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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jul 13, 2017 - 06:03pm PT
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Well, yeah, no one wants to be constipated, and us tuff-guy climbers are used to pain, so who needs opiods, right?
On the other hand, when you wake up from having your leg bolted back on after a completely fracturing your hip, constipation is something to be prayed for. Because:
a) getting off the bed is almost impossible,
b) walking the ten feet to the bathroom is even worse, and,
c) even if you've overcome the pain and made it to the bathroom, you know you'd pass out if you tried to sit down on the toilet.
So I was more than happy to push the button on the morphine drip into my IV. Like every five minutes (even though it resets to two hours after a button push).
On the other side of the equation, if you don't eat, you don't sh#t, so, after two days of not eating, I cut the meds, got out of the hospital, and didn't have to worry about the toilet for a couple more days.
Used some codeine over the next few weeks, but not much, and never had any trouble with quitting.
Bottom line, other than pain relief, I don't get anything good out of opiods. Just the opposite. But I know that others do, and that just because a few of us here on ST can walk away from them, doesn't mean that most people cannot.
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Mike Honcho
Trad climber
Glenwood Springs, CO
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 13, 2017 - 06:24pm PT
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I'd like to hear more about pack burro racing. Is that for reals??
http://www.packburroracing.com/
My badass Wife from our racing season last year. Pack Burro Racing is a thing, a very burly thing, makes triathalons look stupid. But totally different subject.
LOVING the responses so far, thanks y'all!!
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Social climber
SLO, Ca
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Jul 13, 2017 - 06:30pm PT
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That's just f*#king awesome. I looked it up on the web..the races must be a blast!
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Mike Honcho
Trad climber
Glenwood Springs, CO
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 13, 2017 - 06:53pm PT
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The World Cup is 29 miles, 22 miles and 15 miles all in 3 weekends. Opiates are your FRIEND!!! lol
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Jul 13, 2017 - 08:23pm PT
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NOW. My beef is this. Even though I take it a bit more easy, I'm still cranking tough, pack burro racing and making the occasional BASE jumps and NO Doctors will prescribe anything. Where are all these over-prescribing doctors I can't stop hearing about?? And by the way, life is a bitch sometimes and people have chronic pain. To be clear, I have fantastic health insurance and do have a moderate monthly supply of Percocets from my Dr.
I can't help but note the conflicting positions in the OP:
He gets a "moderate monthly supply", and yet he is out seeking docs that will give him more.
He knowingly and deliberately engages in activities that greatly increase his pain, then wants pain medicine to tamp it down. More and more.
The correct strategy when having pain from smashing your thumb with a hammer is not to find a strong enough medicine, it is to take the hammer away.
The use of opioid narcotics is generally not shown to be particularly useful or efficacious for CHRONIC pain. It is very useful for SHORT TERM pain.
The problem is that when used regularly, the body develops a tolerance for any opioid, so over time, it works less effectively, and requires higher doses to achieve the same effect. As the dosage increases, it comes very close to the toxic threshold...and it becomes easy to overdose.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Jul 13, 2017 - 11:21pm PT
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Despite being Irish I seem to have no susceptibility to addiction of any kind. That said, I personally LOVE opioids and have never had any problems of any kind taking them or not taking them. Kinda don't really personally understand the addiction thing, the constipation thing, or the avoid them if at all possible thing. Suppose I could be an odd edge case of some sort, but I like having a stash of them around.
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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Jul 14, 2017 - 06:52am PT
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At least the Pharms are caring enough to make your addiction more tolerable.
There's several drugs on the market to make sure the addicted can keep on keeping on.
It's about as responsible as prescribing a Clamato and beer coctail for a hangover.
BTW-I'm really tired of hearing- side effects may include rectal bleeding
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10b4me
Mountain climber
Retired
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Jul 14, 2017 - 07:36am PT
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I work in some of the worst parts of Los Angeles as a firefighter paramedic and have for the past 30 years and I haven't seen real life mirror what the news portrays. What I see on occasion are heroin overdoses but OD's due to taking too many pain meds are very rare at least in the areas i have worked, South Central, East LA and more recently the Sunland Tujunga area. Alcohol is far and away a bigger issue and more abused than pain meds but you don't see a huge public outcry reigning in alcohol abuse. Same with pot, the only calls I have been on concerning pot are first timer kids freaking out. Alcohol use creates a myriad of problems, domestic abuse, DUI, long term health issues, and just plain old acting like a d#@&%ebag. Not saying pot doesn't do the same but I just haven't seen it.
Back to the opioid issue It is a real problem but I don't think it's as bad as the press makes it out to be, at least not in LA where I work.
It's making the news because the middle class are the prime users.
