I wish I knew about this site years ago! Hi I'm new!

Hi there, my name is Ladybuggz, I've been on Methadone for about 10yrs now for Chronic Nerve Pain. I'm 46, married, no kids, 2 small dogs, a cat and 2 budgies. Methadone is one of the drugs I take to help control my nerve pain........I hate it! It's screwed up my hormones, I have absolutely no sex drive, and it has turned me into an overweight sugar craving pig ! that can't even remember what I just did or my address! ..
My doc initially had me on ..get this 85ml 3xa day! I was a walking zombee that would go home and bake a lemon pie and eat it all in one setting, or my hubby would yell at me to wake up while I was sitting watching TV, I thought I was wide awake, just had to close my eyes for a moment.....45 mins later! The worst part was falling asleep with a cig in my hand! a few close calls there! So I decided I would reduce my amount, so I got myself down 5ml a week for I think it was about 6 weeks (Of hell) major withdrawls, I guess I did it too fast, but it worked, so now I'm on 25ml 3xa day.

Hi. We are so glad to have you here and I also wish you would've found us sooner. Do you go to a pain mgt doctor or do you have to go through a methadone clinic?



One thing that struck me while reading your post was the part about you talking about gaining weight, craving sugar and being so sleepy......being on methadone I gained a lot of weight too (I've been on it 11 yrs now and have put on 60 lbs) I ended up with type 2 diabetes and didn't know it. I would crave sugar and there were times, especially after I ate a meal, that I would get so sleepy all of the sudden. I would either fall asleep and not know it (just like you described, I just felt like I needed to close my eyes for just a second) or I would all of the sudden have this overwhelming need to take a nap. When I talked about this with my clinic doc, they ran some blood work and my sugar was extremely high. I went to my primary care doc who ran some tests and diagnosed me with type 2 diabetes. Once they put me on the meds to control the diabetes, I have no more issues like that anymore.



If you feel fine after your dose has been lowered, then you are probably ok, but some of the things you were saying sounded so familiar so I wanted to put that out there in case it might be something you should have checked.



Again, we are so glad to have you and if you need anything, please let Dee or myself know. We are here for you!

Thank you, and Dee for welcoming me, much appreciated!
I've been on the lower dose of Methadone for quite a long time now,at least 5 yrs, sorry to seem to be ranting, it's just not me! I think I was just having a bad day!
The dose I'm on now doesn't really do much for me anymore, and I've talked to my doc about it, but he says to stay on it. I've almost depleted the list of meds that are suppose to help nerve pain, but all kill my stomach. About every 2-3 months I end up in Emergency, I hand them my list of Meds and as soon as the Doctor see's the Methadone I never get anything to help the pain except an anti-inflammatory shot of Toradol (Diclofenac). I had one Doctor (when I first moved here) totally treat me like a drug seeker, he pulled and prodded and poked me all over and how he came up with telling me I had Pneumonia ??? how does nerve pain in your back turn in to Pneumonia ?? Oh he was a rude bastard!
I'm having a major flare up now, my right hand is swollen up and my right leg is screaming, so I better get off my butt and lay down!
I have a few questions, and lots of time to answer them as I can't work or do too much anymore, but I squeezed out a walk with my dogs for about an hour, we even picked apples from a neighbors tree, so Fresh Apple Pie is on the menu in the next few days!
Oh I almost forgot, my hubby has Diabetes 2 and I check my blood often, the amount of sugar I was/am consuming made me a bit curious, I remain in the " In range Target" .
I used to have to go to a Methadone Clinic, (I got my hubby to pic it up as it was in a dicey location) but I now get my meds at a regular "Drug Store" People look at me strange when I'm carting out a couple liters, I try to take my own bag so it is not visible!
Thank you both !
I'll come back often!

OH GIRL. I could tell you horror stories of my own too. It is so sad that they are so ignorant about MMT. Like I said, right now I am dealing with kidney stones, have bilateral kidney stints in and they hurt me worse than dealing with the pain from the stones! They won't give me anything stronger than percocet. They gave me a script for 30 and I still have every single one of those buggers minus the 2 I did take when I was so desperate for relief. If I was trying to get high, I would have taken those all up too already.



I was denied pain meds during LABOR and I was denied pain meds after I had my appendix removed. I had a dentist flat out refuse to see me at all when I needed a tooth pulled and I even told her I didn't even WANT any pain meds afterwards, I just wanted her to pull the tooth!



Then 6 yrs ago when I had my first bout w/kidney stones I went to the ER and I decided after the way I had been treated before that I wasn't going to tell them about the methadone. They gave me stadol IV and put me into HORRIBLE w/drawals. I had to tell them that I lied to them so they could fix it and I ended up in ICU because I had seizures. they were VERY upset with me and it scared me so badly I said I would never do that again.



