Hello all,
I’ve been lurking here for a VERY long time. Around 20 years. I’m 40 and have been in chronic pain for about 25 years.
I have psoriatic arthritis, Ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn’s disease and Chiari malformation Type 1. I also believe I have EDS. The first three cause much pain in my joints throughout my body.
The Chiari gives me terrible cerebrospinal fluid pressure headaches. The back of my brain sags down into the back of my skull and blocks the fluid from moving behind the back of my brain and so the pressure builds up. It’s been documented on CINE MRI.
Ive been going to pain management for about 10 years. My dose has been all over the place during that time. It started small and ended up VERY high. I inadvertently stumbled into a pill mill as my very first pain management “clinic”. I had legitimate testing to show I needed to be there. I paid with insurance and credit card to cover the deductible/co-pay. I didn’t know it was shady for a long while.
Eventually the dose was increased. And then again. I never paid more to the doc but I now think he thought he was doing me a favor.
At one point I was being prescribed 360 30mg oxycodone each day. At one point I was taking every one of them.
Several years ago, I developed a serious case of constipation that I couldn’t fix with my normal methods. So I ended up at an ER where they gave me a soap enema. It worked well and they gave me some clonidine as well.
I ended up sleeping for a couple days. The clonidine kind of knocked me out. And I ended up taking much less oxy than normal during that time.
It kind of reset my system and after that my tolerance was reset. I began taking much less each day and I started saving a lot of pills. I just saved and saved as I knew that some day the gravy train would run out and I’d need them.
That day finally came. My doc was raided by the feds. They shut him down saying he was to blame for a lady dying. Long story short, he was never indicted but I had to move on. He later committed suicide. It was Very sad.
I went to a new doctor. It was very hard to find someone who would take me knowing what had happened to my previous doctor. He immediately cut me way back on the prescribed dose. My previous doc had started the process when he got wind of an investigation. I had gone from 360 30mg per month to 240 30mg a month.
The new doctor changed it to 240 15mg a month. And we’ve worked it down to 165 15mg a month. This been over the course of the last 18 months.
But I never really cut back from my 6 30mg a day. Or more. And now my savings account has dwindled. I’m down to sbout 500 30mg pills. Down from about 4,000.
I’m taking one 15mg every 4 hours or so. It’s keeping the withdrawal away but just barely. My mind is racing. I’ve got chills. Runny nose. But I know it has to be done.
I do have some clonidine. But I’m scared to take it. Last time it seems like I got really low blood pressure and just slept for a couple days. And I have to work. Any other ideas?
I’ve been lurking here for a VERY long time. Around 20 years. I’m 40 and have been in chronic pain for about 25 years.
I have psoriatic arthritis, Ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn’s disease and Chiari malformation Type 1. I also believe I have EDS. The first three cause much pain in my joints throughout my body.
The Chiari gives me terrible cerebrospinal fluid pressure headaches. The back of my brain sags down into the back of my skull and blocks the fluid from moving behind the back of my brain and so the pressure builds up. It’s been documented on CINE MRI.
Ive been going to pain management for about 10 years. My dose has been all over the place during that time. It started small and ended up VERY high. I inadvertently stumbled into a pill mill as my very first pain management “clinic”. I had legitimate testing to show I needed to be there. I paid with insurance and credit card to cover the deductible/co-pay. I didn’t know it was shady for a long while.
Eventually the dose was increased. And then again. I never paid more to the doc but I now think he thought he was doing me a favor.
At one point I was being prescribed 360 30mg oxycodone each day. At one point I was taking every one of them.
Several years ago, I developed a serious case of constipation that I couldn’t fix with my normal methods. So I ended up at an ER where they gave me a soap enema. It worked well and they gave me some clonidine as well.
I ended up sleeping for a couple days. The clonidine kind of knocked me out. And I ended up taking much less oxy than normal during that time.
It kind of reset my system and after that my tolerance was reset. I began taking much less each day and I started saving a lot of pills. I just saved and saved as I knew that some day the gravy train would run out and I’d need them.
That day finally came. My doc was raided by the feds. They shut him down saying he was to blame for a lady dying. Long story short, he was never indicted but I had to move on. He later committed suicide. It was Very sad.
I went to a new doctor. It was very hard to find someone who would take me knowing what had happened to my previous doctor. He immediately cut me way back on the prescribed dose. My previous doc had started the process when he got wind of an investigation. I had gone from 360 30mg per month to 240 30mg a month.
The new doctor changed it to 240 15mg a month. And we’ve worked it down to 165 15mg a month. This been over the course of the last 18 months.
But I never really cut back from my 6 30mg a day. Or more. And now my savings account has dwindled. I’m down to sbout 500 30mg pills. Down from about 4,000.
I’m taking one 15mg every 4 hours or so. It’s keeping the withdrawal away but just barely. My mind is racing. I’ve got chills. Runny nose. But I know it has to be done.
I do have some clonidine. But I’m scared to take it. Last time it seems like I got really low blood pressure and just slept for a couple days. And I have to work. Any other ideas?
