Question about methadone & gastric bypass

[Rachie]

Hello, my name is Rachie & I am an over-weight mother of 4, ready to have gastric bypass.

It took me many failed attemps at losing weight on my own to realize this is definitely the way I need to go to be a healthier me & momma to my babies. I have been on Adipex, every diet pill, garcenia crap, formula 4, Herbalife, you name it! I just stopped eating for months one time. I lost some weight, but am at a loss.

I'm scared though that my doctor will refuse to do my surgery because I am on a methadone maintenance therapy. I live with extreme pain drom being hit by a car as a child. I had to be in high amounts of pain meds & I just couldn't do it anymore.

Has anyone ever heard of or known someone who was on methadone & had tge gastric bypass? Do you think I could be denied because of it? If i lose the weight, maybe I can finally get off the methadone. This cycle is viscuous. I see the light at the end of the tunnel.. with my appointment & class coming up on September 24th 2019, but I'm so scared that, that light is going to be snuffed out, because of this.
Any help yinz can give would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dianeseattle]

Hi Rachie, welcome to the group. I'm going to guess your unique situation is not one this group has ever experienced. Is there more to the story? It kind of sounds like you might have formed an addiction to opiods from your childhood pain & now, it's methadone time. I don't know a whole lot about it, though I've had several junky friends. With them, methadone was a temporary fix. I understand your fear.

Have you looked into ultra-rapid detox? again, I don't know a whole lot about it, but it certainly has been successful in the cases I heard about. Unless you tell them no, your hospital crew will give you morphine, demerol, dilaudid and an assortment of other opium-derived drugs for pain & anesthesia. If you're taking methadone at the same time, that would be very bad for you, and if you're off methadone, you shouldn't be using pain control containing opiods, right?

In any event, you have to list all the drugs you take during your assessment & your hospitalization. They'll ask you a million times because they don't want to make a mistake or be sued. I feel for you. But at the same time, how wonderful that you are making this new start, wanting to change your body & improve your health. You really should get a medical team on your side. With your history, you might even make an important case study that could help others.

Next, ask this question of your doctor(s). I assume you have a primary who is prescribing for you. Start there & get referrals. I've found docs to be very sympathetic to people who want to change for the better. Good luck & keep posting. Let us know what's going on. We support you.

 

[Rachie]

Hi Rachie, welcome to the group. I'm going to guess your unique situation is not one this group has ever experienced. Is there more to the story? It kind of sounds like you might have formed an addiction to opiods from your childhood pain & now, it's methadone time. I don't know a whole lot about it, though I've had several junky friends. With them, methadone was a temporary fix. I understand your fear.

Have you looked into ultra-rapid detox? again, I don't know a whole lot about it, but it certainly has been successful in the cases I heard about. Unless you tell them no, your hospital crew will give you morphine, demerol, dilaudid and an assortment of other opium-derived drugs for pain & anesthesia. If you're taking methadone at the same time, that would be very bad for you, and if you're off methadone, you shouldn't be using pain control containing opiods, right?

In any event, you have to list all the drugs you take during your assessment & your hospitalization. They'll ask you a million times because they don't want to make a mistake or be sued. I feel for you. But at the same time, how wonderful that you are making this new start, wanting to change your body & improve your health. You really should get a medical team on your side. With your history, you might even make an important case study that could help others.

Next, ask this question of your doctor(s). I assume you have a primary who is prescribing for you. Start there & get referrals. I've found docs to be very sympathetic to people who want to change for the better. Good luck & keep posting. Let us know what's going on. We support you.