Now I just tolerate pain until I can't take it anymore. I have been dealing with this bout of kidney stones since June but I was hoping they would come out on their own. However, that didn't happen so I had no choice because I couldn't keep going on like I was. My MMT doc got involved and even tried to tell them it was ok to prescribe me stronger meds (long story but the first go round w/stones I did eventually end up w/a resident doc; I was going to University Hosp because we are self pay; who actually listened to me, believed me about my pain and gave me a duragesic patch to get me through till surgery) The resident doc I saw this time, as soon as I told her about the methadone and how long I had been on it, she was like, why do they have you on it this long? and telling me that they don't prescribe duragesic patches here, then when she realized what she said and that I told her they gave it to me last time, she said they don't "normally" prescribe them. When my clinic doc called and FINALLY got to talk to this doc, she tried to crawfish and say that I never made it clear if I was self pay or was going to be indigent and THAT is why she wasn't willing to prescribe the duragesic patch (THAT shouldn't be an issue with my care!) then she tried to say it was because they weren't sure if I was going to go through w/the surgery! HELLO! I already told her that AND let her put kidney stints in me to prepare me for surgery! WHY IN THE HECK would I have done that if I hadn't planned on following through w/surgery??? They have to come out eventually and I darn sure wouldn't have gone through w/the stints which hurt worse than the stone pain and make you incontinent, if I wasn't going to go through w/the surgery. The 3rd time my clinic doc talked to her, she didn't tell me what was said but she came out and gave me a script for toradol which she isn't suppose to prescribe me anything other than the methadone because she isn't my primary care doc.



Ok, darn, here I have rambled again. It has been a while since i've had to deal with this and it just infuriates me to no end. My clinic doc was so angry about the way I was being treated. I went today for my preop stuff, I came home 300 bucks lighter since we don't qualify for free care for this crummy care I am getting and my surgery is scheduled for Mon oct 3rd so I am hoping to put this behind me soon.



Thanks again for sharing your story with us and please, don't hesitate to get in touch if you need anything. You can post to the forum or you can private message if you don't want to post it for everyone to see.

Oh My God! Our stories are quite similar, I'll get into details later cause i don't have time tonight to rant! I hope your surgery goes well! and I hope your a fast healer!
Always remember if a Doctor starts on about the "Med's" your on, just toss a quote from the "Pain Patients Charter of rights and Responsibilities"
1) The right to have your pain taken seriously and to e treated with dignity and respect by doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health care professionals.

Good Luck with your Surgery & Recovery
Ladybuggz
aka (Teresa)

Ladybuggz wrote:

Hi there, my name is Ladybuggz, I've been on Methadone for about 10yrs now for Chronic Nerve Pain. I'm 46, married, no kids, 2 small dogs, a cat and 2 budgies. Methadone is one of the drugs I take to help control my nerve pain........I hate it! It's screwed up my hormones, I have absolutely no sex drive, and it has turned me into an overweight sugar craving pig ! that can't even remember what I just did or my address! ..
My doc initially had me on ..get this 85ml 3xa day! I was a walking zombee that would go home and bake a lemon pie and eat it all in one setting, or my hubby would yell at me to wake up while I was sitting watching TV, I thought I was wide awake, just had to close my eyes for a moment.....45 mins later! The worst part was falling asleep with a cig in my hand! a few close calls there! So I decided I would reduce my amount, so I got myself down 5ml a week for I think it was about 6 weeks (Of hell) major withdrawls, I guess I did it too fast, but it worked, so now I'm on 25ml 3xa day.

Hi ladybug! If this reply looks wrong it's because it's the first time i've posted or used a forum. I'm forty years old and have been on methadone for five years. I was in pain five years ago but am not now. I was diagnosed with RSD after a collarbone break but when i had my daughter it went into remission. I'm detoxing but going at a slower rate. Is your sex drive better now that you are at 25? i was at 95 once a day and am now at 60mg once a day. I have a hard time with the withdrawals. i have four little ones and have to be healthy for them. I wanted to say hello since i am also knew. Oh and i did also fall asleep with cigarettes when i was at a higher dose. lucky for me my husband was awake and would wake me up!

Torradol apparently does not work well with methadone I was told. I get kidney stones and they told me the torradol was causeing the methadone not to work right. Everyone always says no it's tramadol that does not work well with methadone well thats true to but my MMT doc told me to get off the torradol if I want my methadone to work right. I did and the pain mgmt much better