desertflower

Soooo I've been clean a week without opiates. And then last night BAM! I was in terrible pain.

My mother's tenant took me to the local ER where they thought I had kidney stones or appendicitis. It turns out that it was just my birth control (I have the Mirena IUD implant) that caused a pelvic infection.

They gave me morphine via IV to stop the pain (it worked) and sent me on my way 6 hours later with Vicodin. I took 2 last night and 2 this morning. I feel much better, but I'm so afraid that this could be a relapse.

Is this a relapse? I didn't go looking for pills, I took what I could get, and I am in legitimate pain. However, the pain has subsided...I'm not sure if it was the Vicodin or maybe the antibiotics they gave me through the IV worked. Hmmm...

instant

If its medically prescribed, for a legitimate reason and you are not scamming yourself I think its OK. Its not what everybody else thinks, it,s just you and your DOC

joygirl

If the pain is manageable now, flush the rest of the vicoden. You don't need the temptation. The longer you take it, the worse the w/d again! Try ibuprofen and ice or heat. Just get rid of them and move on. Even addicts will have legitimate pain that needs treatment. We have to be honest with ourselves when deciding to use meds. I know I've lied to myself about how bad my pain was to justify using. I wouldn't say you've relapsed unless you lied to yourself about needing it. Just get rid of it as soon as you really don't need it. Coming here was the right thing to do! Yeah!

quitforme79

Sounds to me you had a medical reason & as long as you don't take more then you need I'd say it's not a relapse. I never took opiates, I'm an alcoholic. My heart goes out to you though because if the drs treated pain with alcohol I'd be screwed. I'd just suffer through the pain.

least

If it's legitimate and prescribed by a doctor, then it's ok as far as I can see. Just don't go taking them all the time anymore or you'll have to start all over again.

Maylie

Just because we are addicts doesn't mean that we have to live our lives in pain. That being said, it is important to be open with any doctors you have or anytime you visit the hospital so they can try to use non-narcotic medicine first. Some pain can just not be made tolerable with non-narcotic pain medicine and therefore there will be times when we must decide whether to take the medicine or not.

You went to the hospital in legitimate pain and were given the pills by a doctor. Take them when you need them just make sure not to take more than you need or to keep taking them even after the pain is not there. Many recovered addicts I know that have had to take pain medicine will try to go as long as they can in between taking the pills and this way they take as little as possible but do not torture themselves by living in pain all the time either.

Keep moving forward. Right now would be a good time to double up on your recovery efforts to ensure that you keep going in the right direction

Received

What I put in bold from Maylie's post to me is the bottom line.

In the end, as others have mentioned, only you really know the truth. Either way, if you want to stay clean you need to keep moving forward.