Started having several episodes per year of severe pain in upper right abdominal quadrant (right under ribcage) at about age 33 (I'm now 68), which lasted a very predictable 2 to 3 days/episode, before subsiding. Worst pain was at night, when I'd stay awake tossing and turning and trying to self-alleviate (superstitious behavior, really). Usually, around 3AM, the pain would lessen enough to sleep, but then I was a basket case the next day, and often skipped work. I'd try Tylenol and Ibuprofen, which had very little effect. Fast forward 20 years. After having all 4 wisdom teeth removed, I was prescribed Endocet, an opiate, which was very effective for that particular pain. About 6 years later, during one of my stomach episodes, I noticed the unused Endocet in the medicine cabinet, and thought, "hmmm...six years past expiration, probably useless," but took one or two anyway, just to see. Wow! Two tablets relieved my pain completely, and I slept like a baby. Six years after the supposed expiration date! Next time I visited my doctor, who had no explanation for these flare ups, I told him about the leftover Endocet experience and he wrote me a prescription for Oxycodone. Of course, this worked at least as well (5 to 10 mg per episode, always taken at night), and I usually took only about 5 total 5mg tablets over 3 days before the pain subsided. I never experience constipation or any sense of tolerance, probably because of how infrequently I actually take this medication (4 to 7 episodes per year, usually weeks to months between each very unpredictable flare up). Since that discovery my doctor typically wrote me one 30-tablet prescription every 6 months. Having it available "when needed" completely eliminated the pain, and thus the ability of these attacks to derail my life for 2 to 3 days each time. That doctor retired a few years ago, and my new MD is more nervous about filling this prescription, although he has continued to do so. He always talks about "weaning me off of it," which make no sense, as I take it very responsibly and am at about the lowest dose and schedule of administration of anyone I'd every met or read about. The hysteria about addiction and overdose (almost always due to Fentanyl) has led to an overabundance of caution regarding opiates, and this really does a disservice to people who truly need an opiate to deal with chronic pain. As one writer on this forum already noted, research has shown that for people who truly take opiates for pain, the risk of becoming addicted is about 2%, and even that number is populated largely by individuals who struggle with other addictions (e.g., alcohol). I’d love to see the day when people who are at almost zero risk of addiction, like myself, can comfortably obtain this medication, by prescription, in whatever amount is needed to effectively treat their otherwise unmanageable pain.
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