My Drug Problems

In the fall of last year (2013) I began my long journey of getting help for my scoliosis pain.  I saw my primary care physician to get a referral to a neurosurgeon here in town.  In the meantime he gave me a prescription for some pain medicine.  This would be the first of many meds I would try.  

The first prescription was for Amitriptyline.  It was fabulous!  I couldn't remember the last time I hadn't felt pain.  I told someone how amazed I was at how much I could accomplish when I wasn't in pain.  I thought, "So this is what other people feel like!"  Never take for granted how blessed you are to live without pain.  Everything started out great.  I just had the normal side effect of dry mouth.  Over the next month I began to develop nearly every possible side effect.  Dizziness, lightheadedness, blurred vision, shaking, pounding heartbeat, trouble concentrating.  Not much fun but I felt it was worth not having the back pain.  Finally after about three months I developed the "serious but rare allergic reaction" of an itchy, swollen tongue.  As luck would have it I was speaking that Sunday at church.  I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it from my seat to the pulpit without falling over.  Somehow I managed to but my next task was concentrating and not loosing my place in my talk.  With the combination of shaking from meds and slight nervousness I probably looked like I was terrified.  Which really I wasn't.  I found the whole situation rather comical (especially speaking with a swollen, itchy tongue). I also had hydrocodone for breakthrough pain but my body had no response to this at all.  No pain relief whatsoever (or any other reaction, thankfully).  Needless to say I stopped taking that medicine and called my doctor to find something else to try. 

Next came Gabapentin.  It only took one dose of this for me to have itching all over especially on my face.  I could sleep and was pretty certain I was going to go crazy from the extreme itchiness!

On to percocet.  Once again I experienced itching, as well as, stomach pain and excessive anger.  

After all this the doctor moved on to morphine.  I strongly dislike morphine! I was taking a 12 hour extended release twice daily.  It was great at first at relieving pain but of course I soon became tolerant.  At about 8 hours I could feel it wear off and at 10 hours I was in horrible pain again.  So the doctor had me start taking three a day, every 8 hours.  As is the nature of morphine, this soon became ineffective.  I was ready to be finished with morphine.  I didn't like how drowsy I was feeling; how difficult it had become to form thoughts and speak in complete sentences.  I specifically ask my doctor if I needed to wean off the morphine as I had been taking it for 3-4 months.  He said no I could just quit taking it.  About 3 hours after missing my normal dose of morphine I woke up with excessive sweating, especially on my back.  Then I began to vacillate between chills and sweating.  Over the next 12 days I experienced continued sweating and chills, muscle cramps, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, restless legs, anxiety, sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes, decreased appetite.  It was the worst the first 4 days.  Sleeping was impossible  (until I remembered on day 3 I had a Valium left over from something else).  I learned morphine stores in the fat and brain.  The body is trying to detox by sweating all the morphine out.   So I force myself to keep eating, drinking fluids and moving (even though I really just wanted to lay on the floor because I was quite certain I was going to die!)  Thankfully the withdrawal symptoms began to taper off after day four.  However, I went from no appetite to an out of control voracious appetite.  I craved anything and everything that was sugary, fatty, and salty.  Unfortunately after you go off morphine you also experience higher pain sensitivity and my doctor was at a loss as to what medicine to prescribe next.  Life was pretty rough.  Don't do drugs kids!

Now I take Tramadol, which just kind of takes the edge off.  I was able to get a prescription to purchase a TENS unit (trans-cutaneous electrical nerve stimulator).  This has saved me from horrendous pain many times.  At night I take baclofen which treats muscle spasms.  I also slap a lidocaine patch on my back.  With all this I can sleep without waking 6-8+ times a night.  Now I only wake 3-4 times.   

Now I'm just waiting out my days until my spinal fusion...