Morphine

[ICNJess]

How many use morphine for pain control? My doc just prescribed the 20mg. dosage for me and I am kind of concerned because in high doses I get a bad reaction, but morphine has helped with my pain before. She also ramped my Neurontin up to 2400mg. I'm pretty scared about having to be on morphine, but my doctor is not concerned. I am just wondering how those of you on it are doing.

Thanks,
Jess

[MarcieL]

Hey Jess,

I am scared to go on morphine too. I have been on Norco for almost a year now. My doctor wants me to switch to Oxycontin and I am scared. I would love to hear the responses you get about it. Maybe it will help ease my mind about it also.

Take care and hugs,


Marcie

[rachelm]

Jess, my pain dr. just switched me to Morphine 15 mg immediate release 3 weeks ago. I take 2 (30 mg) every 4-6 hours during the day and I usually make it through the night without one. There has only been one night that I didn't feel like it worked at all but my spasms were through the roof from an infection. It seems to help my pelvic, hip and back pain most. I was worried too about taking it. I thought it would make me loopy or that I would have bad dizzy and nausea spells. I have had a bit of nausea when I take it on an empty stomach or if I take a B&0 suppository with it. For the most part I've had more success with it than the hydrocodone 10 mg that I was taking. That seemed to stop working after an hour and I was taking 2 every 4 hours. It wasn't cutting it but the morphine has helped some.

I have talked to my nurse about what I should do when I go back to work because I'm nervous about the stigma of teaching children while being on morphine. She has tried to help me understand that it doesn't make me feel drugged it just reduces pain. I went through this when I first went on lortab too so I will just have to see how I do on it when I go back to work next week.

Let me know how you do if you get put on it.

[Julie Smith]

jess, after a year of ic i saw pain dr. yesterday for the first time. i was soooooo nervous. anyway, he was very nice and treats a lot of ic patients and was very knowledgeable about ic. my uro had me on valium 2mg. 3x day and maxidone every 8 hrs. as needed for pain and he didn't want to prescribe any more of this so that's why i had to see the pain dr.

anyway pain dr. assured me there are sooooooo many treatments for ic that we'd find something to relief this horrible pain. when he talked about methadone i was in shock, but he said there has been good results with it. i know everyone is different so i share this with you and hope it may help someone. I sure hope it helps me! he prescribed methadone 10 mg. 3x. day, zanaflex 2 mg. 3x day, nuerontin 400 mg.4x a day and changed my antidepressant to paxil cr 25 mg. from wellebutrin xr because needless to say i'm very depressed, what a suprise! if anyone had ever told me i'd be taking meth i'd say they were nuts! i never even did drugs and haven't drunk alcohol for years.

I can't begin to tell you what a difference seeing this pain dr. has made and I'm excited about possibly feeling better and resuming my life as i knew it before ic. plus my uro is happy he's not prescribing any pain meds. so it's a win win situation.
I no longer will take the valium or maxidone and will wean off xanax for sleep.

it is so wonderful to hear your stories and be able to share as well. may we all find relief and go on to resume our lives. you don't know how much this message board means to me. thank you all so much.

[rachelm]

Julie,
I take Zanaflax 4mg. too and it is a realy good muscle relaxer for pelvic pain. I started at 2mg and increased to 4mg after several monthes. I'm also on neurontin but I think my dr. is going to increase it soon. I just started Zoloft for depression but my dr. said it will help with pain too. Once I got over my hang ups about being on heavy pain meds I felt like I got my life back most of the time. I've had to take some time off for a really bad flare and change my pain meds to something stronger but I know that I will get my life back again soon and I will continue taking my pain meds as long as I need to. I'm lucky that I'm able to go off of narcotic pain meds usually in the summer and fall. Good luck on your new meds. I agree this message board is very special to me. It has allowed me a place to find others who really understand what I'm going through. Take care. Let us know how you are doing on your new meds. Did your pain dr. suggest nerve blocks? I had 3 one seemed to help but the last 2 didn't help at all. It was an easy procedure and certainly worth a try.

[DanaW]

Jess,
I am glad that you were given something for the pain. Don' worry that it is Morphine. As long as it works...that is most. Important. We deserve to have a good quality of life.

[ICNJess]

Thanks for the replies. I was hesitant at first, but this with the combination of my Neurontin seems to be working well. Thanks everyone!!

Dana, you are so right. wink

Hugs and love,
Jess

[sue041]

Hello,just wanted to let you know I have been on Morphine for over four years now, although mine is admistered through my internal pain pump. After I was on just the Morphine for about a year they added the Bupivicane to it. I have a great quality of life, most of the time. For the bad days I also take oral pain medication. My doctor also told me if these no longer help there are just thousands and thousands of other drugs including the anesthesia drugs that can be used in small doases. Please excuse the spelling. Take care and who cares what it is called as long as it helps. Good luck to you all. God will watch over us.
Sue....PS Where are the smilies lately????

[ICNJess]

Anyone know if there is a 30mg. dosage??

[Bea]

I hope it helps you Jess.. by the way.. how does neurontin help.. and are there any side effects

[dandy8]

Jess,

I was on Oxycontin for almost a year. I started taking Morphine a few months ago.
I take the time release morphine; MS Contin. My dose is 60mg (YES, 60mg!!) every 12 hours. I ALSO take sublingual morphine sulfate. It is prescribed so I can dissolve one 10mg tablet under my tongue every hour if needed. I generally don't take more than 6 of those per day.
So, as you can see I am taking a WHOPPING dose of the stuff!!

I have gone thru ups and downs with being worried about addiction. However, my uro feels that if the morphine is giving me quality of life it's worth it. My anesthesiologist told me that there really is no "cut off" dose with morphine. If needed it can be increased over time to an almost infinite dose. I just hope I never have to take more than what I'm already on.

Morphine does not make me sleepy or "drugged". It simply relieves my agony. I just hope that you are not afraid to take it if you need it. It truly has saved my sanity!

[dandy8]

Jess,
I forgot to say that the morphine sublingual has been a real life saver!
When I was hospitalized several weeks ago (because of severe IC pain) the anesthes. came in and spoke with me. He's the one that suggested the sublingual because it works immediatley.
Within 2 minutes I feel the pain subside.

BUT, let me tell you... the pharmacists have a cow when I fill it. The doctor writes it like this:
MS sublingual. 10mg every hour if needed. #100
They say that is the craziest Rx they have ever filled. And they do question me every time!! grrrr

[Dixiefireball]

hope you are feeling better now. grouphug

[Julie Smith]

Update on my new meds, First day I woke up in the middle of the night with a whopping headache all over my head throbbing. I'm used to migraines but this was more, different, I was in total agony. I took 2 more doses until I realized the new meds might be the cause. da,!!! So I called pain dr. and we spoke and he said he never heard of that reaction and to stop and come in this tues. so we can figure something out. No more headache since stopping. In the meantime I'm taking mny old meds- valium and maxidone. I feel so letdown and angry with myself. Can you believe that? Like there's something wrong with me because others don't have that reaction, so I'm beating myself up over this. He upped neurontin from 300mg 3x to 400mg 4x, that makes me really sleepy and I'm still on that with no headaches. Some hugs and encouragement would be great. Thank you all. banghead cussing toilet

[DanaW]

I am so sorry to hear about the headaches! I got headaches from Elmiron....hopefully he can adjust he meds. Maybe start out at a lower dose until your body adjusts? Good luck grouphug