On the Path..........

[ClearFreedom]

6 year and 7 months of pain meds and OxyContin use after a failed spinal fusion. It's been 4 1/2 days since I had my last OxyContin 10 mg. I'm in HELL.........Not sleeping more than 2 hours a day and super depressed to the point where I've had some anxiety attacks. On the second and fourth day I took 5 mg valium I had around the house and my doc wrote a script for lorazepam but I'm so afraid I'll get addicted to them. I did take diazepam for years but stopped 3 years ago.


I had been on lots of different pain meds but weaned down a year ago to 3 x 10 mg of OxyContin and 2 x5 mg of oxycodone per day. About 6 months ago I stopped the oxycodone and was getting by on 2 x10 mg OxyContin a day.

My upper spine is Killing me with burning pain from the back of the neck and across the shoulder blades. I don't know if I can handle the physical pain as I've been through several operations, had BC and have lived disabled with spondylolisthesis for years but I'm really depressed. Stopping the oxy took my mask of and I'm no longer treating my mental pain by oxy mood boosters. This Sucks!!!!

Doc gave me gabapentin which I took tonight. I took it 6 1/2 years ago after my failed spinal fusion where I lost the use of my right leg for a year and it made my fingers swell up. I also took a advil pm and I'm still wide awake. I can't sleep! Going on my 5th day and my body is screaming pain. So much crappy things going on in my life right now and I want to have a Clear and Free mind to address those serious issues the best I can.

 

[Swerlz]

Hey

Welcome. I understand the difficulties of being in physical pain and wanting to free of having to take pain meds for ever. Have you spoken to your doctor about this? I'm sorry that you're going through this. Gabapentin is a decent med for pain and can help with sleep but in my experience it was in pretty high doses. If you're in crazy amounts of pain, I might suggest going to the ER, but they are going to load you up on morphine and such and I know that's not what you want right now. There's a Sober Living section where you can find lots of support in what you're going through.

Be safe and feel better

 

[ClearFreedom]

Thanks for the encouragement. I was finally able to eat on day 5 but the insomnia and depression are the worst.

 

[Alldonewithit]

The anxiety, depression, and lack of energy are going to last weeks. Vitamins, L- tyrosine, fish oil pills, and exercise (most important) will all help with this. Sleep, without help, didn't come back for me for almost a month, so looking back i was grateful for the 2-4hrs i got using .2mg of clonidine, and 3mg of melatonin. Keep pushing forward, it gets a little better every day after the acute stage.