Trying to deal with severe pain. And some idiotic doctors

I've had AVN for many yrs,It started in my shoulders and worked it's way down to my hips and knee's The pain has been bad but somewhat controlled by a pain center in North Carolina, I was prescribed methadone 30mg's TID and morphine 60mg's 4-6 times a day and as things were getting worse the doctor kept updating there policies and lowering my medication. they took me off the morphine and put me on 15mg's of oxycodone 1 tab 4 times daily which is ridiculous. I have followed there rules and have always dropped clean urines and this past month when my left hip collapsed I had to take some of my meds earlier then usual. When I went to see the doctor I told them I would be 3 day's short because of what happened, they told me I signed a contract and GRIN and BEAR IT even though I had proof from my ortho doc and xrays, They would not change there minds. It's just amazing at the attitudes of these doctors. On Monday I will be calling a new pain center...

With the current problems with prescription drug abuse and all of the impressions it is leaving in its wake what you have and are going through is becoming much more common. Doctors are more and more becoming afraid of losing either their controlled substance license of their medical license for prescribing too many narcotics.

While I can understand you doing what you did, in the future, regardless of which doctor is handling your pain meds, it would be highly advisable to contact them first before altering your doses in any way.

Hi NoRelief
Makes me mad to hear of yet another case of doctors who do their job as if we were just nuts and bolts going down an assembly line. It's sad that doctors have to be so worried about dispensing much needed meds to people who really need them because of a few who misuse them. There really needs to be a system in place that proctects doctors as well as the patients right to proper care. It sounds as though you need to bring as lawyer with you everytime you meet with your pain doc. Maybe doctors need to be more afraid of the legal repercussions from their patience than from whoever watchess over these doctors. What a crazy mixed up system we have to live by. I hope things work out for you..NoRelief..I guess all I can suggest is if you get injured again and go to the ER , request pain medication from them to cover the extra pain you will have to endure or like someone else mentioned, contact your pain doc right away and explain your situation.
Best of Luck
..Stingray

Hi NoRelief,
I'm confused, you said that you were prescribed 90 mg of Methadone once a day, and 60 mg of morphine 4-6 times a day. That's a huge variance in medication dosages for morphine, but now you are taking 90 mg of methadone three times a day and 15 mg of oxycodone 4 times a day, is that all correct? I checked the opiate conversion tables and it seems that if they increased your methadone dosing to three times a day, then they more than adjusted for the loss of the morphine doses. In fact, you would have wound up with an increase in your dosages of medications, both your base pain medication and , adding the oxycodone into the equation. This is of course, assuming that the information on your dosing is correct in the OP and at the bottom of your signature...
I know that AVN is painful to deal with, but the others are right, no matter what, unless you have cleared it with your pain management doctor, never, take more than you are prescribed or you may find yourself without pain management and you don't want that.
Despite the fact that it may not be fair, we do have to do our part as patients to abide by the rules, even in documented cases where there may be another painful condition that develops, we still have to clear it with our doctors that are prescribing the pain medications when it comes to our need for increased pain levels, otherwise, they are at jeapordy of loosing their licenses and livelihoods.
I don't necessarily agree with the system as it is right now, but it is there and until something changes to make it so that our doctors are regulating our treatments without government interference, we have to abide by the rules too.
Sandi