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Originally posted via Mayo Clinic News Center
Ken Start is an optimistic, energetic husband, father and grandfather with a job and family he loves. It's a life Ken's fought for, but one he almost sacrificed to opioid addiction. For 15 years, Ken was addicted to prescription pain medication, an addiction that was finally broken with the help of Mayo Clinic's Pain Rehabilitation Program and Addiction Services.
Not long ago, Ken Start began a speech to a roomful of physicians by saying, "I am your worst nightmare, the guy you do not want in your waiting room."
Ken said the words jokingly, but behind the remark was a painful truth. For 15 years, Ken struggled against a crippling opioid addiction that developed after he received prescription pain relievers for spinal injuries from a car accident. Through the years, Ken lied to and manipulated his family, friends and physicians to feed his addiction.
But in 2004, Ken's life changed course when he arrived at Mayo Clinic. Distraught and near suicidal, Ken's trip to Mayo was a last-ditch effort to save himself and the life he'd built with his family. At Mayo Clinic, Ken met W. Michael Hooten, M.D., in Pain Medicine. "The morning Dr. Hooten walked in, that's the day my life changed," Ken said.
Continue reading via the Mayo Clinic News Center
Helpful Links:
- Learn more about Mayo Clinic's Pain Rehabilitation Center
- Connect with others via Addiction and Recovery
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You go Ken! Still one day at a time. I became addicted to Percocet after a surgery when I was 32. It is still sines an uphill battle, but I have sober since that time. So excited to hear about your progress!
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1 ReactionDid you stop opioids? If so, what was that like? I am having trouble going lower .
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2 ReactionsAre you taking opioids for a specific reason or just addicted? I’ve been using Percocet 5/325 for over 15 gears for pain due to an injury. I wasn’t addicted but dependent, for which I now have chronic pain syndrome due to the injury. I have been able to cut my Percocet use completely by using high dose CBD and low dose THC. My main pain control is with buprenorphine patches that I replace every 7 days. Buprenorphine is used in the pill, buccal film or long acting injection. The doses are different for chronic pain control and opiate addiction. You can try my method, find a treatment center or your PCP who can begin you on this medication.
The other thing I wish to point out that “addiction” has very bad associations with that are no longer appropriate and I suggest you try “opiate use disorder”. The definition of addiction is to seek more and more of a drug and in increasing doses sometimes. But using these opiates for pain is not addiction.
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2 ReactionsI have had undiagnosed severe stomach pain for two years now. I am the point of trying different pain medicines like hydrocodone and oxycodone. From past experiences and different chronic pains, some pain medicines work better for different pains. Does anyone have suggestion on what opioids would work better for stomach pain? Thanks
I have a dependence due to failed fusion surgery and over 30 epidurals blocks etc. I am glad to hear about the patches you described. I have seen pain specialists but they don't seem to go beyond epidural s.
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1 ReactionIf you could stop percocet with the use of CBD and THC,why do you need buprenorphine? I got very low blood pressure using CBD and delta 8. I stopped both too guickly and got serious panic attacks causing me to call 911. I am now not taking CBD or THC. If I stop Percocet what to do about pain? I am trying mindfulness and physical therapy. I am onterested in buprenorphine.
Please read this if i haven’t already shared this with you. For 24/7 pain you need 24/7 relief. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4675640/
I don’t like the additional load placed on my liver by Tylenol in Percocet or GI binding of opiates.
Chronic undiagnosed stomach pain I believe needs a diagnosis to determine correct treatment. Giving you meds to block pain covers up symptoms you’re having which may not be a positive thing to do. I presume you’ve been worked up by GI?
So true. Dependent is the maintenance of treatment as prescribed. Seems like people are tossed into the “addicted” bucket so quickly - and unfairly.
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2 ReactionsI use Tramadol but doesn’t solve problem. Pain comes back and it’s a cycle that doesn’t change