I have found that addiction & dependence is sort of you say tomaTOE & i say toMOTTO! I have never chased a high or anything like that, in fact, the euphoric feeling that people want so much would make me feel loopy & I didnt like it. However, I LOVED being able to handle getting down on the floor with my babies or taking them to the park. All stuff I struggle to do without some sort of pain relief. I got to the point though, that my body became so dependent on the opoid that if i wasnt taking my pain pill as soon as the previous dose wore off, i was getting what I later learned was "pill sick". Living in the type of pain that I do, & then adding withdrawal symptoms on top is so awful, I can't put it into words. I was on extremely high doses of medication that were begining to not help us they once did, I knew I was in trouble. Around the height of the opioid epidemic my doctor who was managing my pain was being pressured to retire & it was very difficult to find doctors willing to manage pain. (Which is understandeble...sad but understandable) i'm trying to make my overly long story short.. i've never done heroine or any other illicit drugs. I just became dependent on my prescription drugs. I felt like methadone was the way to go, because I am going to have this pain forever but if I can lose the weight, maybe advil & tylenol will be enough to deal with the pain. (Methadone doesnt take all of my pain away, but it keeps me from the hell of withdrawals.)

Thank you for all of the advice. If I have to go off the methadone to get this surgery, i will try so hard.. i'm so scared i won't be able to. It's that worth it to me to try hard though. I know in my heart, that if i can have the surgery first that i'm more likely to succeed in not having to be on this for the rest of my life. & that i could possibly have a long rest of my life!

 

[dianeseattle]

Rachie, I get what you're saying. And I actually misspoke somewhat by using the word "addict." The word I should have used is "dependent," as you just did. Your body is dependent on the substances that keep you from having pain. It doesn't know any other way to manage that pain.

After surgery, you won't be able to take NSAIDs for pain. I think your only option is acetaminophen. NSAIDs will rot your guts out and your medical professionals will issue you post-op contraindications that tell you that. Pain is a serious issue for you and I don't know what to say about methadone because I've never abused opioids. I actually think it's really stupid how the federal government has overreacted to the opioid crisis. The people who are going to use those drugs are going to get them no matter how few doctors prescribe them. And doctors should not feel intimidated about prescribing these helpful medications when they know their patient is in pain. Even my doctor is pissed about it.

I'm sure you've seen pain management specialists, but I have to ask this anyway. Have you ever tried a TENS unit? I have and it really helped me with this horrible nerve pain. The pain was so bad, I couldn't even button my pants without crying out.

Even the somewhat flaky-sounding approaches like acupuncture might help. But again, I'm sure you've investigated pain management. If it's been a while since you did, though, I'd get to a pain management clinic again & tell them exactly what you've told us. I do believe in the power of mind over matter, but I also believe in good therapy for illness.

There are longterm effects of taking pain meds, and it's almost like insult on injury. You can't win for losing.

But my main point was that you should tell your surgeon what you take and let him/her decide. I think they will still do the surgery, but they will use different anesthesia and pain meds after. And I hope you hang out with us here. We want to support you, and it would be great to know the answer to your original question, in case it comes up with newcomers in the future.

Take care & all my best to you & your success.

 

[missdarmitage]

Hi Rachie. I honestly don't know about the methadone and surgery. I agree with Diane that it is something you should talk to the dr's about as they will have the best information for you. I do get where you are coming from about not wanting to go through the withdrawals. I have had three back surgeries. Before the last one, I had been on pain medication for years and on best rest for 13 months before the last surgery was completed. Once the surgery was done, my pain was gone and left behind was the addiction. My dr warned me he was going to start weaning me off the medication. As it started, the withdrawal symptoms started. I wasn't giving my body the quantity that it was used to so it started the withdrawal process. After two days I called the dr to find out how long the weaning off was going to take and he said 10 weeks! There was no way I could handle the withdrawal process for that long. So I just quit it cold turkey. To me, it seemed far better to get hit all at once with the withdrawal and have it last a week versus constantly over a 10 week period. I just couldn't see myself living with withdrawal for that long. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life!

I completely understand not wanting to go through the withdrawal processes, but just remember it does go away. It is only a very short term condition. You aren't looking for the high so once you are off of them and through the withdrawals, you shouldn't have the want or urge to go back (at least I hope not). Hopefully this surgery will help your condition in all the ways you are hoping it will. I just hope you are able to, at some point, be pain free, healthy, and off all the meds. Good luck and let us know what your dr says!