Friend needs advice

[Divine-design540]

My friend has suffered chronic pain in the knees from past and still torn ligaments in her knee as well as a fractured wrist bone "corrected" with a bone graft and screw

She has been scripted a month supply of hydromorphone 6 mg twice a day as well as 5/325 oxycodone for breakthrough pain which seemed to keep her pain under control for the last 1 and a half years since initial injuries.

New MRI shows the ligament still torn in knee's. Since the ligaments did not heal on their own, now doctor and Her have agreed she should see a surgeon since the knee did not heal.

Recently and very suddenly her doc has reduced her dose from 6 mg twice daily to 3 mg twice daily and only a 2 week supply with no repeats on the XR meds, she didn't think much of it and took her doctors advice and accepted the reduced dosage.

Since the reduction she has had a much greater amount of pain and see's that she is not benefitting from this situation, in fact it is making it almost impossible for her to get through her day at work and such.

She asked her doctor if there's a way that we can get her pain relief back to where it was before the reduction even if it means going back on her regular dosage Since they both know the proper dose that will relieve her of her pain.

But instead of putting her back to her regular dose he is trying to script her different types of medications that fall into a different cataglory of medicine that is known as neuropathic meds.

She is still not getting the relief she needs to get thru her demanding work days.

her question is, why the abrupt reductions in medication? Right after a new MRI has diagnosed her a second time With the same initial injury causing Her all this pain. She just wants to have enough pain relief to attempt to carry out her daily duties until she can meet with a surgeon and discuss her options.

she would appreciate any insight or advice from members of the forum.

 

[T. Calderone]

her question is, why the abrupt reductions in medication?

This is a question your friend should be asking her doctor. How can we guess the reason someone's meds were changed?

 

[SS373dOH]

Dr's are being pressured to prescribe less and less opioids, at the expense of pain sufferer's.. My suggestion, jump through the hoops your doctor is putting out there, that way you can tell him its not working and that you need to be back on your old regiment. If this fails, I would consider finding a new doctor that is more sympathetic to your situation. Good luck.


- Hopeless Soul

 

[Chadd1]

Seems like your doc is trying to do you a favor by bringing your tolerance down before surgery. I promise you that you don't want to be in post-op with narcotics not touching your pain.

 

[bobby1978]

I think you've gotten three useful responses, but just to add something from my own experience, I went to see a doctor when I moved to P.E.I. from Quebec, and the doctor wouldn't renew my relatively low dose of clonazepam because there's a drug problem here (you know, as opposed to everywhere else, where addicts don't exist). To my understanding, doctors are being pressured a lot on benzos and narcotics, here anyhow so I'm assuming probably in many places. At the expense of those who need them, because that's how a functional health system works, right? Cops should decide who gets medication, who is in a better position to decide that?

Seriously though, yeah, I can certainly see a doctor wanting to take a dose of narcotics down whenever possible in many places. Hopeless Soul and Chadd both point to why that might be, but as T alluded to, there's really no way for us to know for sure.