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kewalo · 05-31-2009, 01:47 PM

Jamdls,
...my experience strength and hope:
I have 2 herniated discs, and, when they did the MRI they also found that I have 2 bad hips. I'm a Babyboomer Gold mine for the local hospital system. I'm really happy to find this site. And REALLY happy to find this category so I can share with people in the same boat. I've been sober for nearly 27 years. I'm cross addicted. Pot was my other drug of choice, along with tranks and sleeping meds. Don't know what cocaine is like thank God.
From my initial herniation injury to my first visit to the pain clinic, that desertEyes mentioned, I was getting blown out of bed every 2 hours from the sciatica pain. My doc prescribed Vicodin along with the usual anti-inflammatory stuff. I called my sponsor about the vicodin and he referred me to page 133 in the BBook, and, said take AS PRESCRIBED. I also researched the 1984 AA world conference adoption, that AA doesn't interfere with prescribed medicines. AA doesn't suggest we bite on a piece of leather for pain, nor does it prescribe sleep medicine, nor, does it tell us not to take or not prescriptions. Medicine is an "Outside Issue" as in tradition 10, unless your dealing with a pain specialist who's in AA also. In sobriety WE know what is good and what is bad. And nobody in AA is the Big Kahuna, able to point to you and say "you had a slip because you took pain meds". It's all up to us.
Vicodin indeed got me through the 2 weeks until I got my first ESI, which took very well. 1 more injection, along with a month of PT, killed the bad sciatica but I still get a swollen disc pressing on other nerves almost every day. So in the past year, every now and then, I felt I needed vicodin as prescribed for pain. But soon the vicodin "called out" to me. I'm a cross addicted alcoholic. I'm addicted to anything that hits my pleasure center. Once hooked on a drug, there is never enough of it for me. So, I had to stop the vicodin, even "every now and then". Quit while I'm ahead and still have a liver left.
The Pain Clinic, and physical therapy, is what works the best for me - but that's FOR ME. Every day I do a series of stretches and movements that my certified PT prescribed for me and I walk at least 3 miles a day to keep the fluid out of my discs. I'm a year into my injury and I'm also back to light windsurfing. But currently I'm heading back to the pain clinic June 3rd for another ESI because last year's wore off and the pain is back, although subdued in comparison to my initial injury. I live one day at a time addictive drug and booze free.
Yours in sobriety,
kewalo

05-31-2009, 01:47 PM	#3 (permalink)
kewalo Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: detroit, mi Posts: 4	Jamdls, ...my experience strength and hope: I have 2 herniated discs, and, when they did the MRI they also found that I have 2 bad hips. I'm a Babyboomer Gold mine for the local hospital system. I'm really happy to find this site. And REALLY happy to find this category so I can share with people in the same boat. I've been sober for nearly 27 years. I'm cross addicted. Pot was my other drug of choice, along with tranks and sleeping meds. Don't know what cocaine is like thank God. From my initial herniation injury to my first visit to the pain clinic, that desertEyes mentioned, I was getting blown out of bed every 2 hours from the sciatica pain. My doc prescribed Vicodin along with the usual anti-inflammatory stuff. I called my sponsor about the vicodin and he referred me to page 133 in the BBook, and, said take AS PRESCRIBED. I also researched the 1984 AA world conference adoption, that AA doesn't interfere with prescribed medicines. AA doesn't suggest we bite on a piece of leather for pain, nor does it prescribe sleep medicine, nor, does it tell us not to take or not prescriptions. Medicine is an "Outside Issue" as in tradition 10, unless your dealing with a pain specialist who's in AA also. In sobriety WE know what is good and what is bad. And nobody in AA is the Big Kahuna, able to point to you and say "you had a slip because you took pain meds". It's all up to us. Vicodin indeed got me through the 2 weeks until I got my first ESI, which took very well. 1 more injection, along with a month of PT, killed the bad sciatica but I still get a swollen disc pressing on other nerves almost every day. So in the past year, every now and then, I felt I needed vicodin as prescribed for pain. But soon the vicodin "called out" to me. I'm a cross addicted alcoholic. I'm addicted to anything that hits my pleasure center. Once hooked on a drug, there is never enough of it for me. So, I had to stop the vicodin, even "every now and then". Quit while I'm ahead and still have a liver left. The Pain Clinic, and physical therapy, is what works the best for me - but that's FOR ME. Every day I do a series of stretches and movements that my certified PT prescribed for me and I walk at least 3 miles a day to keep the fluid out of my discs. I'm a year into my injury and I'm also back to light windsurfing. But currently I'm heading back to the pain clinic June 3rd for another ESI because last year's wore off and the pain is back, although subdued in comparison to my initial injury. I live one day at a time addictive drug and booze free. Yours in sobriety, kewalo