I kid you not that after two months of taking narcotics I am suffering from physical dependence.  I’ve been intermittently taking Tylenol #3, Percocet, and Vicodin. They make you feel great while you are taking them, but trying to stop is misery. I haven’t been having pain in my butt for over a week so I stopped taking the Percocet last Friday. I spent that weekend on the couch. Every muscle in my body hurt. My head hurt. I woke up drenched with sweat. I had no motivation to do anything but sleep. On Monday I had enough of that bull@#$ and I took a Percocet.

Amazing but true: I got up and made dinner that night.

So now what do I do? I’m a nurse I should know this stuff. I’ve had two c-sections. I’ve had other surgeries before, but I’ve never had to take pain meds for more than a week.  I looked it up online and most of my searches brought up ads for rehab facilities, no thank you. Even the respectable medical sites only really gave descriptions of illicit drug use and symptoms of withdrawal. I found no useful information for the innocent hemorrhoid sufferer who needs to write several papers for school and get on with her life. What on earth am I going to do?

I called the surgeon and she actually called me back. She says that I should take the meds if I need to and that it might take a month to get completely off the meds. Disappointing but not tragic, I can do this.

These pain medications belong to the drug family known as opiates. They are derivatives of Morphine. I read about the chemistry of narcotics and how they work in your body and I learned that when you are taking narcotics, you body gets used to all of these morphine receptors being filled. When you stop taking the meds, the receptors are empty and angry.

I already know that endorphins are chemicals that the body makes to fill the morphine receptors. Endorphins are the chemicals that cause the “runners high”. One way to get our bodies to make endorphins is to exercise. Lucky for me I have a $25 dollar treadmill from a rummage sale and an extremely supportive husband who wants a happy wife. He also wants a wife who can raise the children, clean the house, do the laundry, and go back to work. We will get through this together.