Morphine doesn't do anything for me....

[Coldemort]

I've been given liquid morphine for short term pain relief after surgery. And..... nothing. Paracetamol is doing a better job of pain relief. I'm not even getting the much anticipated nice wooziness.

Is morphine immunity a thing? I've been googling and although theres lots about building up tolerance I cant find anything regarding it just not doing anything.

I’ll look up SNRI. Thank you! (I find this all fascinating).

They are similar but not the same kind of drugs. Typically Tramadol is not well tolerated,

I once told a doctor that I could still feel the pain in the maximum amount of morphine. He joked about Harold Shipman and told me that for some people it doesn't take the pain away it just makes them not care about the pain. That was true for me. I was as high as a kite didn't care if I lived or died and could still feel the pain.

Very high pain threshold here too

morphine doesn't help with pain control at all for me. Ibuprofen was amazing

Same for me, morphine doesn't take the pain away at all - it just makes me not care about it.

My mum hallucinates on tramadol too

This should be interesting for you to watch. It seems not everyone benefits from opioids, like morphine, in the same way (or at all)

Forgot the link 🙄
Horizon, 2020: 1. Addicted to Painkillers? Britain’s Opioid Crisis: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000dbpf via @bbciplayer

My brother had tramadol after maxillofacial surgery, it made him confused and angry. He hated it so much he just took paracetamol. He's fine with other opiate painkillers.

Thanks for link, will def have a watch later, the summary itself is very interesting.
My op was quite minor, and although painful I was a bit surprised that I got 100 Zapain and a bottle of morphine prescribed after just a 5 min telephone appointment.

Diazepam gives me awful hallucinations.

Redhead here. I was on paracetamol, naproxen, diazepam, codeine (60mg x 4 daily) and oramorph and still working
I ping awake from a GA, hungry and then don't sleep for over 24hrs. The dentist commented as well it takes a lot of local to numb me

And I thought it was just me. I'm not a red head though. I was in hospital recently and in severe pain. When they came with the morphine, I asked for them to inject it slowly because I was terrified I'd start hallucinating - what actually happened was nothing. There was no whoosh and the pain most definitely did not go away. In the end they put me on a paracetamol drip and that worked better. I also have problems at the dentist because no matter how many injections I have - my gums just refuse to go numb. I don't actually think the dentist believes me when I say I can still feel it.

@sam221 That’s interesting to hear, although I’m very sorry you were suffering so much!

I had DC1 by CS and had to be knocked out again after coming to because whatever they’d given me for pain relief wouldn’t work and the pain was at least a 10/10. I have a high pain threshold and even the pain from the blood clot in my head didn’t go that high.

Interesting thread.

I had extensive arm surgery recently after an accident. Given morphine on arrival at A&E but it took several doses + an IV antinflammatory (to control swelling because they couldn't operate right away) to dent the pain. I just felt zonked not euphoric.

I had a nerve block in my shoulder for the op which meant i didn't feel anything at all for the best part of 36 hours after surgery, then tramadol which tbh didn't do much for me.

Find it hard to imagine how people get addicted to either!

Misti, iirc the addiction from opiates isn't from the effect when you take them, it's from the side effects (which include pain anyway, even if you aren't in pain) when you stop. So you think you still need them and take more, then you're in pain again so think you still need them, and so on.

Though I do remember reading research that said if you take any meds for physical pain rather than recreationally (or for emotional pain), you are much much less likely to get addicted anyway.

Tbh the main reason I don't take them daily for my pain, is the constipation badly affects my already dodgy digestive system and then makes my prolapse worse.

Beyond I think there’s two types of addiction to opiates - those who get addicted to the high and those who are physically dependent on it. I’ve fallen into the latter category, I had to wean off very slowly because when I tried to stop I got withdrawal like nausea, vomiting, loose stools, sweats. I never really feel high from opiates.

Women in our family are odd with drugs too.
Grandmother was a redhead. Apparently complete lightweight with drugs. Aunty is a redhead. Absolute lightweight with all medications.
Mother, brunette. Tiny. Needs massive amounts of painkillers but also has a very high pain threshold.
Me: brunette. High pain threshold but codeine definitely doesn’t have any effect on me. Had one puff of gas and air with dd and it made me vomit so I refused any more. Always need lots of injections at the dentist and they don’t really work. Also have very tough skin- we always used to comment on the skin of redheads when taking blood or cannulating.
This is a fascinating area though.

So red heads have low pain thresholds and need more painkillers to mask pain?

@1footintherave. I think I'd have a heart attack if I gave 30mg Oramorph! But then I am peadiatrics!

It's interesting isn't it. I completely buggered up my hand last year - pulled out tendons/lots of broken bones/dislocation.

I had half a codeine and it completely numbed everything - no pain at all. (I'd asked for half, since I'd taken a whole one a couple of years previously and it knocked me out for 4 hours!) I was perfectly ready to walk out on A&E until the nurse pointed out that several of my fingers were pointing in the wrong directions!

Morphine is lovely for me. I'm not sure if that was because it was such a relief after being in pain for several days or whether that was an effect of it in itself.

Although I've been told i have a high pain threshold (hence the above example of not seeking treatment for a while) I'm very easy to knock out and I take forever to come round. I've had a few general anaesthetics and I've always been out of it before they get you to do the counting bit. Last time they injected something (a relaxant i think) and I remember saying ooh sleepy and the anaesthetist said 'What, already?' and that's the last thing i remember

@gypsywater apparently higher pain threshold but lower to cold. Seems to be mixed results
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/fact-or-fiction-do-redheads-feel-more-pain

It's difficult to take blood from me, but I bleed a lot. My friend who is a midwife says she was always told "red hair = bleeder"

Yes there is a genetic link. Your genes code for the enzymes that break the drugs down I your body. Some people have versions of genes that don’t produce the correct enzyme or, conversely, an enzyme that breaks it down very quickly. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5447546/

I ended up having a big row with a nurse after major surgery about my pain being excruciating because she said "you've had morphine. It shouldn't be that bad" despite me repeatedly saying I find oral morphine crap for pain relief.
I ended up complaining unofficially to the ward sister who sorted my out IV paracetamol and dihydrocodeine that I'd been taking successfully at home for a while before the surgery.....
The itching is the morphine.

I had iv paracetamol last year - that stuff is magic. Should be the go to for pain relief in hospital over opiates in my biased opinion 😂

I'm not a redhead (blonde), but the genes are there somewhere as my sister definitely has a red tinge. Also noticing a anecdotal link in us re higher pain threshold (I still argue that labour didn't hurt!) but lower cold threshold. And it's hard to get blood from me, yet I'm a bleeder - but I know that is, in my case, linked to the EDS.