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Questions & Comments about tapering off morphine (Kadian)
Chronic Pain | Last Active: Mar 3, 2018 | Replies (38)Comment receiving replies
@elsa, first, welcome to Connect and I hope you make yourself at home and keep bringing your experiences back to us. I was diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis and the primary symptom is pain in the abdomen that radiates into the back. Ladies/nurses I have spoken with who have had P, a child, and kidney stones say P is the worst. As a result, I have been on some form of opiate for 12 years and my amounts have gone up, tapered, gone up, tapered, sort of like a yo-yo. I am a backwards reactor to opiates; they pump me up and make me very hungry. When I go down, I am very tired, but the other w/d symptoms sound very familiar. You may not be symptom free for a few more days, but it sounds to me like you have done a tremendous job of reducing and getting opiate free. Immodium, rest, and any food and hydration you can stand may speed you through the last of the bad symptoms. I am not sure that once you get there, you will even feel as if you need the naltrexone. Great job and hope we hear more from you and your experience at Mayo. Gary
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Gary, thanks very much for your message! Funny, I just got back from Walgreens where I purchased Immodium and Melatonin. I spoke to the pharmacist and he said I would probably have the withdrawal symptoms for 3 or 4 more days. He thought my pain would lessen somewhat too.
I'm sorry to hear about the pain you sustain because of pancreatitis. It sounds extremely difficult to work with. I'm so impressed that you're a mentor on this discussion list and are responding to people, like me, who haven't been through Mayo's rehab program yet. Your comments give me a great deal of hope. Do you feel that your pain is well-managed at this point? I imagine the tapering up, then down, is difficult.
I have severe nerve pain stemming from a "simple" back surgery, a microdiscectomy, I had 8 years ago. During surgery the surgeon tore the membrane which surrounds the spinal cord (the"dura"). Many patients can sustain a dural tear without developing chronic pain but I also have MS, so my nervous system was already extra sensitive. In the year following surgery, the pain returned and got worse and worse. One year to date post-surgery I retired on a disability. In the 7 years since retiring from my job (I was the head of a branch library on the University of WI-Madison campus), I've experienced the "typical" downward spiral with severe neuropathic pain. First I was on gabapentin (still am, @900mg/daily), then Fentanyl, then off Fentanyl and on morphine + hydrocodone. My psychiatrist prescribed antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and methylphenidate to eliminate some of the opiate fog and help me focus better. At the highest levels of meds, 2 years ago, I was on 120mg Kadian daily, 2700mg. gabapentin daily, 50mg methylphenidate daily, up to 4 hydrocodone daily, plus various antidepressants and benzodiazepines for anxiety. Today I am opiate-free for 4 days, off the methylphenidate, sustaining at 900mg of gabapentin, plus effexor and sertraline for depression. Although I'm still experiencing fairly bad pain (peaking at "8" yesterday, "7" today), overall I'm thrilled to have my brain back!!! Today I was able to walk 2 blocks, and drive my car despite the pain.
My pain is located in my right buttock (sometimes the left side too), my right hamstring (sometimes the left one too) and the bottoms of both feet. It hurts to stand, walk, and sit. Because of nerve damage on the lower, backside of my body, some core muscles that normally would be firing to support my back, don't work right now. I'm greatly looking forward to working with PTs when I come for pain rehab.
Feel like I've written a novel here.... I'll close now. Thanks again for answering my post!
--Elsa