Roy65

I'm looking for some help finding a women's treatment facility in the Southwest US for my wife that offers alternative pain management than opioids.

Here is the situation we are in. She has a neurological condition with nerv pain she will have forever. I'm not going to list all the meds the doctors ( Nero and pain mgmt docs) have her on, but she is abusing them. She is crushing pills and snorting them. When confronted, she denies it. I have found many times, her crushed up meds, used straws, pill crushers etc. she said she has only done this a few times. But I know that is false. It's a cycle every month, gets meds refilled, is out of it (mentally and physically) for a couple weeks until she is running short on the pills. Sleeps, for days, flu like symptoms, sweats etc. until the scripts are filled again and we go round and round.
We she comes out of her sleep mode and sobers up a bit, we have talked about her problem. She knows that she needs help but wants a backup plan for pain treatment. If anyone can offer up a place that is for women only, and can help us detox, and moving forward, have an alternative for pain, I would really appreciate the help!


Thanks,

teatreeoil007

Hi Roy and welcome to SR. I don't know of any places in the SW as I live far from there, but have you tried googling it? Surely there is something/somewhere. What you are describing is a tough situation and there are no easy answers. Because dealing with chronic pain really sucks and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. It affects most all areas of their life, including sleep, career, quality of life, moods, etc. It's also tough because many meds that are prescribed for pain are so highly addictive and people easily build a tolerance to them and need more and more to get the same effect. It's also so easy for people to abuse those meds and not take them as prescribed. The good news is that pain specialist Dr.'s are becoming more common, whereas there really weren't too many Docs that specialized in pain before; now there are more. She may just want to start with a Dr. who specializes in pain, if she hasn't already done that, that is...and I would think that a pain specialist Dr. would also be able to connect with other avenues of help. Anyways, if it were my wife, that is probably what I would do. Like I say, I don't envy your wife living with pain day in and day out and neither do I judge her for what she's doing....well, what good does it do to judge, anyways? Okay-I hope this helps!!

Roy65

Thanks 007, it's not a good situation for sure! She does have a pain mgt doc, and I'm not sure they really care. Her neuro doc won't treat the pain just the symptoms from the disease. As long as she is able to walk in the pain mgt office and tell them her pain levels, they write the script.
I have googled places and have found some that say they will treat pain as well as addiction. The problem is, I also googled their reviews and it didn't look good. I was just reaching out, thinking that there are enough people on this site that have had similar problems and found a good place that treats these issues hand in hand. Not a big issue to travel out of state for a good program. Thanks again!

teatreeoil007

I'm not saying you should rat your wife out, but I wonder if her pain Doc knows she's not taking the meds as prescribed. I am sorry to hear he doesn't seem to care. I know there are plenty of Dr.'s that DO care. So, maybe it's time to find a new pain Dr. or shop around for a new one. Crushing and snorting is very serious stuff. She's going for the 'rush' most likely.

teatreeoil007

A lot of Dr.'s, if they know their patients are not taking the meds as prescribed...will crack down and/or stop prescribing them or start to put restrictions on them somehow. You are in a tough spot for sure because she does have legitimate reasons for the pain. You know, many psyche hospitals will deal with dual diagnosis type situations.

Roy65

Not sure what exactly she is crushing, my hunch is a mixture of things. She has scrips for methylphenidate, muscle relaxers, Lyrica and some others that she could be mixing. I do believe I'm going to talk to her pain mgt dr as well as her neuro dr. and let them know what's going on like you said. Thanks for the support!