Question:
Methadone, its not just for junkies anymore….. In chronic pain? Doctors Won’t help…… I HAVE BEEN THERE….. Weigh the options…. You are in so much pain you can’t function as a normal person with a normal life…. And the doctors dont want you to get "addicted" so You SUFFER & SUFFER & WISH YOU WERE DEAD…. You have a option….. And I Have been there… Done this…. If you Say you are alllready addicted they will throw methadone at you hand over fist till you feel "better" Yes it is a bit of a pain… the cost per month BUT… You NEVER will feel that crash in the morning when you get up because it has been 8 hours since your last "conventional" pain med dose…… Just do some hard thinking…… What would you do, what would you pay….
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Methadone, its not just for junkies anymore….. In chronic pain? Doctors Won’t help…… I HAVE BEEN THERE….. Weigh the options…. You are in so much pain you can’t function as a normal person with a normal life…. And the doctors dont want you to get "addicted" so You SUFFER & SUFFER & WISH YOU WERE DEAD…. You have a option….. And I Have been there… Done this…. If you Say you are alllready addicted they will throw methadone at you hand over fist till you feel "better" Yes it is a bit of a pain… the cost per month BUT… You NEVER will feel that crash in the morning when you get up because it has been 8 hours since your last "conventional" pain med dose…… Just do some hard thinking…… What would you do, what would you pay….
I can’t say I agree with the general tone of this post. I suppose that some CP sufferers might have to take the approach you describe, but plenty of us get methadone prescribed for PAIN (it explicitly says so on the script and on the bottle). I know that my pain management doc had no problem prescribing this as a pain medication; he had lots of good things to say about methadone’s analgesic properties (he was the one who suggested it in the first place). If the only way your doc will prescribe you methadone (assuming you have a chronic pain condition that warrants it) is to treat *addiction,* you are going to the wrong doc. I think the hard thinking that should be done is whether you should put up with such treatment from your physician (I know some folks don’t have much choice in the matter, I’m not talking about them), or whether you should vote with your wallet and switch to a doc that knows what they are doing – even if you have to go outside your plan’s group of docs. I know too well how difficult and frustrating it is to find the right docs for this kind of treatment, but it IS worth it. Patients who are willing to take the approach you suggest only help to reinforce the doc’s incorrect ideas about the proper and legitimate uses of methadone. I know that I make a *point* of telling other health care providers that my methadone is for pain, to prevent them from assuming otherwise; maybe, over time, people like me will have an affect on how they react to hearing the word "methadone." Anyway, I agree that methadone is an excellent pain medication that is often overlooked as a treatment option, but I don’t agree with your approach to "solving" the problem. John — John Martinez "I have a plastic laminated ID card, therefore I am." Remove the nojunk to get my address or URL. Visit our humble home page at http://www.primenet.com/~nojunkmmart/index.html
Response:
I agree– I will be damned if I am going to admit that I am a drug addict and go stand in line with a bunch of heroin addicts every day just because I have a medical condition that requires pain medicine. There is something definetely wrong with that picture. No patient should have to be degraded like that to get medicine. Jefe – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Methadone, its not just for junkies anymore….. In chronic pain? Doctors Won’t help…… I HAVE BEEN THERE….. Weigh the options…. You are in so much pain you can’t function as a normal person with a normal life…. And the doctors dont want you to get "addicted" so You SUFFER & SUFFER & WISH YOU WERE DEAD…. You have a option….. And I Have been there… Done this…. If you Say you are alllready addicted they will throw methadone at you hand over fist till you feel "better" Yes it is a bit of a pain… the cost per month BUT… You NEVER will feel that crash in the morning when you get up because it has been 8 hours since your last "conventional" pain med dose…… Just do some hard thinking…… What would you do, what would you pay…. I can’t say I agree with the general tone of this post. I suppose that some CP sufferers might have to take the approach you describe, but plenty of us get methadone prescribed for PAIN (it explicitly says so on the script and on the bottle). I know that my pain management doc had no problem prescribing this as a pain medication; he had lots of good things to say about methadone’s analgesic properties (he was the one who suggested it in the first place). If the only way your doc will prescribe you methadone (assuming you have a chronic pain condition that warrants it) is to treat *addiction,* you are going to the wrong doc. I think the hard thinking that should be done is whether you should put up with such treatment from your physician (I know some folks don’t have much choice in the matter, I’m not talking about them), or whether you should vote with your wallet and switch to a doc that knows what they are doing – even if you have to go outside your plan’s group of docs. I know too well how difficult and frustrating it is to find the right docs for this kind of treatment, but it IS worth it. Patients who are willing to take the approach you suggest only help to reinforce the doc’s incorrect ideas about the proper and legitimate uses of methadone. I know that I make a *point* of telling other health care providers that my methadone is for pain, to prevent them from assuming otherwise; maybe, over time, people like me will have an affect on how they react to hearing the word "methadone." Anyway, I agree that methadone is an excellent pain medication that is often overlooked as a treatment option, but I don’t agree with your approach to "solving" the problem. John — John Martinez "I have a plastic laminated ID card, therefore I am." Remove the nojunk to get my address or URL. Visit our humble home page at
http://www.primenet.com/~nojunkmmart/index.html
Response:
I agree– I will be damned if I am going to admit that I am a drug addict and go stand in line with a bunch of heroin addicts every day just because I have a medical condition that requires pain medicine.
