Righty
02-22-2007, 03:30 AM
Right now my stomach is in knots, I am so worried I don't know what to do. Here is the story. About 2 years ago my doctor put me on Ultram for chronic neck pain. Ultram is a narcotic pain reliever. I was on it for about a year, and then later he added Codeine to take with the Ultram.
After a few months on that, the meds just werent doing anything for the pain anymore. It was getting too severe. I guess I built up a tolerance to the pain meds so they stopped working. He referred me to a place where the doctors are all pain management specialists. I told them that I was on Tylenol with Codeine and Ultram. They prescribed me this long acting drug called Kadian, and Vicodin 3 times a day for pain flare ups. After I switched, I told them that the stuff wasn't strong enough. I was still in alot of pain. They told me to give it a few weeks so my body could get used to it. In those few weeks, I had to keep taking days off from work. I couldn't function. My body had built a dependency on the codeine and ultram. The vicodin and kadian helped, but not enough. I felt sick all the time, and was in pain still. They had a policy where after they write a prescription, they can't change it until my next visit, which is once a month.
So I go back in a month, and tell them that I need to at least double the dosage, because the pain is just too great and the withdrawals. Instead of doubling the dosage, they raised it just a little bit. I begged them, telling them that I have a really high tolerance to narcotic pain meds, and that I could handle it if they gave me a much higher dosage. They refused to, so I got stuck with that.
For the next week or so, I was still miserable. It really just wasn't helping. I knew they couldn't change the prescription. To manage the pain and suffering, and literally so I could FUNCTION NORMALLY, I started taking double what they prescribed me. Instead of 4 vicodins a day I took 7 or 8, depending on how bad the pain was. Instead of 2 Kadians per day, I took 3 or 4. Well here's what happened. Of course since I was taking more than I was supposed to, my prescription ran out early. I got the kadian and vicodin at one pharmacy, because the other one didn't carry the kadian when it was prescribed. The other pharmacy was the one that prescribed me Ultram and Codeine. I looked at my old prescription bottles of the Codeine and Ultram, and it said I had some refills left. Since I was out of the new meds, I went to the old pharmacy and got the Codeine and Ultram refilled.
Now heres the bad part- my doctor from the pain management place called me this morning. She told me that there is this agency that checks on people that are getting prescribed narcotic pain meds from more than one doctor. She told me that the pain management center would not treat me anymore.
The thing that I'm worried about, is I didn't know that you are not supposed to get pain meds from two different doctors. Is it illegal? Is it possible that I might face jail time for this? And will my medical and prescription drug insurance drop me for this? I am so worried I feel sick.
Please, if anyone knows anything about this, please let me know. I am at my wit's end.
After a few months on that, the meds just werent doing anything for the pain anymore. It was getting too severe. I guess I built up a tolerance to the pain meds so they stopped working. He referred me to a place where the doctors are all pain management specialists. I told them that I was on Tylenol with Codeine and Ultram. They prescribed me this long acting drug called Kadian, and Vicodin 3 times a day for pain flare ups. After I switched, I told them that the stuff wasn't strong enough. I was still in alot of pain. They told me to give it a few weeks so my body could get used to it. In those few weeks, I had to keep taking days off from work. I couldn't function. My body had built a dependency on the codeine and ultram. The vicodin and kadian helped, but not enough. I felt sick all the time, and was in pain still. They had a policy where after they write a prescription, they can't change it until my next visit, which is once a month.
So I go back in a month, and tell them that I need to at least double the dosage, because the pain is just too great and the withdrawals. Instead of doubling the dosage, they raised it just a little bit. I begged them, telling them that I have a really high tolerance to narcotic pain meds, and that I could handle it if they gave me a much higher dosage. They refused to, so I got stuck with that.
For the next week or so, I was still miserable. It really just wasn't helping. I knew they couldn't change the prescription. To manage the pain and suffering, and literally so I could FUNCTION NORMALLY, I started taking double what they prescribed me. Instead of 4 vicodins a day I took 7 or 8, depending on how bad the pain was. Instead of 2 Kadians per day, I took 3 or 4. Well here's what happened. Of course since I was taking more than I was supposed to, my prescription ran out early. I got the kadian and vicodin at one pharmacy, because the other one didn't carry the kadian when it was prescribed. The other pharmacy was the one that prescribed me Ultram and Codeine. I looked at my old prescription bottles of the Codeine and Ultram, and it said I had some refills left. Since I was out of the new meds, I went to the old pharmacy and got the Codeine and Ultram refilled.
Now heres the bad part- my doctor from the pain management place called me this morning. She told me that there is this agency that checks on people that are getting prescribed narcotic pain meds from more than one doctor. She told me that the pain management center would not treat me anymore.
The thing that I'm worried about, is I didn't know that you are not supposed to get pain meds from two different doctors. Is it illegal? Is it possible that I might face jail time for this? And will my medical and prescription drug insurance drop me for this? I am so worried I feel sick.
Please, if anyone knows anything about this, please let me know. I am at my wit's end.