Hi Everyone! I have been very concerned about Doug's dependence (increasing) on morphine and worry about him taking too much. At the same time, how can I tell him he takes too much, too often when they are still stretching his throat because of scar tissue and he is in so much pain? The doctors haven't been too helpful on how do go about weening him off this stuff. Any guidance?

Your post has bought the memories flooding back for me. When I was going through the early stages recovering from Radiotherapy I used to use cocaine mouthwash but could never get enough, and as the pain subsided a little I went on to Oramorph but used it like it was going out of fashion. It eased the pain and the depression but bought about its own problems, and in the end I could,nt function without it.
It took a week or two in my local Mental Health Unit to get me off it and I had the shakes for days......so in my case it was a bit of cold Turkey and a course of calming drugs to ease the withdrawl. My experience may be worse than most but it does highlight the addictive power of Morphine based painkillers.

Hello Belle70

You may find this past discussion on Morphine Withdrawal helpful.

Best wishes
Vinod

Hi Belle
I was prescribed a high dose of MST(morphine) when I was in hospital recovering from the radiotherapy last summer. I had problems when I started to reduce the dose (see earlier post that Dr Joshi refers to) but then accepted it was going to take time to come off it so did it very slowly decreasing every 5 days and eventually succeeded in stopping completely in January. Ahm now in quite a lot of pain from secondary breast cancer in spine but managing with tramadol and diclofenac at the moment.
Best wishes,
maggie

Hi re morphine, I think that it does not work for everyone, they gave me one of those bags with a pump, I had to come off it right away as I was bombarded with geometric coloured images.

The high level of pain killers made me pass out!

couldn't manage Tramadol either.
Big Bear Healing Hugs to you all out there

Thanks to everyone who responded...since this post so much has happened! Doug was in really bad shape this last week and I was probably the most scared I have been throughout this whole ordeal! He was seriously self-medicating when no one was at home and his brother wasn't very helpful in keeping an eye on him so he kept falling down and hurting himself. I spoke with the doctor on-call and he, oddly enough, encouraged me to NOT bring him to the ER but wait until his oncologist was in on Monday. Anyway....long story-short I checked him in to hospital and they are slowly weening him off the morphine and oxycodone so at least now, when I talk to him, he knows what day it is and everything. Now I just have to wonder...what next? I know he gets depressed and wants to escape because his life has changed so much and he hardly can do all of the things that were part of his normal life....even just taking a walk around the block is too much for him these days and this is a man who used to run for miles before his surgeries. So I suppose now my question has changed to: "When the depression gets so bad and you see no future...what do you do?"

There was a period in my life about 2 years ago when I was so down about all the side effects from Radiotherapy that I just did'nt want to go on anymore.....but I hung on for the sake of those around me. Slowly, things have improved so I can now see light where there was once only darkness. If ever Doug needs a heart to heart...... stevieo1958@aol.com

Heathrow Steve,

Thank you for the offer. I will pass it on to Doug. I know he needs to talk to someone who has gone through all of this...physically. I never have been able to get him to log on here himself but maybe talking with someone one-on-one will do the trick. He seemed a bit better today because his ex brought their son to see him (he is only 7 and the light of Doug's life)and hopefully that served to remind him of everything there still is to live for. Thanks again.

B.