Flippy - I Rant, You Read
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Methadone Is Great - It’s Very Affordable, It Gets Rid of Pain, It Lasts A Long Time, But…
Yeah, Methadone does all those great things that I listed in the title, but sadly it has developed one very very very large strike against it. You’d think it might be the nausea, but I think I’ve mostly overcome it, most days. You’d think it might be the stigma, but since no one has hassled me (people who get it for pain relief have been hassled by pharmacists throughout our great and loving country…even though it’s ILLEGAL to prescribe it to heroin addicts, because they have to get it daily from methadone clinics, so the people with prescriptions are patients who are in pain, not junkies, and junkies shouldn’t be hassled either), I feel kind of badass taking Methadone. It’s like I’m getting my heroin problem under control and I’m fighting off trying to shoot up. But no, I’ve never had any desire to do heroin, and I’m never going to stick something sharp into my body voluntarily. It’s something much much simpler. It’s affected my bladder. After starting my Enablex medication in March, my bladder has been almost normal. For about a week now, I’ve had all of the terrible bladder issues that I had before my (expensive) Enablex fixed me. Now, I’m taking the Enablex, but it doesn’t override the Methadone. Crap!
I’m going to give the Methadone another two weeks to see if I can get over the urinary retention side effect, which I believe is causing the urinary urgency thing when I sit again. Drives me CRAZY! I can’t concentrate, I can’t drive anywhere again, and I’d forgotten how terribly disruptive it is to living a normal life. I just can’t believe that I’ve found almost the perfect medication for me, and it’s screwing with my bladder. What are the odds? I’m going to give it until my next appointment with my pain management doctor, and if I’m still having the bladder problems, I’m going to have to start weaning off the Methadone, and back on to OxyContin or oxycodone. That sucks for several reasons, but most of all the cost of going back to the other pain meds. I loved having my perfect pain med cost $13 a month. The other suckiness is that weaning off Methadone is supposed to suck and take a long time because of Methadone’s tremendously long half-life. So, even after I’ve decided that I want to stop taking it because of my bladder, I’m probably going to need a couple of months to wean off of it…which means bladder problems for a long time.
I have a few more rants in me, but I need to get to bed. We have haircuts scheduled for 1p. I have some financial rants, and a bunch of idiots of the day. Stay tuned.
Next entry: Another Pain Doctor Gets Prison, Instead of Gratitude Previous entry: The "True Colors" Tour, Las Vegas, June 8, 2007 (or, Last Night, We Were Teh Gay)
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Oh, that sucks! I’m sorry to hear about it.
Nancy on 06/14 at 07:33 AM -
How immediate is the Enablex effect? For drugs like my Singulair, it takes a week or two to ramp up to full effect. If your Enablex is the same, this idea won’t work.. but I was thinking if you stopped taking the Enablex for a day or two that you weren’t planning on going anywhere, what would happen? Would your bladder be even worse? Or would it be okay? Or you may not want to muck with that. Or you may even want to consider self catheterization, if that is worth while to you and it’s just retention that’s a problem.
Georg on 06/15 at 05:36 AM -
F*ck. It’s relentless. What a drag.
laurie on 06/15 at 12:10 PM -
Georg - The Enablex took two weeks before it worked. I take it once a day and it’s time-released. The retention isn’t really bad (I’ve had worse), I just think it’s irritating my bladder, which is causing it to slightly spasm or something. I would be terrified to stop my Enablex. It’s been my wonder drug. However, I’m on the lower dosage, which is half of the upper one. So, last night as an experiment, I took two. It seems to have helped a lot! Yay! Maybe I’ll take two for a week, then drop back down. Maybe the combination of a double dose plus getting used to the Methadone will make it okay. I’m hoping.
Laurie - I know, huh? If it’s not one thing, it’s another. But, the double dose of Enablex seemed to help, so I’m hopeful now. Phew. I feel silly complaining, but the bladder thing is totally frustrating when it’s bad. I guess most women know what it’s like, the bladder infection feeling…but I don’t get the pain, which is good. Just the annoying urgency. The only time I even knew what the pain felt like for other people was when I had the cystoscopy, and that hurt for a day. I’m glad I’ve never had one of those painful bladder infections. Nasty feeling.
