then any other, main reason being is that doctors say you cant die from the withdrawel (which is debateable) cause I left many detox's cause I became suicidal. Anyway they really dont give you anything to help you along!! My opinion again, would be to go on the methadone program, If you are going to be in pain for a long time or you have a chronic illness. Why not, "supposedly" it is safe and it is also legal!! Why suffer, because it is "politically incorrect" ridiculous!!