Morphine use

[Daisy2701]

Just over 5 years ago I fell from a ladder whilst cleaning my gutters and fell through a secondary roof which was made from corrugated plastic and 4" x 2" wood, most of which I broke on my descent to a block brick floor. I was airlifted to Southampton Hospital and was in resus for nearly 4 hours and in hospital for nearly 4 months. The damage I have done to my body is long term and life changing. I broke my neck and broke my back in 5 places, broke my sternum and crushed my ribs back and front and broke other bones aswell. I have been on Morphine since I was in hospital . I am looking for some way to get off of the opioids but still combat the pain in some way. Looking for any recommendations. Thank you

[Madlegs1]

I had a similar experience. Tree fell on me and resulted in Broken back, flailed ribs etc etc.Came out of hospital after 6 months on Fentanyl 70 MCG.

It took me 18 months to get off that , with absolutely no help from the medical community.

My biggest help was from the Blue light sites on inet-. Drug addict sites.

Some of those people really know their stuff.

It's like any drug -- there will be a long slow withdrawal period until you get to base line.

Firstly- what opioid are you on?

What other meds are you on.

What is the pain level if you don't take the painkillers? Apart from any withdrawal feeling?

Others on this community may have experienced whatever medications you are on.

Get back to us!👍

[Daisy2701 in reply to Madlegs1]

Do you mean all of my other meds or just pain relief?

[Madlegs1 in reply to Daisy2701]

Everything!

So many meds can trigger RLS.

There are alternatives for some of them.

This helps pinpoint exactly what may be causing your symptoms.

[Bevvy]

Sorry to hear all that you have been through. Possibly slightly strange question but have doctors advised why you are in so much pain still? I ask because broken bones will eventually heal. Have you damaged the nerves in your back which is now causing the pain?

Also (I don’t know Southampton area) are you now under a specialist spinal unit or ideally spinal hospital? I am under a spinal hospital due to a spinal injury from Cauda Equina and they have been extremely helpful with all my rehab.

[Bananas5]

If the morphine is helping to control your pain why do you want to stop?

x

[Konagirl60 in reply to Bananas5]

I second that. There is a lot of talk among doctors who feel that long term chronic pain is all in our heads. No it’s not.

This notion they have that eating an anti inflammatory diet, meditating, doing stretches etc. will help the pain is nonsense.

Yes the above may help digestion, lower blood pressure and calm the Sympathetic Nervous System but they won’t heal a severely broken neck, back or compressed nerve (s).

The only natural products that have helped me are magnesium bisglycinate ( spasms ), fresh turmeric juice blended with ginger and a dash of black pepper, homemade ginger tea, and for sleep tryptophan soft gels.

I had a severely pinched nerve and it was decompressed 4 years too late. It is not completely healed and it never will be.

I still use two meds at bedtime plus an anti inflammatory in the day if I’m in a flare. I am not an addict.

I don’t believe you are an addict either.

Good luck weaning off of morphine. Take it slowly. I wish you had guidance from a doctor.

[Mitch48 in reply to Konagirl60]

Stretching, yoga, meditation, mindfulness & amazing therapy (CBT several years ago) along with a positive mindset, certainly help me to cope with my constant severe chronic pain caused by extensive cervical & lumbar spinal injuries that began 20 years ago following a road traffic collision that wasn’t my fault, ended my career, my lifetime of running & changed my life, I was 34 years old.

It’s worth giving everything a go in an attempt to be able to deal with your everyday life after injury and that includes your own methods of reducing pain eg, Tens machine, hot baths, cold spray etc, meds, pain clinic therapies, procedures & surgery (if appropriate). I understand what works for one may not work for another but these things are worth trying as one or more could help.

[Konagirl60 in reply to Mitch48]

Absolutely they worth trying. I’m not arguing with that.

Unfortunately for me and many others the injury is severe and medications are still required.

While using meds it’s important to keep hydrated.

[birdmcgee]

I had a similar experience weaning off of buprenorphine. My pain consultant told me an analogy that, your 'endorphins' or 'endogenous morphines' are like a natural pain relief that your body makes. The first time you take a morphine based drug, it tops you up, the second or third time, your body reduces the amount of endorphins it produces because it thinks 'oh I don't need to make as much now' which means you need more morphine to top you up to the right amount.

As the timeline goes on, your body basically stops producing endorphins and you needs more and more morphine. The pain hasn't always necessarily got worse, but your ability to feel pain has become greater. So he said, just do it really slow, allow your body to adjust to the reduced dose and kick start that endorphin production again. So I reduced by a quarter of a patch at a time - each time for 3 or 4 months. Took me 18 months or more to wean off, but in the grand scheme of things it is not too long.

So, take it slow and don't expect to be able to do it in a week or even a month, without nasty side effects. Maybe see if your Dr can prescribe your morphine in smaller dose tablets so you can have greater control over how much you take.

[MyStar86 in reply to birdmcgee]

Did you cut your patches to reduce the dose or were your dosages reduced by using weaker patches? Just I was told never to cut the patches and even in all the paper work it says no not cut them as it can result in you getting a hit for the full 7 days dose in one go as it works to deliver the medication across the whole patch so cutting it is dangerous…….just going off what I was told.

