kellymoe said:
I absolutely agree with you. My concern with the vicodin is not so much the dependency but the amount of Tylenol intake. Tylenol takes a toll on the liver and kidneys after a while. I take blood tests about every 6 weeks just to keep an eye on it and so far so good. I tried methadone for pain for a month and while it worked it made me feel like crap. I stopped taking that and had withdrawals immediately, so I tapered off over a week and was fine after that. My doc gave me slow release morphine pills which take the edge off and have very little to no "high" effect and it lets me take less vicodin. Now down to 2 1/2 to 3 vicodin a day and hoping to get off them completely. The slow release morphine pills release over 24 hours and have no Tylenol.
If I didnt work for the fire dept. I would be all over the med marijuana. A co workers father died of cancer recently and he used marijuana for the pain and it made all the difference. Marijuana has a stigma which I believe is totally unfounded. As a paramedic I see the terrible affects of alcohol everyday. In the last 20 years I cant recall one domestic dispute or violent crime that was caused by marijuana. Alcohol is a much more destructive drug on our society.
Kevin
I'm pullin for ya, man. I can see the pain in your words and I see the reaction it is having on your life. You are fortunate to have someone who loves you in your life to help you through..but even that can be stressful because BOTH parties feel inadequate and helpless when yer riding "The Pain Train".
I know you don't know me..but wow...from reading your words I can see that we've held the same mirror and have seen the same reflections tossed back at us.
I started on Vicodins..5/500. Tylenol has always given me a good WHAP to the gut but I put up with it for the first part of my "pain management" (addiction) because..well..you know how it is..you'll simply do ANYTHING to stop that pain..even temporarily.
Once I got used to the knockdown and the buzz the pills gave me I put up with the nausea and the upset stomach the Tylenol gave me *just* prior to the opiates hitting my system . After that happened...all was well...or so I told myself.
Like you..2000-3000+ mg of Tylenol a day concerned me...and when I complained about stomach upset my doc put me on Norco...5/325, the lowest dosage combo of Tylenol/opiate.....but after awile he ratcheted my dosage to 8 pills a day and I was back eating a bunch of Tylenol. It was then that he put me on the oxycodone IR(instant release) 5 mg pills....containing no Tylenol whatsoever.
I was getting 200 a month... and for awhile there near the end I was taking *anything else* anyone would hand me that had opiates in them. Uhhhuuum.
What we will do to ourselves for a bit of relief is staggering...and the burdens society places upon us for seeking relief is shameful...such as the stigma in the jobplace with marijuana when used in this same light.
And hey..I must admit that the BRAINWASHING *is* complete in America... because as someone who has smoked pot as both a teen and an adult "recreationally" (aka, illegally) it took ME awhile to lose *the stigma* you speak of even as a legal patient and I kept the fact I was smoking daily hidden for a year+ from family and casual friends because I didn't want any fallout for the wife @ work/etc.
However, changes will not be made in laws and more importantly..in that stigma you speak of if regular/good folks out there (like the people who read this board) don't hear some of the "success" stories that I hear everyday as a patient.
Anyway..just watch out for that opiate suckerpunch.
PM's are always open, FWIW.
mtn-high
