Quote:
Originally Posted by chrelsey
Also, my pain management doctor has decided that now is the time to wean me completely off of my pain meds - once I'm off completely, we can determine if I perhaps need to go onto a long-term, more effective pain med. I understand his reasoning, but I don't understand why not just make the med change instead of insisting that I be off of all pain meds for a month. What value is there in me being in so much pain? What will that tell him? How will that help? I'm frustrated with the process, and with a doctor who can so easily dismiss my pain by saying, "I know you're strong - you can handle it." But I'm not "strong" anymore - chronic pain has a way of sucking that strength right out of me, and as I gradually wean off of these meds and my pain increases, I continue to dread the weeks when I am not on anything at all.
=Becky
|
Becky
You know what? this sounds very familiar to me b/c my PM doc mentioned doing this to me on a couple of occasions. He termed it a "Drug Holiday"
yeah right, hoot hoot. His reasoning had to do with my tolerance to my meds. By tapering me way down, he would be able to get a baseline measurement of my pain, kinda like starting over. The 'holiday' is the period of time it takes to wean way down or even completely off the meds. He would then be able to start a different pain med plan without me having a tolerance build up.
Well, he retired before we actually tried this (thank God) so I didn't have to do it. But yeah, I was a bit p.o.'d about it b/c how on earth are we supposed to go without pain meds??!!! And for him to make it sound so lah dee dah easy, it seemed completely unrealistic to me.
Your Dr probably has other reasoning for what he's saying about this, but I thought I'd share this with you. Maybe you've already heard the term 'drug holiday'.
Another term I've been told is 'hyperalgesia', which has something to do with long-term pain medication actually causing a sort of 'rebound' effect to where the pain meds actually
causing more pain. ?? 
Not sure if I described it correctly.....here's a Wikipedia description of opioid induced hyperalgesia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid-...d_hyperalgesia
Well, whatever the case may be, I sure hope your doc doesn't actually take you completely off your meds. To me, that is just plain 'BAD MEDICINE'
I know me well enuf - I'd end up on my local psych ward.
With what you are going through right now, this seems the worst time ever to try that.
Turning 50 is a big deal. If your doctor ruins it for you, I will personally jump in my cybermobile and pay him a visit........ not a nice one that's for sure.
You don't deserve this!
Rae