Posted by cmcdougall on April 24, 2002, at 20:01:30
In reply to Re: It is safe and much maligned-don't freak out » beardedlady, posted by Elizabeth on April 23, 2002, at 23:15:24
Hello,
I graduated from college in 1977. What a wonderful time to grow up! I am completely serious when I say that. Anyway, I knew more than a few junkies - I am still in contact w/ one woman my age who has been addicted to heroin for over 30 years. She is an attorney in DC with a very prominent corporate law firm. To look at her, you would never guess she used. So much for stereotypes...
My opinion of the safey and effectiveness of heroin is purely anecdotal. My friend in DC shows me how safe heroin can be... As far as its effectiveness as a pain killer, I was present at the death of two beloved family members, both from cancer. One was my 23 year old sister who died in Texas 10 years ago last Sept. The other was my father-in-law who died in England 2 years ago.
Both received LOTS of meds. My sister had a porta-cath, so we were able to inject massive amounts of morphine directly into her bloodstream. Near the end of her life, she was receiving about 4ccs every 15 minutes. Some of you may think I am bullsh**ng, but it is true. All of this was under the supervision of both the MD and the nurse from hospice. I couldn't understand how we could give my sister so much morphine w/out killing her. The hospice nurse explained that morphine works on pain receptors and as long as there is pain, the morphine will not affect respiration or cardiac function. I do not know if that is true. We started out giving her 1/2cc every 4 hours and we were forced to increase the dose constantly to keep Sis comfortable. Strangely, she never seemed sedated no matter how much morphine she received. Sis was alert and very cognitive as long as her pain was under control. Eventually, the morphine quit working and we augmented w/ Valium. From that point until her death about 24 hours later, she suffered MISERABLY. I cannot convey in words the horror that all of us endured, except to say that it profoundly changed my life. Carpe diem - seize the day. Right now is all we have, right? My sweet sister, who had 2 little boys under 3 years of age, moaned and sometimes screamed out loud in agony for 18 hours before her death. All of us moaned and cried and screamed right along with her. And I kept pumping in the morphine and valium and nothing helped.
In contrast, as my father-in-law lay dying he received sublingual heroin (diamorphine). We never had to increase the dose and we never needed to augment. After 6 days, he slowly went into respiratory failure (from the cancer that had invaded his nervous system) and died peacefully. It was a lot easier on the whole family than what we had gone through with my sister in Texas. Pop was cognitive, alert and comfortable. His last days are some of my fondest memories - we all sat around and told stories and laughed and loved a lot.
So there... thats my opiate story and thats how I have formed my "heroin opinion".
poster:cmcdougall
thread:103502
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020416/msgs/104026.html