Posted by shelliR on November 12, 2001, at 18:38:47
Please, I need information, but not a pro or con opiate
thread (we've had too many of those).I have been taking oxycontin since the summer along with
wellbutrin, concerta, and a small dose of nardil. I can no longer afford to buy oxycontin, it's about $1,200 monthly for me (no prescription coverage). I have just applied to the company's assistance program. Today I told my pdoc that we had to come up with something else to replace the oxy in case they either reject me or my meds run out before they send him medication, if I am approved. I was thinking something similar that I would have to take more often. He wrote me a script for morphine, saying it may be hard to find but that it is very very inexpensive. I am freaked about the idea.My pdoc is known as a brillant, unorthodox and hard to get along with pdoc. He has worked a lot with oxy and morphine related to pain in double diagnosis patients. He was associated with the hospital I was in, but on a different unit. He consulted on my depression when I was in the hospital and oxycontin was his idea. (I had been self-medicating
with a small amount of vicidin before). He has a number of patients on oxycontin nowAny of you know the difference between oxycontin and morphine, especially in terms of addiction. He said he can work it out to make the dose
similar. I asked for something similar to vicidin and he said he couldn't justify that. He keeps using the
phrase "can't justify" without explaining why, or what that means. He rejected buprenorphine straight out, and I never did get an answer about why.I know no one in Washington D.C.area,to consult with. Just to find out if this guy is totally screwing me up. All I can say is that I was desperately depressed without codeine--after nardil pooped out. The medical director of my inpatient unit felt that because my depression had been so unrelenting in the past two years, she would support his decision re opiates, but has no experience with them herself. She doesn't believe I have a problem with addiction.
I am scared of a dependence on morphine (but is that really any different from oxycontin?), scared that if I ever run out somewhere no one else will prescribe in and also that there will be nothing to treat me with if I experience horrible physical pain in some situation. Also, I am not very happy to have this guy as my pdoc; he really wants to be successful, I think, but he doesn't answer questions. There is no chance of switching pdocs and continuing on an opiate.
Again, as I said, I was incapacitated without opiates starting over a year and a half ago.
Sorry so long.
Shellli
poster:shelliR
thread:84007
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011104/msgs/84007.html