Comments on: Long term opiate use safe; One woman’s experience with Savella http://fibrantliving.com/2009/12/03/long-term-opiate-use-safe-one-womans-experience-with-savella/ Live a joyous, vibrant life despite illness! Sun, 20 Jun 2010 16:33:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v= hourly 1 By: pamela smeberg http://fibrantliving.com/2009/12/03/long-term-opiate-use-safe-one-womans-experience-with-savella/comment-page-1/#comment-3874 pamela smeberg Sun, 20 Jun 2010 16:33:26 +0000 http://fibrantliving.com/?p=124#comment-3874 Thank you so much for bringing to light a credible study done on patients with chronic pain who have found that there can stil be quality of life in spite of severe chronic pain through long term use of opiate therapy. I have been on a strong dose of opiates for 15 years. Had I not been place on it, I most assuredly would have committed suicide by now. I have never been suspected of being "under the influence" of any substance. I can think and speak clearly and most of all I can live a fairly normal life. Because I have been on opiates for 32 out of my 61 years several pain specialists have explained that even if there were alternative treatments to relieve my pain (which is at multiple sites and of differing origins) it would be a very difficult course requiring years of emotional upheavals. My brain has been irrevocably changed at the cellular level where the opiate receptors are found and they may never recover their ability to produce endorphins that are found in the normal brain. I have accepted the inevitability of not trying to fix something that to me is not broken and take my pain meds along with my thyroid meds, my estrogen, and my blood pressure med. Considering my lifespan may not be much more than 20-25 years, I choose not to go down a path that would require the use of SSRI's (which may or may not work and would probably have to be changed several times to get the right one); I would also have to face decades of deep depression. many visits to a psychiatrist among other therapies. Although my conditions are not at all static (I have recently developed severe muscle spasms in my upper and lower back due to bone spurs on the vertebrae, I will deal with this additional issues as they occur. Unfortunately so many doctors have made me feel like a drug addict or drug seeker, that it was truly refreshing to learn that there are others out there living their lives to a full extent thanks to the oldest and most respected pain medication on earth. Thank you so much for bringing to light a credible study done on patients with chronic pain who have found that there can stil be quality of life in spite of severe chronic pain through long term use of opiate therapy. I have been on a strong dose of opiates for 15 years. Had I not been place on it, I most assuredly would have committed suicide by now. I have never been suspected of being “under the influence” of any substance. I can think and speak clearly and most of all I can live a fairly normal life. Because I have been on opiates for 32 out of my 61 years several pain specialists have explained that even if there were alternative treatments to relieve my pain (which is at multiple sites and of differing origins) it would be a very difficult course requiring years of emotional upheavals. My brain has been irrevocably changed at the cellular level where the opiate receptors are found and they may never recover their ability to produce endorphins that are found in the normal brain. I have accepted the inevitability of not trying to fix something that to me is not broken and take my pain meds along with my thyroid meds, my estrogen, and my blood pressure med. Considering my lifespan may not be much more than 20-25 years, I choose not to go down a path that would require the use of SSRI’s (which may or may not work and would probably have to be changed several times to get the right one); I would also have to face decades of deep depression. many visits to a psychiatrist among other therapies. Although my conditions are not at all static (I have recently developed severe muscle spasms in my upper and lower back due to bone spurs on the vertebrae, I will deal with this additional issues as they occur. Unfortunately so many doctors have made me feel like a drug addict or drug seeker, that it was truly refreshing to learn that there are others out there living their lives to a full extent thanks to the oldest and most respected pain medication on earth.

]]> By: Karen Lee Richards http://fibrantliving.com/2009/12/03/long-term-opiate-use-safe-one-womans-experience-with-savella/comment-page-1/#comment-3688 Karen Lee Richards Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:53:49 +0000 http://fibrantliving.com/?p=124#comment-3688 On behalf of ChronicPainConnection, I'd like to thank you for your very kind words. It means a lot to know that our site is helping to provide useful information and encouragement. I also wanted to tell you that I love the title of your blog! So clever – and it projects such a wonderful, positive attitude. I appreciate your efforts here to educate and support people with fibromyalgia. – Karen On behalf of ChronicPainConnection, I’d like to thank you for your very kind words. It means a lot to know that our site is helping to provide useful information and encouragement.

I also wanted to tell you that I love the title of your blog! So clever – and it projects such a wonderful, positive attitude. I appreciate your efforts here to educate and support people with fibromyalgia. – Karen

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