Michelle, the difficulty here is that there is way more information out there about drug abuse than the use about appropriate use for pain control. When you're fighting pain, you're not going to get strung out on those pills. They're doing what they're supposed to do.

My mother had a very painful death, from metastasized breast cancer (into the bones of her spine). The hospital wanted patients to request pain medications when they needed them, my mom and my sister (her advocate) wanted them on a regular schedule, but the hospital wouldn't comply. And when my mom did ask for pain medications, it typically took the nurse over an hour to bring it. By then the pain was so bad, and the medicine, when it acted, knocked her out for a couple of hours. She hated that excruciating pain/sleep/little zone of comfort pattern. Much better to take it as needed, or on a regular schedule. You're lucky you can choose, so choose what makes you feel better.

Mom finally had enough of the health care system and went on strike. She refused all food and medications, and they put in (I think) an IV for fluids and a pump for pain meds only. She died two weeks after her first hospitalization, but she could have lived much longer without pain with prescribed long term pain treatments (targeted radiation to kill nerves in the spine that were responsible for the pain). I place the responsibility for her early death on the miserable health care system--they're so busy trying to operate within the finances as they exist today that they can't treat patients when they need attention. You shouldn't have to negotiate on things like this.


Sorry to introduce this sad story, but the point is that whether you're going through chemo or at the end stage of life, pain control is important and the medications will control the pain. They won't make you high and you won't get hooked, as long as you use them to treat pain.

Take what you need, when you need it. Get the sleep you need, and get past this hump. We're looking forward to the dynamo you become when you're back feeling better again. That Michelle is absolutely stunning!

SRS