Thread by @Fizzygrrl

I have a random weird thing I want to chat about regarding opiate addiction. (Apologies in advance for the length of this.)

So, I have chronic pain. And when we lived in Indiana, my docs prescribed me Vicodin to deal with it.

I took it for, I want to say about 10 years?

I took it very sparingly. One every night to manage the pain enough to sleep, and if I had a migraine, I’d take an extra one.

It took exactly no time before my body became physically addicted to the nighttime dose.

I suddenly REQUIRED Vicodin at night or I’d have withdrawals.

I brought this to my doctors and said how uncomfortable I was with the situation. I didn’t know much about my health history, but the adoption agency told me addiction was rampant on both bio sides, so that wasn’t a path I wanted to be on.

They kept telling me it was the only option, and I was in pain, so I kept on. Eventually they’d up the dose because my body was too used to the amount I had.

Here’s where things get weird.

I had been complaining to my doc for about a year about wanting to get off Vicodin, because I didn’t like that my body was addicted to it. This doc was NOT hearing me.

At one appt. I threw down and said I did NOT want to be on opiates anymore, so fix it.

He offered me this pain patch, with the understanding that I was refusing opiates entirely because my body needed them at night.

It was implied this was one of those anti-inflammatory patches and went with it.

The patch was actually super helpful and I was pleased. Then, the doc didn’t call in the first refill I needed in time, and I was out of the patch for a few days.

I felt. Like I. Was. Dying.

I called the pharmacy to ask wtf was going on, why this patch would cause the horror I was going through, and they explained that’s what happens with high dose FENTANYL PATCHES.

I stormed back to my doctor, screaming. My body was now addicted to a higher dose of opiates 24 hours a day. And now I had to be weaned off the patches after only a month.

The nurse came in with this HUGE packet of paper and said I had to sign it all and register with the state.

For what?

Because they were going to prescribe me more than 59 pills a month of Percocet a month to wean me off, and that meant I would have to register with the state.

This involved me coming in for monthly drug tests, periodic blood tests, and be registered with the state as an official “opiate user.”

I was a rage fire and top-decibel screaming “I AM TRYING TO GET OFF THESE MEDS WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME TAKE MORE?!?!”

FTR, this was a win for everyone but me. The doc got extra money from all the tests I’d have to pay for, and office visits, and the state got money for me registering.

I refused the medication, I refused to register, I went through a horrid withdrawal process, and I never saw that doctor again, and I haven’t taken any opiate medication, no matter how bad the pain is, in years because I don’t trust doctors not to push it too far.

It’s been like 4 years and I am still furious over this. I spent over a year begging to find any other medication to help, my docs wouldn’t try anything but more opiates. It felt like their goal was to get me to a place where I’d need to register. To MAKE me an addict.

How many people does this happen to? Like, it’s my fault for not Googling the patch to know what I was taking, but I felt 100% tricked by that. I demanded an alternative to opiates, they gave me STRONGER opiates while implying it was opiate-free.

Has this happened to others?

I feel like this is something that needs to be discussed. We are taught to trust our doctors. We talk about the opiate crisis and addiction constantly, but what happens when the doctors and the state are the ones pushing for the addiction?