I'm a 32 yr old female I've been addicted to vicodin for almost 10 yrs I've only quit once before which lasted about a month then I injured my knee and right now I'm taking about 6 10/325 mg plus I take somas tramadol whatever my Dr will give me well now I've lost my job and have no ins so I went to a ghetto dr he gives me whatever I want anyway it doesn't seem to help with pain anymore I think it makes my back pain worse but I still won't stop taking it I feel it's ruining my life I can't remember anything I've done so much school and I feel it was a waste does anyone else have memory loss from taking vicodin? If so that seems to be my only motivation to quit because I want to go back to school to get a better job ironically in the medical field but I've googled and read so much about this addiction but can't find anyone else who suffers from this??? & I've never told my Dr I'm addicted just in case I can't quit but I wonder if there are special tests to see what the damage has done to me I've had normal blood work done but don't know if that would cover say liver or kidney damage I wonder if my overactive bladder is caused from my addiction? Any help would be awesome thank you:)
2014-12-05 05:32:13
It is entirely possible that you have developed a tolerance to medication you are taking which necessitates you to take higher doses for similar or less amount of pain. You also may have developed what we call "hyperalgesia" the condition in which your body experiences more pain than there is actual physical cause for. That condition is caused by prolonged use of narcotics. In such case discontinuation of all opiates and resetting your body back to "normal" will actually allow you and your doctor to reevaluate your pain and treat it more appropriately. Unfortunately withdrawal is not easy as you well know by now. Going cold turkey for you would be highly unpleasant and I would not recommend it. Cutting down slowly takes a lot of discipline and only you can judge if you possess such hard to come by trait. Long term detox programs are very costly but sometimes are partially covered by insurance. They use some medications to make withdrawal more tolerable but not by much. They also utilize a lot of group therapy which may be very helpful. Suboxone is another valid option. It is an opioid agonist/antagonist medication that is widely advertised and widely used by many physicians as a detox option. Substituting narcotics for Suboxone and then slowly tapering it off allows the body to adjust slowly and not to have to go through the agony of withdrawals. The problem with Suboxone that we see in our clinic is that a subset of patients gets addicted to Suboxone as well and then we have to detox them off of it. So you can often end up substituting one addiction for another. Another option is the type of detox we do in our clinic called rapid detox for more info you can just click on my name and look at the clinic website. If it is something you think we can help you with feel free to call and we will answer your questions. Especially look into the Naltrexone implant that blocks the opioid receptors for two months definitely assisting recovery greatly. I wish you all the very best.
2014-12-05 05:32:45