Flippy on 06/15 at 12:33 PM -
Good. I was afraid it was a slow worker like that. You may have to double the dose every other day on a regular basis due to the methadone… or your method will be good enough. Either way, talk to your doc about it. Your body - your chemistry set, I like to say. But it’s still really scary to mess with, especially fragile systems like ours.
Georg on 06/15 at 05:59 PM -
Our doctor’s appointment is on the 26th. My bladder has been better with a higher dose of my Enablex, but the retention is worse. I’d really like to stay on Methadone for a while, since my body is already dependent on it, and I’ve read how crappy the withdrawal can be. In general, I don’t feel it, except for the pain relief. But yeah, bladder issue is unfortunate. I’ve done two days of double doses of Enablex, but I think I’ll try a single dose tonight, even though my bladder started acting up while writing my last blog entry about the imprisoned doctor.
Flippy on 06/18 at 03:00 AM -
Please see these videos and what actually goes on at clinics http://www.nbc10.com/news/13843471/detail.html and http://video.nbc10.com/player/?id=142152
Methadone is now the #2 Killer Drug in the U.S. This is a legal drug that has been thought to be safe for the past 40 years. Only recently when its use became approved for pain management patients has the cardio toxic risks emerged. Previously methadone has been used exclusively for replacement therapy for heroin patients and death was thought to be an effect of the accumulation of many years of drug abuse. With the surge in pain medication misuse and abuse more patients are being referred to methadone clinics and physicians treating pain who believe the myth that methadone is safer or non addictive because of it’s use with weaning addicts from heroin. Methadone is more addictive then any other pain medication including heroin and because of it’s extremely long half life, cardio toxic risks, numerous fatal drug interactions, dosages based on tolerance, and small margin of error. Up until Nov 2006 the government and pharmaceutical companies have been suppressing the numerous health and fatality risks related to methadone.
there are between 800,000 & 900,000 (some stats give diff numbers) heroin addicts in the U.S and 1,881 people died from heroin in the U.S. in 2004.
there are 200,000 people on methadone for drug treatment and I don’t have the number of people on it for pain but even if we double the 200,000 and assume it’s 400,000 total people on methadone there were 3,849 deaths in 2004
It looks like the “gold standard” is killing more then the drug its supposed to save people from!!!!
Every day 10.9 people die from Methadone (according to 2004 stats, not
including car accident deaths caused by drivers under the influence of Methadone)
We (the families of methadone victims) are requesting new laws surrounding who can prescribe Methadone, clinic rules and regulations as well as stiffer penalties for those caught selling their take home doses. The whole methadone maintenance system needs an overhauling. We cannot continue to allow a legal medication to be killing more people then the illegal drugs. Our government cannot be allowed to use tax dollars to fund their legal drug dealing operations.
We are asking government agencies to enact stricter guidelines in prescribing methadone for any reason. It must be mandatory that all doctors be certified and trained in the pharmacology of methadone; inpatient stays must be required during induction to methadone; all staff be extensively trained in monitoring methadone patients for symptoms of toxicity. Clinic patients should be tested weekly for legal and illegal drugs that are taken with methadone to get “ hi gh” or experience “euphoria” such as benzodiazepines, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, marijuana etc… and face severe consequences or mandatory detoxification from the methadone program after 3 dirty urines. Selling of take home doses must result in termination from methadone program permanently throughout the U.S. When presenting inebriated at clinic, clinic should also document such activity as well as prevent client from driving. Take home doses for all patients receiving methadone should be eliminated thus preventing the risk of diversion or precautions such as pill safe should be implemented. http://www.thepillsafe.com/
Current statistics show that nearly 4000 people a year die from methadone. These deaths are mostly happening to pain management and detoxification patients’ wit hi n the first 10 days of taking initial dose. Most of these deaths are related to methadone prescribed with other medications that react as additives with the methadone. Diversion of methadone is a serious problem because it lands t hi s most deadly drug on streets. Statistics also state that methadone is contributing to more deaths nationwide then heroin and only second to cocaine deaths.
The potential of abuse, diversion, and overdose to new patients being prescribed methadone is overwhelming. The unique properties of methadone, it’s long half life, and it’s negative interaction with numerous drugs make it an optimal choice as a last result treatment for chronic pain and addiction.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
Sincerely
http://www.HARMD.orgMelissa on 08/24 at 01:59 PM
