1:11 Am, and I can’t sleep. It doesn’t happen very often, and when it does sometimes it’s hard to figure out why, but this time I know why. It’s because I put on a new patch. Narcotics act like a stimulant on my system. Lucky me.
My pain issues, as I have discussed before , have elevated to the point where I find myself a slave to continuous medication. This medication is administered by means of a duragesic patch which releases small amounts of a narcotic called Fentanyl. When I first wrote about this new treatment my doctor had prescribed a 100 mgh, (microgram per hour,) patch, and for about two weeks the patch worked very well in relieving my pain. Then for some reason, it no longer seemed to work as well.
My doctor increased the amount to 125mgh just before my appointment with a pain specialist. The pain specialist's job was to determine if I might be a candidate for an alternative method of pain relief. To my dismay he felt that I was a prime candidate for an implanted, morphine pump system. The system includes a pump that is implanted under the skin, and connected to a catheter that feeds into the base of your spinal column. The idea is to pump small amounts of the medicine directly into the spinal fluid as opposed to oral medication which must travel throughout the entire body.
I said thanks, but no thanks.
Since then, I have cut back on the patch from 125mgh to 100mgh, and take only two to three norco, (double strength vicodin,) down from four to six. The key to taking less medication, I believe, is exercise. I still have some rather nasty pain, and I feel I legitimately need medication to battle it, but I also feel I can live my life with little or even no medication if I get more exercise, and work on my mental attitude.
My primary physician is a wonderful doctor, and I think if I work with her on my goals, we can figure out a program to help me achieve them. I told her I wanted a MRI of my thoracic and lumbar spine, and that is going to happen next Monday. That is step one.
I’ll be damned if I lie around having morphine pumped into my spine for the rest of my life.