1/ Just listened to @BBCWomansHour talking to ‘Carla & Brendan’ about living with #Fibromyalgia (find it at 35.25) thanks @fmauk for flagging, this is where I started & gradually more & more drugs were added until I was unrecognisable, 25 stone
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…
2/ and living in my armchair, I never went out except for medical appointments & my wife @Trewern_K became my full-time carer which she did not begrudge for a second but it did limit her life too! The cocktail of drugs meant I couldn’t stay awake during the day, was awake at
3/ night & dozed off during video calls with my grandson 🥲 I was in crippling amounts of pain despite being on an EMD morphine dose of 320mg a day! We are all different but I believe coming off #opioids (UNDER MEDICAL SUPERVISION) literally saved my life!
4/ 4 yrs on I am tapering the last of my cocktail of drugs, one of 2 antidepressants I was on & it’s a very SLOW process! I now manage my pain by keeping as active as I possibly can! I still live with pain but it’s manageable as long as I follow my personal self management plan!
5/ I walk daily & swim in the sea as often as possible & follow @VersusArthritis #LetsMove videos with exercises for people living with #arthritis & my quality of life has improved enormously! I still have flares but I manage them much better!
@NICEComms don’t recommend opioids as a first line of treatment for chronic pain conditions & evidence shows that they are not very effective long term apart from in a small minority of people on low doses. I lost a decade of my life & my family lost the mum/wife/sister/nan
they knew before, drugs are not the only way! Yes they should be available at safe levels for those that they do work for but you need to seriously question if you are experiencing harms like I was because I thought my conditions were worsening!
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
