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Benji, I am so sorry that you have to even go through this as you sound so much like myself & countless other chronic pain patients!! I am a patient advocate & chronic pain liaison that has fibro, ra, ddd, plus suffered a major birth injury to both hips that was not even found until I was almost 2 & by then it was too late to fix what they broke, so I have been in pain my whole life! I too, take 30mg of methadone & unable to take nsaids because it shoots my bp up way too high & has caused me to have a mini stroke, & muscle relaxers do the same to me as they do to you. Anyway, You need to ask your doc why he does not want to continue the methadone if it is working for you? After all you are only on 30mg after 10 years!! The likely reason is because of fear from the dea; but can also be that he is ignorant on chronic pain & methadone. If he tells you that it is because it is bad for your health or causes organ damage, then right there you will know that he is absolutely clueless! Ask him what treatment plan he has in mind for after the detox to deal w/ your pain? & how are you supposed to function being in pain 24/7! Many will also use the excuse that it does nothing to cure what is causing the pain, which is absolutely true; but most meds do not cure what you are taking them for! I take bp meds. but they don't cure it & will have to be on them for the rest of my life! Insulin does not cure diabeates, zoloft does not cure depression, viagra don't cure limp penises! Yet all make it possible to live & have quality & fuction to their lives, so ask him why you are not allowed the same rights as fibro & lupus have no cure nor much in the way of treatment!! As for you being an addict, that is BS if you are still able to maintain your low dose after 10 years!! He should know the difference between addiction & dependence, no matter what you take, your body will become dependent after you have been on it for 90 days & will cause you to have withdrawal if stopped!! It does not help that the media only shows the bad side of these drugs instead of showing the pos. side of suffering patients getting their lives back!! They talk about how these drugs should only be given to those dying from cancer, how do they know a cancer patient is is more pain that we are? The only difference between a cancer patient & a chronic pain patient is that the cancer patient's suffering will end soon!!
The general thinking is that if a drug can cause addiction, then it is assumed to be bad, which is completely WRONG!! While opioids can be very dangerous & not everyone that is taking them should be, nor should they be used to treat all pain in all people & yes they are very addictive. However if a patient is compliant, legitimate, & taking them as directed, they are one of the least damaging meds known to man! The reason for this is because they are 99.99% indentical to the endorphins your body already makes & your body already knows how to use & filter them w/o damaging your organs! However this is also what makes them addictive & the reason tolerence to them occurs & requires more to get the same relief. Methadone is in a class all to its self because even though it is an opioid & works the same as the others, it is completely senthetic; but unlike the others that leave your body in a few hours, methadone has a very long halflife w/ part of it never leaving & stored in your fat cells. This is why you have to be very careful w/ it as everytime you take it, you are storing more & more as it builds on itself. This is why it is so easy to overdose & so hard to get off of!! In fact less than 5% of people that go on methadone for a long time can get & stay off it & the longer you have been on it is more important than how much you use. Like a person that take 100mg a day for 1 yr. is going to have a lot shorter withdrawal than someone that has been on only 30mg for 10 yrs. You should be detoxed no more than 5mg. every 8wks. Your doc should know this; but because he is a gp, he was never taught this. This is the reason that chronic pain should be only treated by a specialist as it is completely different than acute/post op pain. Whould you go to a heart doc. for prenatal care? No, so I would ask him about a referal to a good pain specialist & ask if he will maintain your methadone until you can transfer your pain care. He should be willing to do that. I hope I have answered your question & please let me know how you are doing as we have to stand together in this fight for the same rights all other patients are given!! I have a facebook page that I am working to get updated called criminally inpain please check it out in a couple days as I want it to be a place for others like you & myself to meet & share support & info!!
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