Pembroke
Bluelighter
Hi all!
I have read from this site off and on for a while and find it to be the best one around, but I'm also not totally sure I belong here. Having used the site for research and advice for some time, I decided it was time to join.
Rundown on me: I'm a 33 year old female, retired from healthcare. I was retired due to injuries a few years ago, but prior to that I was a PA-C with a primary focus on accident and emergency services. I suffered a severe injury a few years ago that caused rhabdomyolosis, a condition in which muscle tissue begins to break down and causes kidney failure. I bled out after a surgical accident, which caused compartment syndrome that lead into the rhabdo; additionally, when my extremities began swelling it was missed, so I got fasciotomies on one leg, but on the other the limb just ruptured. I ended up losing much of the leg and was left with CRPS and "phantom limb pain", and I managed to incur a hypoxia-related brain injury shortly after that. Suffice to say it was a shit year.
Fast forward to now, and what brings me here: I have been a methadone patient for about four years now. It's a great drug for pain management because it's effective at reducing certain types of pain by 30% or more and it's cheap as hell. Good. I also take Dilaudid for breakthrough pain. Well, I live in Eastern Washington where, due to some stuff that went down with a pill mill disguised as a pain clinic, methadone is no longer being used for chronic pain patients. I don't totally understand why. They took me off of 15mg methadone QID and went to just Oxycodone 20mg TID and Dilaudid 8mg IM QID, because it's somehow better and safer to have those out in the world? I've been decreasing on my own because I'm concerned about how much of this shit I'm taking, and I just got approved to get the methadone replacement for free (it's not covered by most insurances, and my Medicare copay was going to be $980!), and they will provide it directly from the company for free. It is a drug called levorphanol, which I will be starting to take at 4mg TID, get rid of the oxycodone, and reduce the Dilaudid. I would honestly like to go back to oral Dilaudid, but I know that is unlikely to be effective.
In spite of my experience with pain management, both as a clinician and as a patient, I am not familiar with levorphanol. I found a bit of information on here, geared more towards recreational use than therapeutic, but it was some of the only information I found. I wasn't totally sure if I really "belong" here since I don't use recreationally, but as the new rules have come into effect and caused my doses of short acting meds to increase so greatly, and now with this new "Levo-Doroman" (trade name) that is coming directly from the company who somehow still holds the patent on this old-as-crap medication, I figured it was time to at least try. There is a great need for addressing harm reduction in chronic pain management imo, but there aren't many outlets for it. Unfortunately, it seems like as soon as you start talking about bioavailability of meds, harm reduction, and dependence (as opposed to addiction, but that's a whole ball of worms that's a nightmare to dissect with people)... you get raised eyebrows and flagged as drug seeking or as an addict.
So, here I am! Hooray?
Louise
I have read from this site off and on for a while and find it to be the best one around, but I'm also not totally sure I belong here. Having used the site for research and advice for some time, I decided it was time to join.
Rundown on me: I'm a 33 year old female, retired from healthcare. I was retired due to injuries a few years ago, but prior to that I was a PA-C with a primary focus on accident and emergency services. I suffered a severe injury a few years ago that caused rhabdomyolosis, a condition in which muscle tissue begins to break down and causes kidney failure. I bled out after a surgical accident, which caused compartment syndrome that lead into the rhabdo; additionally, when my extremities began swelling it was missed, so I got fasciotomies on one leg, but on the other the limb just ruptured. I ended up losing much of the leg and was left with CRPS and "phantom limb pain", and I managed to incur a hypoxia-related brain injury shortly after that. Suffice to say it was a shit year.
Fast forward to now, and what brings me here: I have been a methadone patient for about four years now. It's a great drug for pain management because it's effective at reducing certain types of pain by 30% or more and it's cheap as hell. Good. I also take Dilaudid for breakthrough pain. Well, I live in Eastern Washington where, due to some stuff that went down with a pill mill disguised as a pain clinic, methadone is no longer being used for chronic pain patients. I don't totally understand why. They took me off of 15mg methadone QID and went to just Oxycodone 20mg TID and Dilaudid 8mg IM QID, because it's somehow better and safer to have those out in the world? I've been decreasing on my own because I'm concerned about how much of this shit I'm taking, and I just got approved to get the methadone replacement for free (it's not covered by most insurances, and my Medicare copay was going to be $980!), and they will provide it directly from the company for free. It is a drug called levorphanol, which I will be starting to take at 4mg TID, get rid of the oxycodone, and reduce the Dilaudid. I would honestly like to go back to oral Dilaudid, but I know that is unlikely to be effective.
In spite of my experience with pain management, both as a clinician and as a patient, I am not familiar with levorphanol. I found a bit of information on here, geared more towards recreational use than therapeutic, but it was some of the only information I found. I wasn't totally sure if I really "belong" here since I don't use recreationally, but as the new rules have come into effect and caused my doses of short acting meds to increase so greatly, and now with this new "Levo-Doroman" (trade name) that is coming directly from the company who somehow still holds the patent on this old-as-crap medication, I figured it was time to at least try. There is a great need for addressing harm reduction in chronic pain management imo, but there aren't many outlets for it. Unfortunately, it seems like as soon as you start talking about bioavailability of meds, harm reduction, and dependence (as opposed to addiction, but that's a whole ball of worms that's a nightmare to dissect with people)... you get raised eyebrows and flagged as drug seeking or as an addict.
So, here I am! Hooray?
Louise
