Anyone familiar with Soma?
 

Hi all. I posted before about my addict sister and my dad, and detaching from them both as he seems as deluded as she is. We've been fighting all weekend about my picking up my sisters kids and bringing them to my home so she can visit them (they live with her ex in the same county as my husband and I). Sis lost her license, so my Dad feels that the visitation is closer and easier at my home, even though I've put my foot down about having her here. I've told my father that I'm done with her and her nonsense, but he continues to say I'm heartless, and hurting my nieces by not facilitating their visitation.

Anyway, my sister loves to visit doctors. I'm sure she's not the only one. This week she has a terrible back ache, and the doctors prescribed Soma. Anyone familiar with this drug? My dad claims its a muscle relaxer. My father insists she's clean and has been for six months, that her back is really bothering her, and she needs some relief from this current ailment. This year alone she's been prescribed (spellings may be incorrect) fioricet, prozac, klonopin and several other drugs for migraines, depression, prednisolone, ambien. Again, this is only this year, and by that I mean 2010. So much for being clean for six months.

I've stood my ground, and told them that she can't come here. Now Dad's not speaking to me because I have no compassion for my sister, who is trying so hard but her health is so compromised that she needs these drugs to function without pain.

I'm just wondering if anyone has heard of Soma, and if he could be correct in that she's not taking it to get high.

((Exsister))) soma IS a muscle relaxer, but it can also be abused. I can tell if my stepmom has taken 2 of them, as she will be slumped over on the couch. I'm an RA, and have been prescribed Soma's, on occasion, as I have a history of a ruptured disc, but I am careful to take them as prescribed.

A couple of other medications that you listed above are also high risk of abuse. There ARE RA's who deal with chronic pain, but most of them are obviously working a program of recovery, and if I remember correctly, your previous posts didn't exactly sound like your sister was?

Hold strong to your boundaries...you're the only one you CAN control in this situation!

Hugs and prayers!

Amy

You can take Soma to get high.

It can be a very dangerous drug if mixed with other drugs also/alcohol.
I would let him be mad. If your worried at all about the kids being around anyone high, act on Their best interests, not the (Possible) drug induced emotions of the adults around them.

When we use drugs we have consequences that are different then when we don't, and we don't like that. In order for people to change they have to be uncomfortable.

So if it were me I would be confident with my decision.

JMO

Thanks for the replies! It's as I suspected, she's still using. Forgive my ignorance, but how do prescriptions work? She's had several jail stints, was caught once by a pharmacy forging a prescription, has been in rehab four times, has three dwi's... Isn't there some database or red flag system when she gets these prescriptions filled? I know its called doctor shopping, but is there no failsafe system in place to control or monitor who's prescribing what and how much and how often? I'm just curious and intrigued that a person with a history like hers can legally keep filling prescriptions and there's no means to track it. I know, probably a stupid question. After her fourth stay in rehab, she elected to have outpatient treatment with suboxone. She abused that at first, but then my father opted to dole it out to her, and wonder of wonders, she hasn't asked for it in several months. My father is convinced that his care and supervision of her, coupled with her drive to get well, has resulted in this inspirational recovery. I don't have the energy or inclination to burst his bubble by telling him the obvious, that she doesn't need the suboxone anymore because of the smorgasbord of pills she's being prescribed. He seems much happier with his drug of choice, denial.

I think eventually it catches up to you. I know that I see people who are caught all the time, and red flags put on their file.

I don't know how any of it works really. The only drug I ever liked was meth, lol.
I always have the pharmacies calling me to come pick up any prescriptions I have.

It's hard for our parents I know your dad is frustrating, but parents tend to think, and want to believe that they can fix their kids. And often when they don't then our
problems are 'their fault', so we can become and addiction for them.
You'll see on this forum almost daily, "What did I do wrong"...........

He just has to get to his own understanding of what is going on when he's ready.
In the mean time, Thank God the kids have you! :day6

JMO

((Exsister)) - A's are pretty good at varying the doctors, pharmacies, etc. to keep up their habit...for a while, but it usually doesn't last. As far as the suboxone, I could be wrong, but I think a lot of the docs who prescribe it require drug screens to prove the patient isn't doing other drugs.

More than likely, she will "mess up" like a lot of A's and forget that she's just gotten a prescription filled at a pharmacy and try to get another filled or some similar "oops" and get caught. I was an ER nurse, prior to my addiction and we also had patients who "made the rounds" of local hospitals, complaining of "back pain" and "migraines" (the 2 most common drug-seeking complaints) - we would notify other hospitals in the area, and the patient would often be refused narcotics. Sometimes A's outsmart the dr's and pharmacists, sometimes not.

You're doing the best thing you can do...let her (and your dad) hit their bottoms.

Hugs and prayers!

Amy

Yes, I know in the past she's been tested for drugs, but I've heard there's ways of beating those tests. If there are, I'm sure she's found them. That's the irony of it all. She's always been beautiful, popular, everything I've always wanted to be. I always tended to be more bookish, with a few very close dear friends as opposed to her crowds of admirers. She used to tease me mercilessly about being a "brainiac", told me boys don't like girls that are smarter than them and I should dumb it down a little. Now she's had an education that totally mystifies me. My vain, party girl older sister now has a cunning that surpasses my master's thesis!!!! She's actually smart when it comes to procuring her drugs. Her resourcefulness and ingenuity know no bounds when it comes to feeding her head. I never knew she had the intellectual capacity for any of this, I guess I sold her short all these years!

Yep, I took that stuff ONCE in my early twenties. If One is okay, three must be better! I woke up three hours later, sitting up in the chair, with my head on the coffeetable.

I could have died.

My ex-husband finally got red flagged for drugs at all the hospitals, clinics and pharmacies. He got so desperate for his pills that he actually jumped off a roof and broke his leg to get his fix.
I commend you for standing your ground. I know how hard it can be. But it does help talking with others that are going through the same thing. I need a lot of help in the "standing my ground" department.