[Sugah]

Most doctors have stopped prescribing opiates for chronic pain because they just don't work -- for long, anyway. It's way too easy to build tolerance, requiring more and more for the same effect. They also destroy pain tolerance, so less pain requires medication, or more medication.

I have a whole list, too, bones. A doc once called me a "muscular/skeletal disaster." After years of addiction (yes, alcoholism, too), I had had enough, and I vowed to do my best to live without the crap in my system. A 12 step program, a good doc who honored my request to put her prescription pad away, a therapist who specializes in meditation and chemical-free pain relief, and a whole lot of prayer has helped me to live more than half a dozen years so far without reaching for a pill (or a line, or a bottle, etc...).

The difficult truth for people like us is that in order to have a good life, we have to accept some pain. My pain is part of me -- not all of me. Tonight, I missed my meeting and a pizza date in favor of my bed and my computer. There was a time this would have had me in tears feeling sorry for myself. Not anymore. I'm busy kicking ass in the arcade and spending some time with my kids. They know better to feel sorry for me, too. We all have our challenges, and pain happens to be mine.

I do hope you find a way out of this, bones. There is life after opiates, even with pain.

Peace & Love,
Sugah