How do you sleep with severe pain?

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I currently have covid and my throat is full of razor blades, but I also have cancer so I frequently have pain so severe I can't sleep. I take paracetamol regularly and have morphine I can take on demand, but try not to. It's so excruciating when my body desperately needs rest but I'm just lying in bed all night only able to think about the pain. I'm sure many mumsnetters have chronic pain, so can anyone give my any tips?

A few caveats: I can't have baths or showers due to my picc line, I can't use supplements or creams due to chemo. Bedtime routines are tricky since I have to get my two special needs children to sleep and anyway I tend to fall asleep ok at 9-10pm, the problem comes a couple of hours later. I'm not keen on sleeping tablets since my children wake in the night, and anyway my team has refused in the past since I need to monitor my temperature & symptoms overnight.

Take the morphine

I take amitriptyline which knocks me right out, but I can wake easily and respond to Dd. I have epilepsy and if I don’t get enough sleep my seizures are horrific. It also works as a pain reliever so it may be something you can bring up to your drs?

Difflam for the throat at the moment.

Can you take solpadeine? Best over the counter medication (I have found) for bad pain. Helped me through an agonising ear infection.

Hot water bottle. Or microwaveable hottie.

ASMR might help. It has some people I know.

Also some people are helped my visualisation or meditation techniques. I expect you could find some on YouTube.

But as others have said, take the morphine. And talk again to your consultant about the pain.

Sending you all good wishes.

This just take it at night, no hot baths or anything will take your pain away you deserve to be comfortable.

I had a feeling people would say drugs are the answer. Unfortunately for the next week I'm on paxlovid (antivirals) for the covid and I can't take any other painkillers with it. You're probably all right though that once that is over I need to just give in and take the morphine. I'm nervous of side effects and nervous of becoming addicted. But maybe I just need to accept that I need it.

Good to know, I might ask about that

Can you tell me more about ASMR? My tween daughter talks about it but I have no idea what it is!

I hope things get better for you , you have so much on your plate right now... i hope things slowly but surely improve x

I take amitriptyline for nerve pain. But it's also very much helped me sleep.

Probably a daft suggestion but it has helped me settle and stay asleep. A weighted blanket x

I’m not an expert on ASMR at all. And it doesn’t seem to work on me (I tried it to help with some menopause symptoms). But it does on both my young adult daughter (one of whom is Neurodivergent). Some people get a pleasant sensory (tingling) type feeling in response to certain stimuli (sound or visuals; might be something like crinkling paper or smoothing fabric, or crunching snow). This can lead to relaxation and sleep and a feeling of well-being . DD2 uses headphones to listen to auditory ASMR to help her sleep when she is anxious. She also used it to help get to sleep when she had bad pain from a hip injury. I know what I’ve said is very much an over simplification of what it is. But there are literally thousands of videos out there. Worth a look maybe.

Where is your normal pain? Ask for a pain team referral we can do all sorts of injection therapy now

Hot water bottle

Tend machines were a life saver when I had chronic pain (amazon ones better than boots)

I'd ask your team if you could buy a sleeve used for people to shower with plaster casts on for your picc so can have baths (tbh they're pretty well stuck down so if you keep your upper arm out the water prob be fine)

Curious as to why they've said no morphine with antivirals given in icu we use both together all the time. Have you checked with the pharmacist who dispensed it

Mindfulness meditation can help. Heated blanket or throw. Weighted blanket

lavender sprays

amitriptyine is fab for pain and sleep. Mirtazapine is great for sleep and low mood (causes quite a bit of weight gain though as appetite stimulant). Few to discuss with gp as depends on what else you take. But if your pain isn't controlled ask for a pain team referral

You wont get addicted to morphine if using it for genuine pain

All the best x

Oh for throat ask pharmacy for difflam and you can buy benzocaine throat sprays which is local anaesthetic was really helpful when my partner had throat surgery

If it helps at all, you can get waterproof picc line covers to allow you to bath or shower safely with it.

I live with chronic pain and find distraction the best. I listen to audiobooks while I’m going to sleep and when I wake up in the night to keep my mind distracted from the pain.

Ok I will double check with my team on what painkillers I can take. The pharmacist said no morphine while I'm on the paxlovid and I'll need to check the difflam because I'm on a high dose of blood thinners. But I'm really hoping that the paxlovid will kick in soon (started yesterday evening) and the throat will get better.

My 'normal' pain is in my arm from blood clots/DVT, and in my chest from my huge tumour. Plus stomach pain for various reasons relating to other drugs I'm taking. Every side effect means another drug which means another side effect! Sleep is difficult anyway because I can't lie on my left hand side because of the blood clots, lying on my right hand side gives me heart palpitations and lying flat on my back gives me back pain and indigestion. Honestly life is pretty shit but the chemo is working and fingers crossed this will all be over in a few months.

I do have a waterproof cover for my picc line but my arms are to swollen from the clots to bear it very often at the moment

I will look into ASMR, audiobooks and amitriptyline!

Ah you didn't say you couldn't take drugs. I have periods of chronic pain I was on amatriptalyne for ages it did work but I seemed to be immune to it and it didn't aid sleep anymore, maybe others suggestions will help ASMR /noise makes me worse though.

I have severe RA, which over the last few months has caused chronic pain, to the point I couldn't sleep at all.

I'm now on 60mg codeine and 20mg morphine every 4 hours. When too bad, I have "boosted" the morphine to 30mg, that was not something I was told I could do, but when you are desperate, you'll try anything.

I do sleep, but think that's all to do with the amount of opiates in my body.

I use a white noise machine. It's not a constant noise it has sort of waves in it. Also rubbing my feet together helps sometimes. Think it's because I'm the concentrating on something else rather than the pain

I really do think that for the time being you should take the morphine, maybe just a small dose just before you go to bed which might get you through those first few hours and allow your body to properly rest

I'm another that recommends amitriptyline.

I sympathise enormously as I too have cancer but it is not this which causes my severe pain but my bone on bone arthritis in spine and hip
The nerve pain at night is unbearable
Amitryptilline helps a bit and I am advised that pregabalin or gabapentin could help but I can’t take those due to the side effects of weight gain which would make my mobility even worse but if that is not an issue for you these could be possibilities
Zopiclone helps keep you asleep so you might ask your doctor about this too
I also wear buprenorphine patches and have oromorph to take as needed

Hi OP,

I’m really sorry- this sounds awful!

I’ve checked drug interactions on the bnf and can see no reason you can’t take your morphine with Paxlovid. The only issue is that paxlovid may slightly reduce the morphine concentration.

I’m not sure you got accurate advice from your pharmacist. I would call them back asking for a the specific reason why you can’t take your opiate (as we on here don’t have your full medical details, so cannot safely/ accurately advise you personally about drugs) or call your oncology specialist nurse this morning.

I hope it eases soon for you. Sounds horrendous. Sending thoughts xx

My husband had the pain management consultant come to our house to discuss options. I would speak to your oncology nurse and ask to speak to the pain management team. I really hope you feel better soon. Best wishes to you

Another one saying take the morphine, you shouldn’t put yourself through pain unnecessarily, it and the lack of sleep will wear you out. Speak to your oncologist about other options too.
im so sorry you’re going through this