Lots of extra medication

One of my meds is Morphine.

The Dr is prescribing [up to] 6/day, in the event of breakthrough. I use a standard 3 with other meds, and maybe 2 a week on breakthrough. I get 180 as a one-month supply, so I have been left with 85-90 extra each month.

So, I have a WHOLE BUNCH of Morphine here, and will have even more at the end of this prescription cycle (over 200).

How do I break this with the Dr so that I don't get in any trouble? I've honestly not taken a single pill that I wasn't in need of. But I don't want the Dr to suddenly crack down hard and I wind up without meds that I wind up needing in 2 months.

Any ideas would be sincerely appreciated.

Tony,
It does sound like you need to tell your doctor just what medication covers your pain. I mean we want to tell our doctors if what they're giving us isn't enough to cover our pain, so we should be willing to do the opposite. You might give yourself a little leeway if some of these are prescribed on an "as needed" basis, but I'd suggest talking honestly with your doctor at your next appointment. It's great you're not having as much BT pain, and so having yoru doctor reduce the prescription now - allowing for modifications in the future - should help keep a good relationship with him. Your doctor might tell you to keep the extras in the event of future BT pain, but let that be up to him. Just make sure you get a few extra in scripts in case you have BT, and that the doctor notes you may need more if your pain worsens.

PaLady

Tony,
Just tell him that you don't need another prescription for BT pain each time you go in for an appt. and by the time You Do use all of it, then you can tell him you need more. That way he'll know that you are honest. And the next time you Do need something he will be more apt to give it to you.

I wish I didn't need to take my BT meds. Man that would be nice.... But oh in a perfect world....

Me.

If the morphine is not helping and just putting you to sleep then, your doctor needs to know this as well,
as maybe he/she could prescribe something else for you that might help.....
Doctors need to know whats working for you and what your on in case of emergency.......
Hope you get a low pain day..........

Tony,
I'm kind of with Char now that you're saying your pain really hasn't been covered. You've been kind of undermedicating yourself, right? That puts a different slant on it. Because your fear of ending up without enough medication is real. You're afraid of the driving issue? I can understand. I know for me that percocet doesn't make me groggy, and I generally have no problem driving while taking it. But I can't take a muscle relaxant and function. That about does me in. I've never tried morphine so I don't know. But maybe working with your doctor for a different daytime combination could help?

Just my two cents for now. I just would hate to see you go undermedicated unnecesarily. Enough of us struggle with that because of our doctors!!

PaLady

I'm not sure how getting down to a level 3-5 is being under-medicated. That's where I'm at right now & I am ecstatic about it! 5 means different things to different people, but on my doc's pain scale it means the pain can be ignored for up to a half hour at a time if I'm doing something very engaging. Really, that's all pain meds should be used for. They are not to get rid of all the pain. That's not really a safe way to live life even if you were awake b/c you could injure yourself & not even know it b/c you're so heavily medicated.
That said, if a "5" for you means you can barely get around, then I would definitely suggest talking to your PM about changing or upping your meds b/c no one should have to live like that. ;)

As far as just continuing to take your meds while allowing your PM to believe you are not taking them, I would still insist that it is not a great plan. If your doc isn't prescribing for you, but you are continuing to take the meds, you really could face some difficulties. I recently went through my "medicine cabinet" & found an old prescription bottle that was more than half full. It was from more than 2 years ago. I returned it to my doc & explained that I hadn't been taking it & forgot I even had it until I was spring cleaning. He said it was good that I returned it & that he appreciated that. There weren't any negative consequences or anything -- he even offered to up my BT pain meds to give me a little more relief so I could progress faster with my PT (I can't afford the higher dose, but my point is that when you forge a good relationship with your doc, are consistently honest & don't go trying to sneak around behind his back trying to take care of things yourself b/c you don't feel you can trust him then you give your PM more reasons to trust you to behave responsibly and not do anything to get either yourself or him in trouble).

It's your choice in the end, but I really do feel that unless CP patients go above & beyond to show we are trustworthy that we will continue to face the same difficulties over & over again where we are treated like abusers or addicts. Hiding medication use from your doctor is something an addict would do. I'm *definitely not* saying you're an addict, just saying that appearances count & that anything you can do to eliminate even the appearance or slightest impression that you are maybe doing something wrong is likely only to help your doc to trust you more in the future. Be honest with him. If you just explain that you noticed that the extra doses were really starting to add up & tell him that you don't really need more than 3 doses a day at this time, I can't see how he could fault you for that. Maybe he'll let you keep them, maybe he'll have you use them for the next couple months or maybe he'll ask for them back, but you are trusting him with your life and he needs all the information you can give him to be able to help you and keep you safe.

Good luck with your decision!