GP messing with medication

[SimplySteveRedux]

Moved in October last year and had to transfer GPs. I take around 15 different medications each month and have seen numerous professionals over the years, and has taken close to a decade to find a medication regime that works for me.

However, my medication was summarily reviewed in November, and no changes made. Since them I have had a strong opiate removed from my repeat and I have to request it individually; same with diazepam,; same zopiclone; same anti-sickness drug. I've now been asked to attend another medicaments review.

AIBU to question what they are doing? How do I prepare to deal with - I will be in a terrible state if the above three medications are deemed unsuitable, and worried they may individually target others. I have several medical conditions, some of which are rather broad in regard to symptoms. Not sure what to do here!

Thanks for reading :)

I'm loving all the advice to go and talk to yiur GP and build a rapport and investigate your options properly. As if someone who has been living with any condition for 15 years won't have tried every option already. A few months ago I booked an appt with a GP I had seen previously for my GAD, who had been wonderfully understanding about my use of Sertraline and was satisfied that I'd had psychiatric help in our local hospital and was doing my best. At the second appointment I went in with crippling pain which had been getting worse for months, that cocodamol wasn't touching the sides off, insomnia and various other problems. She looked at the list I'd written down and told me it was all related to my anxiety and I should consider myself as a pot plant, pushed me to tell her which plant I would be and told me to be a better gardener to myself. She grudgingly ordered some blood tests and sent me away.

I saw a different Dr two weeks later to discuss my results and within six weeks she'd run a whole battery of tests and diagnosed Fibromyalgia. I am now back on the list for more CBT but also taking antidepressants, B12, VitD, Amitryptaline, omeprazole, and have dihydrocodeine in my kitchen cabinets for the days ibuprofen and cocodamol (which make me hideously depressed and give me batshit dreams) don't cut it. I hate that at the age of 34 I have a pill organiser in my kitchen and my children know I have to fill it and take handfuls of pills every day. But if it's that or the nights I spent crying into my pillow rather than sleeping, the months I spent wondering if I was making it up, was I just lazy, was it in my head, unable to move after walking around the shops for a couple of hours, my wrists aching from brushing my hair, unable to cope when one of my children touched me because it made my skin hurt, not being able to heal from bruises or burns (I've still got a large mark on one ankle from a friction burn from the dog lead last July) then the drugs it is.

And yes, these drugs can be addictive. A family member has been found stockpiling codeine to take for a buzz. But I don't see that it's more important to protect her by not letting me access pain relief than it is for me to be able to walk my children to school.

But I don't see that it's more important to protect her by not letting me access pain relief than it is for me to be able to walk my children to school.

I don’t see that either. But then, we don’t live in a very compassionate society, so we?

Sorry for your troubles, Toria. I used to have ME/CFS, with a large pain element. I am now largely free of it, after suffering for nearly 10 years. I look back to those days and shudder. I really feel for you, and hope that things improve for you soon.

No one's ever happy about reducing morphine

I must be no one. I couldn’t wait to get off it 🥴

No one's ever happy about reducing morphine

I must be no one. I couldn’t wait to get off it 🥴

Me too! I only started to recover from surgery once I had sussed it was making me feel deathly. With no actual pain relieving effect.... I subsequently refused it post c-section, much to the consternation of the midwives and anaesthetist, who were worried I would fail to mobilise without it. Not so. It has no positive effect on me, therefore there is no point suffering the side effects.

It does give a good effect for others, though. We are all different. We are all human beings, not robots.

In any case, for trauma it’s not ideal to rely solely on CBT. EMDR is likely to be more effective.

My psychiatrist says that a treatment modality of EMDR with medication is best, followed by CBT and meds; medication; EMDR; CBT.

No one's ever happy about reducing morphine

I wondered how long it'd take for someone to label me/imply anyone seeking opiates as essentially a drug seeker looking for a high.

Great posts @Tolleshunt and I'm sorry about your father @aridane

I take 2 of the drugs you’ve said

Both mine are on repeat

I’ve been hauled over many times. I’ve seen pain clinics. I’ve done it for years

Eventually I went in and said. Look. You’ve prescribed me these. I haven’t got to this without you giving it to me. I’m under the pain team. They won’t do anything as there is a cause to my pain. I don’t want to be in these medications as much as you want to prescribed them. If you told me swimming laps each day would help. I’d rather do that. However right now this is all I’ve got. If you can give me another way that will work. Please can I try

They’ve since left me alone. However I had to see every single dr I. The practice. To get this far. I’ve been on xoplicone since I was 18. That’s over 20 years now. They leave that alone. I had severe insomnia. To the point I was hospitalised. As I was awake more than 10 days.

However. I’ve also had my pain relief slashed. By half. Without word

I just keep requesting it though and I get given it. So not sure why that’s happened

I have decreased it myself though

When I got out of hospital. I was on 8 painkillers. I could barely walk though. I went to my go and told him I wanted to stop near on all. As what was happening was they’d put me on one. It wasn’t enough. Then kept rising it. It wasn’t working. He tried so hard to persuade me not to stop (ironic eh?!?). Yet I did it. Within 2 weeks. 3 of those were opiates.

However. No one says. Hey. Well done. You got off all those. I can see you’re still in pain. So kept one. I understand. Nope they hail you over hot coals.

