Dependance or Addiction???

Hi, Scarred,
I've been wondering how you were doing, and hoping that "no news is good news" might apply, but I guess not in the area of pm. And all this after you went through so much to try to plan the move to new doctors, etc. I sure hope the pm specialist is willing to help without you having to jump through a ton of hoops. I wonder how they remove the hardware, since I've got some in my back, too. If they have to cut much, then that's more new scar tissue. Seems to be an endless cycle.

Anyway, we're still here so let us know how it goes!

PaLady

Susie,
One thing is to find out if the particular medication has a Maximum Daily Dose (MDD), which may be true for a lot of our meds. Either the doctor or your pharmacist could tell you that. A lot of times the script may be written with an MDD, or the insurance company may place a number on the pills it will permit to be dispensed based on what's a safe MDD for that med. You can also check the manufacturer's website. The complications, I think, come when we're combining a lot of meds and while one alone may not have an MDD, if combined with other meds (which may not even be opiods or even pain meds) could be dangerous or even lethal. Who makes the decision? The doctor and/or pharmacist. Some people may have a script written though, and while a doctor or insurance may only give "X" pills/day, there may not necessarily be a medical reason why that dose couldn't be exceeded occasionally, but still that should be between patient and doctor. I don't think we should ever on our own just take more of something unless we've already run it by our doctor, but each of us takes such a unique mix of meds. I'm not going to jump on someone for taking an occasional extra pill because maybe it's ok between them and their doc. If you're doing it regularly, though, and not discussing it with your doctor, that to me is a red flag.

I can understand saving some extra pills when you don't take the maximum on a day, and Scarred's case above is a good example of when that might come in handy. Is it a good practice technically? No. If we could be assured of regular, adequate pain management, that wouldn't be necessary, but sometimes we may be moving, going on vacation, changing doctors, etc, and having a few extra pills which you didn't take (because you didn't take the MDD a few days) could be needed.

This is really sad and frustrating to me, the more I think and write about it. Feeling like some kind of criminal if we are doing normal life things like going on vacation. Heck, I have problems with my seizure meds and those aren't addictive or opiods or even controlled substances. But because the insurance only allows a 30 day supply that's all I can get, and if I happen to be going away at the end of the month (not that I ever do travel these days) it'd be a royal pain with the insurance company to get a month's supply ahead of time.

Am I making any sense?

PaLady

Of course this only applies for my BT meds (ie. Percocet which says on the bottle that I can take up to 6 per day). Since being in KS and having new Docs poking at me they have changed my Kadian from 2 100 mg capsules every 12 hours to 1 200 mg capsule every 12 hours which I am quite grateful for because it makes it one less pill I have to try and swallow. I hate taking medications of any kind and usually have to take my meds with lots of water and one at a time LOL