I'm grateful that I had the oxycontin, because it was either that or continuing morphine (oxy is a sort of oral morphine, they told me) and I couldn't have lived without heavy duty painkillers for several weeks. Maybe if it had been only a month, I wouldn't have had such a bad time of it. I was taking very large doses of the stuff, as prescribed.
If I ever have such an experience again, I won't do it cold turkey. I just don't think I could do it again.
I went to another doctor before I was finished with the sickness to see if he could help me with the pain, and he recommended a painkiller called Ultram. He said it was known for being non-addictive and very effective. But what happened is that when I took one, my sickness went away immediately. I felt fine, as though I'd just had an oxy! So I was suspicious. If it wasn't addictive, why did it make my oxy-withdrawal symptoms go away? If something seems too good to be true, it is.
So I googled Ultram. Found all sorts of discussion groups about Ultram addiction. Very sad stories. People saying their lives had been ruined. If I remember the story I read on one of those sites correctly, it said that the drug had been advertised to doctors when it first came out as being non-addictive on the basis of the clinical trials, but when, as the drug began being widely prescribed, reports of addiction began to surface, they did add a warning to their materials. But a lot of doctors remembered the early info and weren't aware of the later warnings.
So... I have some Ultram left over from 2000.
We're exchange war stories.
I remember when you were sick and in the hospital. I hope you're fine now, KR. |
