When to stop taking pain meds?

What pain meds have they got you on. Some you cannot just stop taking you get all sorts of odd reactions, pain, stomach cramps, vomiting, headaches.

I have in the past been addicted to pain meds, discharged from hospital after cancer surgery, back in the hospital 5 hours later in agony, took them a while but they finally figured out I had become reliant on the meds after 9 days, crazy that it happened but it did.

Since had hip replacement, and thought here goes again, and discussed with Dr's, had my step down plan in place in case i need it, I didn't, so was it something to do with the cancer, I don't know and nor do the Dr's why it happened once and not again.

young Dr was wonderful, and I always remember his plan for me, instead of taking pain meds every four hours, I was to take them every five hours, and only change the time frame on a weekly basis, then every 6 hours, then every 7 hours, then every eight hours.  if I remember correclty at that point I was able to start by dropping my morning dose, some weeks passed before I could get rid of my evening or before bedtime dose but finally got there.

dear stuart, 

so sorry that you are still experiencing pain ..  

I was give the following instructions by my surgeon and GP:

Stay ahead of your pain,

A common mistake people make,is waiting too long to take pain medication or stop taking them too early.

By the time you’re in pain, you’re starting all over again and It takes a lot more medicine to control pain after it’s started as opposed to taking them as perescribed -

Stick to the medication schedule set by the doctor. That will keep medication flowing through your system and your level of pain at a more even and manageable level.

Your body will be able to move better without pain, so you can get stronger ... but don't overdo it , okay ... 

what kind of pain medication are you on and how are you taking it ? 

don't quit or take less without doctor supervision either ... (I did that and suffered bad withdrawel symptoms --)

Please come back here okay

big warm hug

renee

Hi Stuart

Some good advice on here, I always say don't let the pain come to you and as renee says,stay on top of the pain.paracetomol works most effectively taken regularly. I asked the gp for separate codeine tablets,30 mg took one every night up until around 8 weeks. In the day took ibrufen and paracetamol, ibrufen is great for inflammation as well as a pain killer.

It is good to reduce pain killers down,only when you feel ready,usually your body tells you,some days tend to be worse than others from a pain point of view,also depending on what you have done on the day,so yes it makes it difficult.

I hope you manage to control the pain and as others suggested maybe have a chat with the gp.

Regards

Nicky

Hi Stuart,

It sounds as though you are doing well and on track.  My surgeon advised me to take the meds as needed.  For example, just because he prescribed 2 pills every 4 hours doesn't mean that I necessarily needed to take that many.  At first I stretched out the hours in between taking the pills (every 5-6 hours instead of every 4 hours).  Once I was able to comfortably do that, then I started taking 1 pill every 4-5 hours.  Each time that I called my surgeon for refills, he would lower the dosage.  I was on prescription pain meds for 11 weeks under my doctors supervision.  During that time he lowered the prescription strength every 10 days or so.  By the 12th week, I was able to comfortably get by with Ibuprofen.  I didn't have any problems at all with coming down off of the meds.  My surgeon told me that it takes about 4 months or more of being on strong meds for the body to become addicted.  The narcotics are prescribed to help people in the interum, not to be on them long term.  It sounds as though you are doing very well.  Just continue to use your common sense by only taking what your body needs right now.  You should be able to adjust the strength down on a weekly basis.

Best of luck as you continue to recover!