There are two different sets of regulations covering the prescribing of Methadone. When prescribed for pain control it is like any other class 2 narcotic. When prescribed for treatment of addiction it comes under a different and stricter set of rules. When I asked about trying a different medication because of the effects my wife attributed to the Oyxcontin he suggested Methadone and switched me over with no hesitation. He did given me an additional lecture on safety issues around childern. (We have a large family. And there seem to be some special risks associate with it’s slow on set of symptoms. Cases where the time lapse between ingestion and the onset of symptoms dangerouly delayed making the conection between cause and effect.) No rigamoral beyond the standard chronic pain BS to keep the DEA happy. I find that I seem to tollerate the Methadone better than I did the Oxycontin. I gather that most people tollerate Oxycontin better. It’s a bit hard to tell since some of the possible side effects overlapp with the relapsing remitting symptoms of MS. But it doesn’t interfere with sex near as much, and that is worth a lot 
I think Methadone triggers knee jerk reactions in some, prehaps many, doctors who do not treat chronic pain. But pain control specialists seem to see it as just one part of their front line arsonal. Dr MacNeil mentioned it’s use in heroin treatment programs only to warn me about possible reactions that we might have or that we might encounter. BTW I must say that I strongly appreciate the feeling of respect that I get from Dr. MacNeil. His nurse does most of the examine and makes the basic reccomendations as to treatment. The doctor reviews these and seems to pretty regularly endorse her recomendations. But I get no impression of him rubber stamping her decisions. Rather I see a lot of two way respect. And when they ask for my opinions and what I want in terms of med adjustments I get the feeling that they listen and repect my toughts and desires. I don’t think they would hesitate to question or challange or disagree with me. But I do sense that he will first listen, seek to understand and respect my opinion and desires. That counts for a lot. And BTW I do not have any test results or firm diagnosis that would account for my levels of severe pain. I have been labled as depressive. Lots of excuses available if he wanted an excuse to deny treatment. Instead he looked at the total picture. I’d been on PRN narcotics for some time. He seems dedicated to finding fective treatement for pain regardless of the diagnosis, or lack there of, of an explanation for the pain. And he uses a wide variety of treatments including accupunture, trigger point injections, referals of hyponsis or phychotherapy. No evidence of an one size fits all agenda. Is a real shame that this seems special and noteworthy. This should be the normal expectation from a doctor. What he does should not be anything special. He treats me like a reponsible human being.
Response:
I AM MAD at this `war on drugs` bull____ ! We have an organization that is just as mad and on our side hhht://www.drcnet.org/wol/67.html
Response:
Hi, I have been taking methadone for several years now for my chronic back pain resulting from a fusion,etc and unrelenting migraines. I had tried it all, but nothing helped for *any period of time. Yes, I *do* get hassles at most pharmacies, so I stick to one. The RX has"chronic pain patient" all over it…but I get curious looks. Oh well, I am at least functional now; god gave me what I needed to be able to give as a mother and wife. I hope you, too, find it a medicine to help you:-) ^^-^^Olivia^^-^^
Response:
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