I hope today finds you feeling better than ever! If not, I hope you are staying positive in spite of your flare, pain or the side effects of whatever medications or treatments you are trying.
I have made a decision for the second time in my experience with Fibro. One of the medications I take (the heavy hitter!) is Kadian. As you may or may not know, Kadian is actually morphine sulfate-sustained release. When I first started this medication, I was leery. It was about 10 years ago. However, after about 2 days worth of taking this med, I felt like MYSELF again, meaning myself before Fibro. I didn't feel "high" or "drugged". I felt NO pain. Of course there were times when my feeling so great made me "overdo it". Then I had meds for breakthrough pain. I rarely used them, if ever.
I am now attempting to, with my doctors approval and assistance, wean off of/withdrawal from this very potent medication. I had tried this back in 2008 at one point and had NO success. Actually, I was jittery, shaky, nauseous, hot sweats, cold sweats, incredible weakness, couldn't eat, couldn't think straight and basically felt like I was dying. OK, that might be an exaggeration but it was NOT pleasant. I felt AWFUL. I sort of felt like I did when my Fibromyalgia was not treated at all. I could not function. I kept this up for approximately 3 weeks and then I called the doctor and said I couldn't do it anymore and he resumed my normal dosage.
Well, just recently, I learned that a friend who is my age (52) is going to be needing dialysis. She was on a medication for many years and it caused her kidney to start to fail. I am trying to help her simply get the port/fistula surgery corrected. The first failed. Then she will be on dialysis, 3 times a week for the rest of her life.
This affected me deeply. In addition, I have often thought that maybe I should be trying to wean off of this med because I do not know what the long term effects are. I felt it was time to try.
I am now about 5 days into this attempt to withdrawal from morphine. My doctor is starting very slowly with a 20 mg reduction of my dosage.
The first day, I have to admit, I felt awful. This was surprising because I had heard that for 3 days, I would probably feel no difference. Well, I felt lousy, achy and couldn't sit still. I got worried because this was my problem the last time I attempted withdrawal.
By day two, I was feeling surprisingly better.
Also, I found some very good advice about withdrawal from meds and I have been taking some of it.
First, I have been walking on the days I feel I can. Exercise boost endorphins. So I try to take at least a 30 minute walk as many days as possible. (I should say that I'm in "pretty good" physical condition already so the doctor felt that would help.) Then the advice said to stay hydrated. I am drinking as much water as I can. Every time I think about it, I take a sip. I'm not guzzling gallons of it, just staying "hydrated" so that I am NEVER thirsty. The next piece of advice was to eat one or two SMALL (no eating HUGE candy bars!!) pieces of dark chocolate every day. You want to stick with small squares and the type of chocolate that is over 70% cocoa.
Let me add something that is different this time, from when I last tried the withdrawal process. I am in a much better place mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Now, you may ask why I threw "spiritually" in there. This is very important to Fibro sufferers, I believe. I am not trying to convert you to a religion. What I am telling you is that believing in a power greater than yourself, and giving that power your cares, be it God, Buddha, the Universe or whatever you believe or choose, is so very helpful when you are feeling overwhelmed by Fibro and life in general.
I invite you to follow me on this journey of discovering what my Fibro is like under these meds that have given me quality for all of these 10 years.
Please feel free to ask me questions or to comment below. All I ask is that you refrain from any negative or confrontational comments because I will not even address them. They are not appropriate and I will delete them.
Have a very wonderful and hopefully pain free day!
Mo M.
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