honeywhite
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2012
- Messages
- 90
Some background: my usual pain medication for about 10 years has been morphine - in the form of Zomorph morphine sulphate 60's for routine analgesia and various preparations of morphine (10's) for breakthrough analgesia. When I'm at uni, the breakthrough meds are blue Sevredol; when I'm in London, they're the first opiate I ever had - Actavis-branded glass ampoules with the oh-so-creative name of "Diamorphine For Injection 10mg BP". The story behind the ampoules is that my London doc is a qualified paediatrician who works as a GP (in other words treats adult patients as well), so when I presented with pain as a 13-year-old, she treated it the way children's units in British hospitals do it. In other words, as follows:
Anyway, that was the first prescription opiate I ever tried (before my accident, it was in fact my ONLY prescription opiate to treat pain stemming from a foot deformity/operation to fix deformity). Plus, the doc gave me freedom as to how I could use it: up the nose as she demonstrated, or simply mix it with coffee/OJ and drink it. (I always administered it intranasally when convenient.) My university doctor refuses to supply it, strangely not because of addictive potential but because of cost to the NHS (British single-payer healthcare plan).
And here comes my question. Since I was first prescribed Actavis Diamorphine For Injection BP, I've IVed a number of opiate preparations, most of which weren't meant for injection. The effects were consistent and predictable. Same with Knoll-branded Dilaudid, which (thanks to a historical quirk) is made for injection. A few nights ago, though, I tried IVing the Actavis Diamorphine. It says it's OK for injection right on the box, right? Wrong. Utter bliss for 10 seconds, painkilling effect kicks in after that, but I also got a non-itching, painless rash of the urticaria or "hives" type on the arm I injected into. This is a painkiller explicitly made for injection, yet it causes hives. What, besides the morphine, do they put in it? Is it harmful?
- Crack open an ampoule of diamorphine powder.
- Crack open an ampoule of Distilled Water BP
- Draw up water into 2cc syringe and squirt into opened ampoule of diamorphine.
- Agitate ampoule until well mixed.
- Draw up the diamorphine mixture.
- Insert syringe (note: no needle, obviously) into left nostril and administer half the mixture. Have patient inhale so as to coat walls of nose.
- Insert syringe into right nostril and administer remainder of the mixture. Have patient continue inhaling.
Anyway, that was the first prescription opiate I ever tried (before my accident, it was in fact my ONLY prescription opiate to treat pain stemming from a foot deformity/operation to fix deformity). Plus, the doc gave me freedom as to how I could use it: up the nose as she demonstrated, or simply mix it with coffee/OJ and drink it. (I always administered it intranasally when convenient.) My university doctor refuses to supply it, strangely not because of addictive potential but because of cost to the NHS (British single-payer healthcare plan).
And here comes my question. Since I was first prescribed Actavis Diamorphine For Injection BP, I've IVed a number of opiate preparations, most of which weren't meant for injection. The effects were consistent and predictable. Same with Knoll-branded Dilaudid, which (thanks to a historical quirk) is made for injection. A few nights ago, though, I tried IVing the Actavis Diamorphine. It says it's OK for injection right on the box, right? Wrong. Utter bliss for 10 seconds, painkilling effect kicks in after that, but I also got a non-itching, painless rash of the urticaria or "hives" type on the arm I injected into. This is a painkiller explicitly made for injection, yet it causes hives. What, besides the morphine, do they put in it? Is it harmful?