opioids to relieve untreatable osa symptoms

[pnwbliss57@gmail.com]

im coming to realization that my symptoms if osa are not mitigated by cpap or i have something else that 4 doctors and several labs cant explain. desperation is setting in as my life style is at 10% at best. daily headaches...body aches...depression...high bp...and an overall unwell feeling. 2 months ago had an unrelated broken finger. dr. gave me 30 oxycodone tabs. i felt normal..all symptoms were either eliminated or greatly reduced. i went to gym...rode my motorcycle...active around house etc...ive tried sunosi and modafinil and lackluster if not negative results. i want to try an ongoing regimen of real or synthetic opiates. 1+ yrs on cpap and im miserable....

[Julie]

Wow. You do realize that those great experiences you had on the opiodes last about 5 mins (relatively) and within a very short time the high is gone, but you want more dope?

Then what?

Just found your previous stuff here - you never came back! Would've helped if you'd done today's note in that thread so we could see what had happened before and try to make sense of all. I deleted some Q's I had here and others should also look at your "Desperate" thread. We really would like to help, but need yours to do it. It's very possible your machine needs readjusting, or some other things are going on, but we don't guess randomly, which would not help anything.

[Pugsy]

i want to try an ongoing regimen of real or synthetic opiates.

Good luck with that idea. Docs don't even want to give those kinds of pain meds for real physical pain.

All they do is make you not care that you hurt....in your situation all they do is give you a bit of a "high" so you don't care that you feel like crap.

What you are wanting is prime recipe for opioid addiction problems....don't even consider going down that road.

[southerndoc]

I see people all the time who think opioids are the cure for their problem, become addicted, have escalating doses managed by pain management specialists, get cut off from their supply for whatever reason, start buying from the street, progress to heroin, come in a few times accidentally overdosing requiring naloxone to reverse, and then are found dead one day.

Nearly all of them started out taking opiates for an injury or medical condition. It's uncommon -- but not rare -- that I see someone who didn't get hooked without having an appropriate reason for being on opiates in the first place.

I'm sorry for what you're going through. However, I do not feel opiates are the answer. I feel it will unfortunately make your situation worse after you've been on them for a while.

[chunkyfrog]

#southerndoc:
+ 1,000.

[RNeil]

I am pretty sure that opioids make OSA worse. You have an additional problem, maybe insomnia, that was helped by the pain killer. Talk it over with your doctor. There are better treatments available.

[ChicagoGranny]

But, you've only reported one good, full night on CPAP:

full face was ripped off at nite....yielding 2-4 hrs of <1 ahi and still paralyzed w fatigue..elevated breathing...headaches...high bp etc. sleep coach said eventhough u may get 4 hrs...the 2nd 4 hrs w/o cpap simce mask was thrown on floor your Apneas will go up to 36 ahi.
i agreed and upgraded me to nose only phillips respironics dreamwear and Monday june 7 was first nite w new gear. 1st nite gear remained on head from lites out to lights on..but apneas climbed from about 1 ahi to 2+ ahi and last nite was 7 ahi. so ahi is well below a osa diagnosis and im extatic about not ripping gear off. so assuming full nites w gear and ahi less than say 5....how long b4 i feel relief from symptoms? dont need exacts just what numbers are people sharing?

http://cpaptalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t ... 2#p1385882

That is not enough to feel better! Continue to work on your CPAP therapy. Forget the opioids.

[greatunclebill]

Two words to learn: anxiety and depression. Don't treat the symptoms with opiods that i promise will be harder to justify and get. Treat the head problems causing the symptoms with the proper anti-depressant / anxiety meds.

[southerndoc]

There is a great story for the founding of the Davis Direction Foundation. The founder's son was inappropriately prescribed opiates for strep throat. He didn't take them until he broke up with his girlfriend. They masked his depression and emotional pain. He became addicted. Unfortunately, this ended up with him overdosing on heroin several years later.

Opiates will make OSA worse. I've never seen anyone who has been on opiates for years say that they've made their life better. Nearly all of them are suffering an addiction and express desire to get off them.

[chunkyfrog]

Addiction, then OD is always a tragedy.
Please do not go there.

[jimbud]

pnwbliss57@gmail.com
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2020 6:46 pm
Contact: Contact pnwbliss57@gmail.com

opioids to relieve untreatable osa symptoms

Might want to bookmark this for future reference:

https://drugs-forum.com/forums/opiate-o ... ction.281/

JPB

[squid13]

Stay away from the opioids, going on is easy coming off is hell. I was on for 5 years for a spinal cord injury and finally with the help of my pain management Doctor worked my way down and off. I still was sick as hell and have insomnia and it's getting better. I took my last percocet April 26th, so my advice to you is leave them alone, only take if you have to and then be careful.

[khauser]

Stay away from the opioids, going on is easy coming off is hell. I was on for 5 years for a spinal cord injury and finally with the help of my pain management Doctor worked my way down and off. I still was sick as hell and have insomnia and it's getting better. I took my last percocet April 26th, so my advice to you is leave them alone, only take if you have to and then be careful.

I second this. And I second the other post above about opioids making osa worse. In fact, I have personal experience that pressure needs go down with declined opioid usage.

Do you have a chronic pain issue? Is it something that responds to other pain meds (like ibuprofen)? If not, then you are experiencing only the benefit of increase narcotics, and your body will, VERY rapidly, get used to that. You'll need more. And more. Going up is really easy, but working your way down sucks big time, EVEN IF you had a legitimate use!

Be careful here. Explore with your doctor WHY the opioid helped and follow that path.

[kteague]

I remember the days of such desperation I would have tried about anything just to get some relief from the utter misery. Please do try working with the folks here to optimize your CPAP therapy and see if that gives you any relief. Have you had a lab sleep study? Just wondering if there's any chance you could have an issue with limb movements. They can make it seem CPAP is not working when there's actually two separate issues at play. Best wishes in sorting things out. Medicating your symptoms will not stop your health decline. You need your doctor to figure out your root causes. Stick around and keep talking with us.

[Janknitz]

What doctor hands out 30 tabs of oxycodone for a broken finger knowing what we know now about how little it takes to start opioid addiction??? He must live under a rock and needs his medical license revoked.