There’s no need for angst. Just go in, explain the situation, and allow the GP to tick the box so that he/she is covered medicolegally and can be sure that all necessary safety precautions have been taken

Maybe you could read the notes, see the history and that the patient is stable and happy(ish) on their medication and leave well alone!

Maybe you could read the notes, see the history and that the patient is stable and happy(ish) on their medication and leave well alone!

That used to be standard, but now seems like the holy grail! At the very least, as Aridane says, don’t try and pull the rug out from under three months after the last review confirmed the OP was happy with the meds regime.

I wondered how long it'd take for someone to label me/imply anyone seeking opiates as essentially a drug seeker looking for a high

This does seem to be the underlying narrative. As if it somehow isn’t perfectly understandable that somebody in chronic pain would want their pain to be effectively mitigated.

So many people have absolutely zero idea of how lucky they are to have never experienced ongoing pain or MH issues. So, so lucky. Doesn’t stop some of them pontificating, though, does it?

I would like to see a revival of the idea ‘there but for the grace of God go I’.

All those saying about CBT

What about those that have severe pain from very rare disorders for example. I am THE only patient that’s ever had my condition at my surgery EVER). In fact I believe I am the only one in my whole area. I know of 11 others in the uk

I am the least depressed person you’ll ever meet. I have no stress in my life. (Apart from my illness. Yet that’s ok. It’s nothing bad. It’s usually from dr who lack knowledge of my illness. Which to be fair. Is most of them ). There’s only 1 consultant in the uk who deals with it and he’s a children’s dr. There are 2 in the USA. However I can’t go there

So what then?

I was offered morphine once. When I’d had surgery. When I explained I wasn’t in any pain. I was told to stop being a martyr and take it

I still refused.

Im on two strong painkillers both opiates, they’re both on repeats.
I do see my gp fairly regularly, so they know my condition ( pain amongst other things) isn’t changing.
I order every month

I suffer from fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, Osteoarthritis & Peripheral neuropathy, I am in constant pain, I used to be on Gabapentin & pregabalin, but found them useless as they left me a dribbling wreck. I weaned myself off them & now manage with dihydracodeine, paracetamol, Naproxen & CBD oil. My prescription says I can take 2 x 30mg up to four times a day dihydracodeine but I am only prescribed enough for 1 x 4 times a day. I have asked to have my prescription increased but my GP refuses, this means I have to spend most of my waking hours in agony so that I have enough painkillers to get through the night. I have been through the pain clinic twice, they were useless & because I could not attend weekly sessions on pain management to be brainwashed in to thinking my pain is all in my head due to being virtually housebound, they discharge me as being non compliant.

I have friends in USA who are able to use medical cannabis for their chronic pain and sleep problems.
However this GOvt says we cannot have this.
Why?
It will be better than opiates and benzos

Being in chronic pain is worse than being addicted to an opiate. Like OP I need the painkillers to get through and cope.
There are experts telling GP's we don't need so much pain relief and sorry but how they hell would they know?
Chronic pain is torture and no you cannot sleep in pain. it doesn't happen.

Nat have you tried booking in to see your GP face to face every two weeks to explain you need more pain meds in order to be able to take them as prescribed?
It would, of course, not be helpful for the waiting list, but if that’s what they want....

So the pain clinic deemed you to be non-compliant because you were in too much pain to get there regularly?!

You couldn’t make it up, could you? No sensible person would ever think this was a reasonable state of affairs.

Kafkaesque.

Do you really think that a GP who hasn’t assessed you face-to-face should just dish these drugs out without question?

Funny, I've had 3 of them 'dish' out anti-depressants on the phone. I can almost guarantee these will be the next target for the NHS to reduce use of. As it is no one seems to think of the side effects many get from them but you're not supposed to quit them cold turkey so it's a matter of time before they become the next target of reduction.

LOL @ 'psychological management'. It's amazing, nerve pain, people, it's just mind over matter!

Totally agree with Tolles and Fairylea.

Antidepressants are very different from opiates and benzodiazepines. There’s really no comparison. The latter are addictive, often abused, and have a street value. Antidepressants don’t.

Antidepressants also cause dependence though, some people struggle horribly coming off them. That's a physical addiction, like it or not.
But as they're not taken recreationally that's not somehow seen as a moral issue.

The doctor who signs the prescription is ultimately responsible for medications on it.

Even though there isn't a comparison, you can almost wager they will be the next target. And the issue is that the system is comparing drugs which can be taken recreationally or sold on the street but which are vital to pain sufferers with criminality on the whole and so looking to cut people who are using them for intended purpose off without appropriate alternative recourse. There's no middle ground or sensibility in the approach, unsurprising as it is. It's typical non-joined-up thinking. It's almost laughable the suggestion up the tread of 'psychological management' when mental health services have largely been slashed to the bone.

Tolleshunt I tried to get an emergency appointment a few weeks ago because I was in agony, couldn't sleep or function due to pain but according to the rottweiler on the phone this isn't deemed an emergency because all of my conditions are chronic ones, not acute.

Nat, doesn’t surprise me, it can be like getting an audience with the Pope at times. Could you just book two weeks in advance, knowing you will be running out? Not ideal, I know.