← Return to Chronic Pain members - Welcome, please introduce yourself

Discussion
Comment receiving replies
@phob

I am new to the group.My name is Pat. I have been taking morphine for about 10 years. It started after a severe fall which left me in chronic thoracic pain and a loss of 2" in 1 year. I was crying in pain all the time. What made it worse is nothing showed up on x-ray or MRI. Frustrating when you know something is wrong and they can't find it to attempt to fix it. After being on Percocet and needing more and more, the pain MD put me on long acting morphine plus quick acting morphine for breakthrough pain. I didn't have pain before the fall. Now, about 15 years later I have had both knees replaced, both shoulders replaced and now have spondylolisthesis in L5S1 which is very painful. Right after a cortisone shot in my low back, I can walk for about 1-2 months, gradually it wears off and I prefer to lie in bed or be in a chair. Walking is near impossible until the next cortisone injections. I used to be on a lot of morphine but have decreased my dose to 15 mg 2x/day which still helps. What I want is to switch to CBD with a little THC. It's been 8 months since I started using marijuana and I have yet to find that "sweet spot" you seem to talk about. I take 1/2 dropperful or .5 cc of CBD 2x/day. I also have a ittle edible THC. Perhaps I started the CBD dose a little high? I never did start off small and raise it until it was effective. How do you do that? Do you start with one drop for 2 weeks to see if there's any effect then go to 2 drops etc. I found .5 cc is not that many drops. Perhaps 3? Getting off the morphine is my primary objective. Doing it with the help of CBD would be ideal. Thank you for accepting me into this group. Any advice is appreciated.

Jump to this post


Replies to "I am new to the group.My name is Pat. I have been taking morphine for about..."

Hi @phob, Just curious as to whether your pain doctor has any opinion about CBD. I was taking it and found it to be helpful in my mood and how I felt about my pain (it seemed to distract me from it) but did not really change it if I was to focus on it. But I felt it was helpful in my mood and so built it up in my system by starting with two 25 mg capsules of CBD a day along with some tincture under the tongue. I built up to 4 capsules a day. At that point it showed up in small amounts in my drug test which I do when I visit my pain doctor since I am taking Norco (10-325). While they knew it was small amounts and what it was from, they said I needed to stop taking the CBD because they could not prescribe the opiods for me if I was having CBD show up in my urinalysis. They were very sympathetic and said they wished they didn't have to have me make this choice. I had to stop the CBD because the benefits of the opiods far outweigh the benefits of the CBD for me. I have stenosis, scoliosis and a whole lot of other things going on in my lower back. So I just wondered if you have to do drug tests and if you have had CBD show up. If so, is your pain doctor making you choose between the two? I had been told the CBD would not show up in my tests but it did. Luckily I have been going to this pain doctor for many many years and he trusts me with my pain meds so he understood my trying the CBD. He has seen my MRIs and knows the pain I am in. Just wondered if anyone else had had their pain doctor mention that they can't or won't prescribe pain meds if the CBD shows in their tests.

I never heard of going to the Dr.and having to take a drug test.As a retired nurse I use to give drug testing but to companies or organizations that requested it but not at Dr.,s office Suggestions:I have a fractured back ,2005, but still have discomfort if I don't lay down in afternoon for 30minutes I take Tramadol at first 3 a day now I'm down to 1a day Find Arnica tea it really helps with pain also Arnica cream brand NOW you have to order online1200 mg. magnesium (malete) there's a lot of diff.ones read up on them.

Here in Texas if you take narcotics the doctors all do it on a regular basis. I thought it was required of them since they all do it. I don't think Tramadol is in the category where you would be tested for that even here. I never was tested when I took it but it didn't work for me. Everyone I know who takes any amount of opiates on a regular basis gets tested at their doctor. So it is really common. I use Arnica on my legs for the burning. Yes it does help some but I don't think it is the brand you mention.

The Arnica tea is by Herbacil teas get in the body quicker then pills Maybe since so many opiates are in the USA as an epidemic that's why they test??

Thanks for the information about the tea. I will look into it. And I am sure that they are concerned regarding opiates. They want to make sure that you aren't getting it from more than one doctor as it is deemed that you have a contract with your doctor not to. I hope that people aren't judgmental of those who find that opiates do help them and who take them in a responsible way under the care of a pain management doctor. I am on the faculty at a major university and I know for certain that had I not been taking my pain meds over the last many years that I would not have been able to teach my classes. So many of us who take opiates are just trying to do what we can to keep our pain at a level where we can function while always looking for alternatives. So again, thank you for the information about the tea.

@phob

I don't have drug testing but my pcp, who prescribes my opiates under unreasonable limits by the hospital clinic he's with, but he told me that if I started taking any marijuana he would have to stop the opiates.

Jim

I must have missed something. I can't figure out what tea you are talking about. Do you mind to explain that? Thank you ahead.

Arnica is a tea made from the Arnica flower.It's a tea for chronic pain

Where do you get the tea? Thanks

I find it at Rite Aid