Mother-in-law's addiction to Oxycotin

Ladyarwen · Newbie Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 1

My mother-in-law has been living with us for almost 3 years, since her husband has passed. She has been on Oxycotin and Roxicodone (not sure if I spelled it right) well she takes 4 80mg of Oxycotin, and 3 30mg of Roxicodone. She has had a near death experience because of the medication about 7 months ago, when I had to rush her to the emergency room because she was very unalert. When she finally got to the hospital and they stablized her, the doctor informed us that she had strep throat, bronchitis, and pheunomia. And with her being a sufferer of COPD and being on oxygen it was not a good sign. I believe that it is the fault of the medication because she did not feel any pain before I rushed her to the hospital, but she did mention however that she felt a sore throat coming on earlier that day. Since then we have been monitering her pills because my husband and myself both think she is and has been addicted to theese pain pills. She insists that she is not addicted to the pills. We have been holding the pills for her and giving her a weeks worth at a time because she will not allow us to give them to her by the day. Every week she seems to be fine at the begining of the week helps clean a little, when we fill her pill bottle which is on Thursday, but by Monday or Tuesday she seems to hideout in her room and we dont see her again until Wednesday night when she hands us her pill bottle to refill. She is collecting workmans comp to pay for her medications but they stopped paying for them for about 10 months and she had to pay for them herself, and she did, she spent over $17,000.00 in 10 months and went completely broke and then turned arround and borrowed money from my parents to pay for the pills. I sometimes feel like my life is going down the tubes because I dont believe that she will ever seek help for her addiction.
I do not know what to do because I have 5 children living at home and they can see that she is slowly killing herself. Before she got on this medication she was not thin, and looked healthy even though she had pain she looked alot better from how she looks today. Now she weighs only 96 lbs, is on oxygen, and she camps out in her room all day watching TV till all hours of the night and then when we do see her she says she is so tired because she did'nt get enough sleep. She has problems with her stomache at least once a week for about a day but it always seems it is right before she gets more pills and then when she has more pills she is fine again. She only showers once a week. Is this because she is still abusing them right in front of our noses?
I just need someone to answer this post and tell me if this sounds like an addiction or not, because I do not know the signs of addiction. I am ashamed of my feelings tward her because I feel like I am starting to dispise her and I do not want to feel these feelings about her expecially if she can not help it or does not realize that she is addicted. I would like to get her help but I do not know where to begin and I do not want the to hate me because I say she is addicted and she insists that she is not.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for the info.

Ladyarwen

breezyjr · Newbie Joined: 02 Mar 2007 Posts: 2

Yes she is addited.
Yes she is using most, if not all her meds at the beginning of the week.

The bottom line is this. And, you're not going to like the answer. This is coming from a Paramedic of nearly 15 years. And, A Chronic pain sufferer.

You need to put her in a long tem care facilty... Yes that means Nursing home.

There really are some nice one's out there, if you look around. She may need to go on Medicare, of Medicaid, if she doesn't have insurance.

Here are a few of my suggestions regarding a long term care facilty.
Visit them first. Take a look around. NOw, it probably is not going to smell like a bed of roses, but it shouldn't stink of urine and Pine Sol.
Look at the residents. Do they look relatively heathly, and happy. You'll always find some that look like crap! But, the residents that are out and about, and there should be many, should look healthy, generally speaking of course. If you see an ambulance around, ask them... Trust me, anyone who works in EMS can tell you at least one place to avoid, and one place they think is OK, or even great.

When you decide on one, and she's in the home, visit her OFTEN, and at all hours. I have found the the patients that get the best treatment have family that visits all the time. And, visit her a 3am sometime, they have to let you see her, even if she's sleeping. You can ask just to look in the room, make sure she's ok. See what the staff is doing at 3am... are they all in the break room talking? Or, do they look busy? They should look at least a bit busy... There is always something to do.

Good luck to you. You really need her out of the house, you don't need your kids seeing her. Or worse, stealing drugs from her, if they're old enough.

If you refuse to put her out... at least go to a daily pill dose. No more week at a time. If she refuses, don't get them filled for her.... it sounds like she can't drive or take care of herself, so you need to step up and do it yourself. Daily rations of meds. And, go by what the bottle says, not by what she says the dose is. if it says three times a day, give her only 3 pills. That's it.... it's that easy... so to speak. I know it will be hard... and she'll probably say mean things to you. But, it's better in the long run...

Take care....

Guest · Guest

my husband has the same characteristics with him he knows hes addicted but cannot get any help well at least the kind he needs because we have no insurance and our state just turned him down for medicare.
but yes he is showing the same symptoms when the script is new and there are pills they're like dynamos but when the pills are gone they go into their hermit stage they dont have the motivation to do anything
the appetite is goneand so is the need to keep up personal hygiene they get diarrhea the pain to them is excruciating because the pills untaught their body how to deal with pain on its own and they look like death warmed over they are so tired but they cannot sleep and their body is constantly moving due to the creepy crawly feeling underneath their skin. they dont get a good night sleep until the pills are back in their system and when pills are finally available to them then overmedicate themselves so they can again feel indestructible

Mother-in-law's addiction to Oxycotin

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