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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Jul 14, 2017 - 07:53am PT
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10B4ME,
I assume you meant to say it's "not" making the news because the middle class are prime users. I know the middle and upper class are prime users but my observation in the field is that we just don't go out on that many opioid OD's or at least there hasn't been a dramatic spike in Los Angeles. Heroin OD's might be up a bit in certain areas but that seems to eb and flow. We used to go out on tons of heroin OD's and even that seems to have gone down bit. I can't remember the last time i pushed narcan on someone who OD'd on pain meds. It happens but it's not epidemic like it is back east. Maybe the easier access to pot has lessened the reliance on pain meds for some users??
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jul 14, 2017 - 07:54am PT
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It is a real problem but I don't think it's as bad as the press makes it out to be,
Today's LA Times:
"About 30,000 American adults died last year from an overdose of opioid drugs."
There's little outcry over the same numbers of traffic deaths.
We love our drugs and cars.
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10b4me
Mountain climber
Retired
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Jul 14, 2017 - 08:03am PT
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Middle class are involved, but "prime" users I'm not seeing it from the things I've been reading and my own family involvement. The difference in why it's getting more attention, in my mind, is that the addicts and overdoses are almost all white people. If it were POC, country would collectively shrug it off.
"Prime" was a poor word choice on my part, but I agree with what you have said here.
Batrock, your point about marijuana is valid, I think.
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Jul 14, 2017 - 09:22am PT
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There's little outcry over the same numbers of traffic deaths.
Because virtually everyone rides in or is exposed to vehicular traffic. While only a fraction of the population uses opioids. Vehicles also serve a more useful function.
Outcry is not a good metric to measure societies attention to a problem. A much more objective metric is finances. Much more money is spent to reduce the vehicular accident rate than is spent to fight opioid addiction.
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c wilmot
climber
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Jul 14, 2017 - 09:30am PT
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Look at the bright side- there is a TON of money to be made off opiate addictions.
Plus- with all these relatively healthy young people overdosing- there has been an increase in organ donation
A win win for aging sociopaths
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F
climber
away from the ground
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Jul 14, 2017 - 09:47am PT
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After going through the meat grinder a couple times and chewing those little white heroin pills for months I associate an opiate buzz with pain and trauma.
That sh#t is a trigger for painful memories for me. And, speaking from personal experience, morphine doesn't help much when you're vomiting and dry heaving with broken ribs and crushed vertebrae.
I could see how someone with no motivation, easy access, and no traumatic memories associated with opiates could get hooked though.
Whateves.... We all make choices.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jul 14, 2017 - 09:57am PT
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Outcry is not a good metric to measure societies attention to a problem
Right, playing word games over useless deaths is much more meaningful.
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Mike Honcho
Trad climber
Glenwood Springs, CO
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 14, 2017 - 10:00am PT
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D#@&%ebag response Ken M, you're obviously one of those dipshits that doesn't read the OP and just likes to listen to yourself blather.
I'm not out seeking more meds. Just asking what ST folks have to say about this supposed epedimic. I'm doing just great.. thanks.
Those pics sure look like Hankster and Hot Wife. Wasn't one of you kicking booze? If so, why add opioids?
Memorial day was 7 years sober for me. I have no problem with Percocets as it relates to any form of addiction for me. As I've stated, try driving a burro 29 miles at altitude on a foot/ankle that's due to be amputated or fused in the next 10yrs. And no I don't want to take it easy or slow down.
Hankster
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TwistedCrank
climber
Released into general population, Idaho
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Jul 14, 2017 - 01:38pm PT
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Burros.
Georgetown.
Just sayin.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Jul 20, 2017 - 09:55pm PT
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Attorney General Sessions at work. Trump throws him under the bus over old news. What's really going on?
WASHINGTON – Federal authorities announced charges Thursday against 412 physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other medical professionals, in what Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the largest health care fraud enforcement operation in U.S. history.
Sessions said the suspects accounted for more than $1.3 billion in fraudulent transactions across more than 20 states, and at least 120 people were charged for their alleged roles in overprescribing and distributing opioids, making it also the largest-ever opioid-related fraud takedown.
Of the 412 charged in the year-long operation, 56 were physicians.
"Too many trusted medical professionals...have chosen to violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients,'' Sessions said. "Amazingly, some have made their practices into multi-million dollar criminal enterprises.''
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Jul 20, 2017 - 10:03pm PT
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D#@&%ebag response Ken M, you're obviously one of those dipshits that doesn't read the OP and just likes to listen to yourself blather.
I'm not out seeking more meds. Just asking what ST folks have to say about this supposed epedimic. I'm doing just great.. thanks.
Either you don't understand what you are writing, or as my 12-step friends would say, you don't understand the first step.
You may think that is what you are asking, but you better go back and read your first post, which centers on YOUR difficulty in getting powerful narcotics from multiple doctors. ding, ding, ding!
You don't want people to notice and post about what you are saying, don't post personal details of narcotic usage. It was totally unneeded to ask "your question".
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