Joe I am very sory you are in this situation bud, I was never on alot of very high doses because of my intollerences of the meds, I used to be in hell, I would get so sick on them.. I would take em anyway cause felt I had to but not full doses cause I got sick alot.. and I was in so much pain my rsd spread.. So finaly they started me on a new treatment that helped bring my pain levels down @ 30% for periods of time.. wow! It was incredible, and it still is every month when I get my infusion again. Subcutanious lidocaine infusions every 3-4 weeks.. they are more for, if more than one area is effected with RSD as it (lidocaine/anesthesia) works systemicly throughout your whole body.

I just weaned off anything heavy I was on at the time my pain was contained, cource it was very hard to not reach for something a little later as the pain levels grew, but it helped knowing it was only temporary and that I get another infusion soon.

Good luck, hope this can help.
~Sadra

So here are some reports that state narcotics don't really accomplish that much (No, I'll never agree with this, they instead give be back some quality of life) and that we might as well go ahead and stop taking them. You did and you're fine so long as you enjoy your ice cream with a brownie on the side. Well what about those of us who don't live in areas of the world where marijuana is legal?

10 years ago my Mayo's trained doctor told me that anytime I'm out in Southern California for an extended visit where pot is legal he'd have it waiting for me. Meanwhile that's not an option for me where I live. Isn't pot still helping to manage the pain? Of course I wish we had an option that wouldn't be as hard on the body, but I don't like the fact that I do feel a bit foggy headed when I've taken a toke, unlike Morphine I've never felt any differences in the mind whatsoever. I can see applications for both under certain circumstances, but I think that the idea of narcotics being a bad thing according to that study just wasn't being evaluated by the person living with the pain thus their prejudices maybe clouded the results in the end. Of course this is just my stupid opinion and considering the load of drugs I"m on, it's worth even less. But gee, this has been fun! Bob.

Hi. When I went to Cleveland Clinic pain program that was the first thing was to take people off the narcotic or other similar meds. Only meds that were alowed were like neurontin. For me since I was on them a short time I got off them easily. Also when I was on them I was crying from pain still and when I went off them my pain did not increase. For others who has been on them longer they had a ruffer time getting off. Some people I think had to go inpatient for a few days to be monitored. Since then I have seen a few docs who deal with RSD and for me and I am not saying others but for me they felt that long term it woud make my brain process the pain more. I am not sure what the answer is. I do feel everyone has to do what gets them through and is the best for them.

You don't want to take medication you don't need or isn't helping. With this condition you can end up on a lot of them if you take everything. Talk to your doctor about what helps and what doesn't. Avoid taking more drugs to get rid of side effects. Try to start one medication at a time and change your regimine one thing at a time so you know what the effects are.

It's said that the narcotics are safe enough if you follow doctor's orders. Most of these are probably no tougher to kick than tobacco. I know one person who was taking massive doses of methadone and was able to kick it entirely (with the docs help) in only a few weeks.

Each of us and our disease might be different but one of the bigfgest things for me is avoiding the triggers. Of course they can be unavoidable but try to learn them and to your best to keep them at bay. Distract yourself from the pain.

Good luck.

Hi again Joe.. I think the most important thing is for your pain to be managed before you try detox.. in other words.. I had another pain relief method working for me at the time (being my subcutanious lidocaine infusions), so at least I was mainly dealing with the rebound pain from the morphine at first and my bodys intollerance it helped me as well.

Bob, I just post these research papers to try to be helpful, we are all diffrent and our bodys react diffrently. I do understand that narcotics are helpful for CRPS and some people tollerate them very well, I am glad it is helping you so much my friend and I do not mean to imply that we should not be on narcotics, just that we should be aware of the potentual problems that are there as well..

Peace my friends.
~ Sandra

RSD/CRPS Research and Developements.