No! Pain medications are an important part of treating your pain. It is important to treat your pain as early as possible. Controlling your pain early on helps prevent a cycle of stress and increased pain, and pain medications are more likely to work when your pain is less severe. Don’t wait until you cannot possibly tolerate the pain any longer before taking your medication.

Mild pain can often be controlled with over-the-counter (OTC) medication such as Tylenol, Advil, or a combination of these two pain medications. Depending on the nature of the pain, acute versus chronic will determine the length of time pain medication is needed. In acute, short-term pain, prescription medication may also be required depending on the nature of the injury. Tramadol has been reclassified as an opioid using new evidence. For example a severe burn to the hand requires a trip to the emergency room for pain management. The physician or nurse practitioner may order Fentanyl, a short-acting narcotic given intravenously…

Addiction to opioids used to treat chronic pain can occur and is actually VERY common. Chronic pain occurs over a long period of time, and therefore many people rely on opioid analgesics daily to help them manage their pain. A physical dependence on opioids for pain relief can lead to an addiction. Physical dependence occurs with many medications, not only ones for pain, and is addressed by slowly lowering your dose before stopping these medications completely. When tapering medications does not work for you and you understand you have a reliance on pain medication, your doctor/NP will refer you to…

The QTc interval is a ‘lethal’ heart disturbance sometimes called ‘congenital’ but frequently ‘acquired’ through medications that prolong the QTc interval that can result in SUDDEN DEATH. Your health care provider will be monitoring the QTc interval with medication adjustments, additions of other medications that prolong the QTc interval. You, the patient, MUST take personal responsibility for monitoring your own QTc interval as YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT! Monitoring the QTc interval is done through a painless, non-invasive test called an electrocardiogram (ECG). Ask your doctor/NP for your QTc interval number: it’s measured in msec.

Opioid-induced anemia is REAL. Your doctor/NP will request a CBC to monitor your hemoglobin levels. They will also monitor your blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rhythm and other cardiac parameters (i.e. QTc level) to ensure ALL systems are working correctly including your electrolytes, especially your potassium levels. If you are taking an opiate and develop chest pain, you should go directly to the Emergency Room. You may also develop shortness of breath (SOB) and your oxygen saturation levels may be normal or they may drop: one is an early finding while the other is a late finding. DO NOT LET…

If you are taking opioids you most assuredly will need to manage constipation. If you have back pain it is important not to strain for your bowel movement. A good natural remedy is a mix of equal amounts of applesauce, prune juice and bran kept in the refrigerator; take 1 tablespoon per day. Alternatively you can use Miralax which is highly effective in treating constipation (consult your pharmacist). It is CRITICAL that you treat constipation when taking opioids so that you can avoid urinary tract infections, bowel obstruction, and opiate overdose secondary to dehydration. Your bowel will take water from…

If you develop a urinary tract infection or other conditions called “Sepsis”, you may require emergency medical treatment. No worries, healthcare providers are now able to review your medication list (i.e. Comprehensive Medication Reconciliation) to determine if you are taking opiates so as to avoid giving you a LETHAL medication that would constitute a drug-drug interaction using the www.qtdrugs.org website. Your family and friends also need to remind healthcare providers about this website as not all healthcare providers believe in the website’s sensitivity and specificity (i.e. accuracy). It’s only when you are dead that you understand the accuracy of the…

Opiates have been found to cross over into breast milk when taken long term. Stephanie Greene, an American nurse found out the hard way when her baby died from opiate overdose. Stephanie is now serving a 20-year sentence in an American prison. We do not want this to happen to Canadian women. Please choose an alternate form of feeding your baby (i.e. formula), or request Narcan Nasal Spray. If you are taking opioids and benzodiazepines together, these are a DEADLY combination as many have found out through first-hand experience.

Canadian statistics are scant and unreliable at best. In the United States 44,000 people died from opiate overdose in 2013 (Volkow & McLellan, 2016). Now you understand why Americans are calling this a national epidemic. Based on clinical case reviews, this may be a conservative estimate. What may be more staggering are the number of opiate overdoses that presented to the emergency room and did not get proper diagnosis and treatment. Opiate overdose is a ‘reversible cause of death’ with a medication called Naloxone (Narcan). Narcan comes in various delivery devices including: vile and syringe, intranasal, prefilled syringe, autoinjector. I ordered…

Let us tell you the ways: We have returned the Opioid Manager (2011) back to McMaster University because there were ‘lethal’ flaws and gaps in this document; We returned My Opioid Manager to authors owing to ‘deadly’ gaps and we request that you remove this link from your website; We recognize that ALL of the methadone guidelines with the College of Physicians & Surgeons are flawed and ‘deadly’; We recognize errors in the Canadian Diabetes Association (2013) guidelines for the treatment of diabetic neuropathy (Bril et al., 2013), and the 2018 Diabetes Canada guidelines. We are not going to go with the 2017 Canadian guideline…

Accreditation Canada. (2014). Trauma Distinction: Information Package. Alberta Health Services. (n.d.). FAQ: Fentanyl. Allen, M., Buckley, N., & Sproule, B. (2013). Challenges of evaluating the impact of the Canadian Opioid Guidelines. Retrieved from https://www.cadth.ca/media/symp-2013/2013-presentations/E2%20-%20Allen%20Buckley%20Sproule%20-%20Salon%20G.pdf– flawed and deadly! Order matters when planning health promotion activities! American Heart Association. (2015). Highlights of the American Heart Association guidelines update for CPR and ECC: Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Edition. Anti-infective Review Panel. Anti-infective guidelines for community-acquired infections. Toronto: MUMS guidelines clearinghouse; 2010. – flawed and deadly! Omits to have the clinician consider ‘lethal’ drug-drug interactions with opiates. Bradshaw, S. (n.d.). Taser technology in Canada: Examining whether tasers…