Pre­scrip­tion Drug Addic­tion. Good or Bad?

Liv­ing with Crohn’s, and being in pain and hos­pi­tal so long, I ended up devel­op­ing a pre­scrip­tion drug addic­tion. This kind of drug addic­tion is not nec­es­sar­ily a bad thing. Hav­ing these drugs saved my life.

Lying in a hos­pi­tal bed for an unde­ter­mined amount of time, with tubes out of every hole in your body, the only thing you can do is breath. Know­ing every 4 hours you get high is what keeps you going.

Hav­ing not taken any pre­scrip­tion pain med­ica­tion before, my addic­tion to mor­phine was imme­di­ate and fierce. Mor­phine is such a intense drug that, at the first injec­tion, it cre­ates severe abdom­i­nal pain fol­lowed by the best high. Even today, after so many years, I get excited when I am in pain.

It is easy for out­siders to judge this addic­tion and many of my nurses did. Even though the patient is not the one to cre­ate the addic­tion. I never asked for mor­phine. I woke up with it in my line after surgery.

How­ever I was addicted to it. One day, a few months into my mor­phine every 4 hours, it did not come. I rang the nurse and she came in and told me that I did not need it any more and that I was to have two Tylenol instead. Well this was quite a shock to my mind, never mind my body. The next two days were the worst ever.

Here I was in the hos­pi­tal now 4 months, a hole in my stom­ach, still in real pain and going through one of the strongest drug with­draws out there. Chills then sweats every few hours. The foam on my bed was so soaked that when I went to the chills I had to phys­i­cally move to one side, sav­ing one side for chills and one side for sweats. I swore I would never take it again because of the withdrawal.

Finally my Doc­tor came in and I was given Demerol. This is the drug of choice as you still get high but the addic­tion is not so extreme. It does help with the pain and the with­drawal is like a mild cold.

It is impor­tant that we do have these drugs and I am one for allow­ing every­one to have as much as one needs, to phys­i­cally and men­tally deal with life after Ostomy surgery. It took me 10 years to wean myself off of the desire or need to get high, but I did it and if I did not have access to these drugs I don’t think I would have made it. (editor’s note: because the pain was so severe, for a long time)

Remem­ber to be hon­est with your­self about what you are doing and what your goals are in tak­ing back your life around addic­tion. You can do it, if you think you might need help there are great pro­grams, ask your ET nurse. She understands.

If you would like to share your own story, or oth­er­wise com­ment on this arti­cle, please look for our “shar­ing link” on our “Pull Through Jour­neys” site. (http://www.pullthroughjourneys.com)