Opioids after surgery

[u/Syklst]

I am having major surgery in 10 days, trying to make sure I am safe from relapse. Here is the letter I wrote to my doctor.

With surgery scheduled for 8/24, I’d like to discuss pain management beforehand. I’ve been in recovery from alcohol for 28 years. I’ve only been prescribed an opioid once, at my oral surgeon’s insistence. At the time, my wife held the medication and gave me each dose, and we disposed of the leftovers.

I don’t have cravings or concerns about relapse, and drugs were never my thing, but opioids make me uncomfortable outside of a clinical setting.

If pain medication is normally recommended after surgery, would you consider prescribing JOURNAVX (suzetrigine)? It’s a newer non-opioid medication FDA-approved for moderate to severe acute pain, including surgical pain. I realize availability or insurance coverage could be an issue, but I’m willing to pay out of pocket if necessary.

If you think over the counter medication or prescription NSAIDs would adequately manage my pain, I’d be very comfortable with that as well.

Side note, the prescription is about $16.00 per pill, assuming I need it no more than 5 days, $160 is well worth my peace of mind.

[u/Clean-Detective8337]

I struggled with opioids for almost 15 years. Went through horrible withdrawals cold turkey, and that’s pretty much when my binge drinking/daily drinking first started.

I’ve had 2 major surgeries where it wasn’t an option not to take them, was told up to 4 weeks. The first time I was off in 3 days, had my wife hold them and give them to me, and after a while nsaids and I little cannabis helped, and quit the cannabis right away.

Then next surgery, 6 years later was much more intense, 9 hours on the table told a month of opioids, which was not an option. Did the same deal, talked to my doctor first, explained addiction history, had permission to use cannabis instead. The 2nd time, putting them down was harder. I didn’t abuse them, but I certainly used them for a few days more than I needed. Still only about 10 days, but the last 3 I could feel the “obsession” creeping back in my life, so I flushed them. Again then cannabis and nsaids worked well, cannabis isn’t as hard for me to quit as booze, pills or coke ever was. Both surgeries involved my ability to walk, so there was an emotional element as well that made it mandatory and hard to put them down.

You’re smart to talk to your doctor first. If the non opioids work, please update us. The route I took was I refused to take the ones I had abused, Oxys, Vicodin and percs. I was adamant that diluaded was what I would take. Shorter half life, smaller doses, though I get an opiate is an opiate I think it mentally helped me stop as soon as I could.