My wife had her doctors appointment this morning and as I have said before we have the same doctor so they discuss her views of my care when she sees them (it is actually a doctor and his nurse practitioner). This morning the nurse mentioned to her that they have some concerns about oxycontin and my doctor wants me to discontinue it's use when this prescription expires. Apparently some of the studies being done suggest that oxycontin does indeed peak, creating a euphoria which is one of the primary leaders in cause of addiction. I was unable to find anything this effect and in fact only found this which counters the claim. It does not however mean much as newer studies may not have been published to the web recently meaning search engines have not had a chance to index them or probably I am not using the proper search terms to find them. Regardless, my wife did ask what their plans were and they are going to switch me over to Kadian or a similar morphine sulfates like MS Continfor the pain. It seems there is no peak with these (but they said that about oxy didn't they!!!) as well there is supposed to be no breakthrough pain and it is also available in a 24 hour time release rather then just a 12 hour like the oxycontin. Looking at the list of the sulfates it appears that there is indeed a generic so this should be a bit cheaper then some of the other crap I have taken. We will see what happens as I still have almost 2 weeks of the oxycontin before I need a refill.
My wife also expressed to them that I am willing to try new alternatives or meds but the one major issue is that they must not only combat the pain but be able to allow me to have some quality of life as the oxycontin has done. While I am obviously not back to where I was I am doing a lot more then I had been. Little things like getting all the laundry done without having to stop every 10 minutes or cleaning out the laundry room and rearranging it like I did last night. Sweeping, mopping and using the vacuum were all things that I dreaded before as they left me in more pain then when I had flair ups but with the oxycontin I have been back to making sure that all the floors are done at least every other day or so rather then once a week. If you have a toddler you can understand how quick floors get dirty! Most importantly it has enabled me to take a bit more active role in taking care of the baby. While I am home with him most of the time I could generally only have 2-3 hours with him before the pain was to much and I needed some help. This meant that my wife, who works until 2am at the restaurant, would have to get up at like 8am or so to help me out. That would leave her with only 5-6 hours of sleep a day on which she would have to work a 10-12 hour shift at the store.
The only issue I might have with a morphine derivative is that when I was in the hospital they gave me morphine which made me itch like crazy. I ended up scratching my leg raw before they noticed. I thought I was scratching due to the return of feeling in the leg but the doctor later explained that some people have that reaction to morphine. They gave me benadryl to combat it but if I am indeed allergic to it, I do not want to be popping benadryl everyday.
We will wait and see...
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