Benzo’s and opioid painkillers don’t mix well
Doctors and patients are increasingly being warned to avoid opioid painkillers if possible but an important factor in the opioid painkiller issue is often missed. Benzodiazepine drugs, including some like Klonopin that are often used in FM and ME/CFS, when taken with some opioid painkillers, can significantly increase the risk of dangerous side-effects.
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After the DEA crackdown none of us with valid prescriptions from our pain Dr’s could get them filled. We had no warning, nothing to go by & were in limbo. The pharmacy I’d been going to for over 5 years with no changers in my med’s except that my opioid pain med had been reduced by 50%. The clerk knew me by my first name, knew I hadn’t changed Dr’s and went to a pain clinic where we were randomly drug tested. It was a total nightmare. They closed at 7:00 pm & by 5:30 I still didn’t have an answer if they would fill my Rx or not. I didn’t have any left so it was making crazy not understanding why? Around 5:45 pm she called & said the pharmacist had agreed to refill if but only for that day & didnt know if future Rx would be filled. So what was my crime? That my life was turned upside down, my employer told me I couldn’t job my job which I knew already. Like most jobs it was not 49 hrs a week it was much more including some weekends late nights & bringing work home with me. I loved my job & did not want to stop working. I was told to take advantage of my LTD policy provided by my employer which would pay 2/3 of my salary until age 66. It turned out to be a short term policy they had a 2 yr limit on eveything my Dr’s signed and sent to them. After two years they cut me off I appealed & was sent a letter that said “Their Company Dr who had never seen to talked to me had determined that there was no medical reason why I could not sit in a chair for 49 hrs per week. So even the 3 Dr’s that I had who all agreed that I could not work were overruled by an unknown Dr who thinks all a job requires is for you to sit in a chair for 40 per week, had the final say. So another blow for me. Plus I lost my teeth due to my mouth being dry. My dentist told me to suck on hard candy & drink lots of water but I would fall asleep & choke on the candy. So I was really NOT having fun taking my low dose opioid med., then came the next blow my generic pain med was put in a higher tier & my co pay went from $6.00 to $140.00. I stopped taking the med for break through pain I didn’t take it very often it was as needed, but that also had a catch if you didn’t take your as needed med as much as they thought you should they would decrease the amount so that meant having to pay the generic co pay that was.no longer a generic price more often. I felt like a criminal, my Dr had told me to keep them locked in my very small home safe which I then started fearing that someone might kill me for my med. Then I got a call from the parmacy saying they could no longer filll my opioid & clonazeapam as they were looking out for my safety. Once again no one had heard the opioid bezo issues so I again felt like a criminal & I had absolute trust in both my pain & mental health Dr’s & I didn’t think they were trying to kill me. These issues are not for people who only take pain med’s for pain not to get a high & take more than prescribed & combine them with liquor. We are not the addicts and the addicts will continue to get the drugs off of the drug dealers! Please when do we get a break! Why won’t the insurance company’s pay for alternative treatments? I’ve paid a fortune for various types of treatments & have found 2 that I can honestly say have helped more than any drug that I don’t want to take. Being on SSDI is a struggle so I can’t afford to pay for both treatments or go as often as I would like. I’m am not going to give up & have reduced my med again I’m determined to not take any med’s hopefully soon it’s making me feel worse than rhe fibro pain