It is, but it's also an incredibly useful medication and is safe as long as it's used as prescribed.
What gets me is that with all the external pressures to not allow patients the opportunity to misuse narcotic pain medications, doctors can't be arsed to educate patients on the possibilities of addiction. One of my coworkers is a young man who broke his jaw rather nastily as a result of a skate-boarding accident. The first time I worked with him after was well enough to return to work, he was shaking and nauseated as a result of trying to do without whatever heavy-duty pain relief he had been given. He had taken the medication, as directed, so had it in his system pretty steadily for a number of weeks. When I suggested it might be withdrawal symptoms, and that he might get some relief from the nausea from taking Emetrol, he was grateful for the information. He also was kind of upset that his doctor had not warned him of the possibility of addiction. Do they think if they talk about addiction before it happens that they are giving people ideas?
He also was kind of upset that his doctor had not warned him of the possibility of addiction.
I took the maximum dose of percocet pretty much every day for 6 weeks before my back surgery. Since I had zero pain when I woke up in recovery, I stopped taking the percocet cold turkey. No one mentioned this might be a bad idea. My withdrawal was SO BAD. And I didn't even know it was withdrawal, because no one mentioned that could happen. I called my primary-care doctor's answering service on the weekend, and he took his own call back then, so he called me and when I explained it, he said "You're having withdrawal." I was dumbfounded. He told me to take half a percocet and take a nap when the sweats and shakes subsided, and to keep taking half a tablet every X hours, and call him Monday for a plan to taper off of it. (Even when I tapered off it, it was hard to do.)
At my follow-up appointment with the surgeon, I told him about it, and mentioned maybe he should tell patients they shouldn't go cold turkey off narcotics, and he pooh-poohed it, saying no one could get addicted in 6 weeks. (That is my only quibble with him, because he is otherwise the golden god who fixed my back and made me able to walk, pain-free, again.)
How can a doctor -- whose patients surely are taking narcotics -- not know about physical dependence???
I don't know, Tep. I'm often amazed that they don't know that you can be a grown-up with CP(or in some sad cases, what CP is)
In Hubby's circumstance, I think it was accepted that he was going to be on that level of drugs for the rest of his life, so withdrawal was not going to be an issue. I knew new doctors would look at his drug list and go "Oh, there has to be a way to get you off some of those drugs, it's not good for you," and he'd point to the certified pain doctor who had prescribed most of them. Though it did take the pharmacist to say "You've got half a dozen interactions going on here, tell your doctor to take a look at these drugs and see which ones are really necessary." Turned out he was taking drugs just to deal with the effects of the interactions between another set of drugs.
(Though all his drugs has certainly contributed to my apparently reaching a lifetime cap on prescription co-pays, because I haven't had to pay for any of my drugs for over a year. God bless good insurance, how the uninsured cope with these things I don't know.)
God bless good insurance, how the uninsured cope with these things I don't know.)
or deal with bad insurance. In a word - badly.
and Connie, you keep anything you damn well want to for as long as it makes you happy.
Thank you all for the sympathy. I did manage to sleep after taking extra med so was a little groggy today. But, I was less panicked today.
Then, I came home to find that a Buffista had generously helped me out and am verklempt that this is the kind of place where we really take care of each other.
The sweet, kind and generous Nanita is my benefactress and is a goddess to me.
Eh, I had some extra needed putting to good use. Hope it helps.
Nanita is indeed rather goddesslike that way. A lot of us owe her, with a lot of love.
quester, glad things are a little better.
askye, I meant to say! Looking forward to having you as an NC-ista. We will be about four hours apart, but hopefully there can be togethering at some point.