[Loramay in reply to MyStar86]

I have been cutting my patches into 3 I'm on 3 day patch because I heard someone else doing it on this on here. I started because on day 3 I was bedridden and I wanted my life back. It worked and by cutting a mm every 3 days I was able to go from 125mg to 50mg. My doctor knows but says he will deny it we did try going onto slow release morphine but I ended up with breathless and instead of been on the equivalent I had to end up having double again it has been tried before when I was in hospital and it didn't work then either this year we are giving gabapentin ago at reducing

[MyStar86 in reply to Loramay]

I’m happy with the buprenorphine I just find it only lasts me 4 days so I put a new patch on then which seems to help otherwise I’m in hell for 3 days as mine is a 7 day patch but there is no way this lasts 7 days at all because I can feel great for 3 but by the 4th I know what will happen tomorrow but I was just told never to cut the patches so I just have two patches on at one time when I get to the 4th day I add the new one and leave the other one on for 3 days just in case there is some extra in there to get me through to day 7 without being in agony. I am only on the 10mcg patches though.

[birdmcgee in reply to MyStar86]

I did cut them, under the advice of my pain consultant. He gave me a verbal disclaimer that this was an 'off label' way of doing it and not what you're normally supposed to do however he was personally happy to prescribe it this way. I wouldn't be in the position to and can't give advice over this, just sharing my personal experience.

[MyStar86 in reply to birdmcgee]

Thank you well it’s good to know someone that has cut them because I always wanted to do that but I was always scared of doing it but in my head it made sense as you can cut her patches and they only work via the same process so I’m sure it’s just a warning as it happened to 1 person in a million or something but thank you for sharing xx

[Cappo]

Hi I have tried numerous meds since 2016 I’m on pragablin and morphine and a few more they say that’s it cannot give me anything else I use tense machines heated back brace and wheat bags all theses can ease the pain hope this helps good luck

[Susieqintx]

I am so sorry you had the life changing accident. My daughter is a nurse. When she was in nursing school she was taught that a good substitute for opiods is taking extra strength Tylenol with ibuprofen. You can take both at once and 4-6 take again. Or you can take Tylenol and 2 hrs later take the ibuprofen. I take them together—both extra strength. You can’t take over the recommended amount of each medication for a 24 hr period. I take that instead of opioids. However, your injuries are much worse, so you may not get enough relief. I would talk to your doctor and see what he/she recommends. Sending prayers for your recovery🙏🏼

[Blackknight1989]

Be careful with the NSAIDS…several of us here belong to a CKD group and many who now suffer from late stage kidney disfunction trace our issues at least in part to use of NSAID pain relievers…not abuse, nor taking them daily but just using them as recommended as a primary pain reliever…as a stage 4 CKD sufferer I CANNOT take NSAID any longer, however, even if I had healthy kidneys I WOULDNT take NSAIDS ever…the medical community will downplay the risk but I’ve suffered with stage 4 CKD for nearly 30 years and I’ve seen hundreds of newly diagnosed CKD suffers and more than 50/60% of them will have CKD due in part to NSAIDS…just my opinion…best of luck!

[FRreedman]

I echo Blackknight 1989 regarding NSAID. Have you considered (or your medics) Nortriptyline or Duloxitine. They work in a slightly different way to morphine, but can be really effective pain relief. Please only change your medication with assistance from and agreement of your medics.

[Mitch48]

Hi there,

Is it the dosage amount of Morphine that is making you want to reduce/come off of it? Is it purely for breakthrough pain & you take something stronger everyday such as wearing a transdermal patch?

Do you have spinal nerve damage and if so do you take either Gabapentin, Pregabalin or Duloxetine etc, along with other meds?

I have extensive cervical & lumbar spinal injuries, the most serious were from impending cauda equina and spondylolisthesis involving two vertebrae whereby I had emergency surgery, 2 discectomies, a posterior lumbar Interbody fusion, 3 laminectomies & 3 foraminotomies. Following two previous ACDF’s I was left with C5/6 & C6/7 radiculopathies along with L3/4 & L4/5 radiculopathies from the lumbar surgery. I also have a long list of symptoms & other conditions relating to the majority of my head/face & body.

I am on Fentanyl patches 75 mcg’s, take 39 ml doses of Oramorph for breakthrough, 2700 mgs Gabapentin, 50 mls Baclofen, 120 mls Duloxetine.

I don’t take Naproxen or Lansoprazole anymore as I have ulcerative colitis, nor amitriptyline as I have numb feet & a lower leg, am prone to falls & have to get up in the night numerous times as the impending cauda equina caused to have me several permanent bladder symptoms.

The reason that I have outlined all of this is that I would like to reduce both my Fentanyl & the Oramorph due to the fact that the former converts to ridiculously high amounts of morphine, added to the Oramorph (which I take very sparingly - a few times each month) and neither are working well (I know that opioids do not work well for nerve pain of course) and that morphine also prevents nerve receptors from working and reducing your overall pain levels (from my pain clinician).

I have recently had Radio Frequency Ablation for the first time on my lumbar spine & it has helped several symptoms reduce but not the most painful/debilitating unfortunately such as the lightening electric shock pains in my legs & feet or the swelling of my legs & feet (both occur on their own but are exacerbated by walking & my mobility is affected the worst by my lumbar injuries).

I will be having the same treatment on my cervical spine for the 6th time and from past experience this has worked better on that area of my spine.

I have only agreed to reduce my opioids whilst having success from this treatment on both areas of my spine. The RFA’s are the only treatment/procedures that have given me a reduction in pain and/ or a reduction in frequency and/or duration of my other symptoms eg. muscle spasms in different areas of my body.

I will be guided by my pain clinician to reduce the Oramorph by how much & at what frequency and hope for a much clearer mind of brain fog & an improvement in my cognitive function. I have major problems staying asleep & hope this will also help as I do not feel refreshed having taken so many meds throughout the day, with pain & bathroom visits hindering. I also have chronic fatigue from the ulcerative colitis and another auto immune condition I have - sarcoidosis.

Any improvement in my overall wellbeing will be so welcome. I hope you will be striving and receive that too.

Regards,

Mitch.