She has parkinson disease for 2 years. Had a major back surgery and is in pain since. Back surgeon cant explain why. They recommend her taking vicodin. Vicodin makes her more off balance. I cant trust her with pain meds. She has shown signs of addictive behavior. Ive been able to get her off of it but just last night i caught her taking Lyrica without my permission and lied to me that she didnt take it and that she doesnt know how it got into the drawer. Im losing my mind over this. I had this lyrica in ny cabinet upstairs in my room. My mom would have had to climb a flight of stairs to get to it. She is a compulsive liar with a drug addiction and im losing my mind over it. I dont like liars and drugs. She shared her vicodins with her brother and grandson in the past. Im so disgusted! I dont know what to do next!!!!help?
I know very well how frustrating it is because you can't watch her 24 hrs a day and they are very sneaky. Finally...after 3 exhausting yrs she is finally off of the Vicodin. Take BABY STEPS go slow and wean your mother off of one addiction at a time. Withdrawal is brutal. Now with a starting point I am weaning her off of morphine. I tell her how proud I am of her and what an accomplishment it is at her age.
Your angry and disgusted and she knows it but doesn't care due to the addiction. The pills are more important than your feelings. Try to occupy her time with a board game or playing cards (something to distract) and every hr that passes without a pill adds up to days and weeks off that crap!! Believe me, she will be very grateful for your support and compassion. If you need to talk more, just let me know.
JENTZ....this is just the beginning of your mother's journey. All she has to think about all day long is how, where, when and will I get more pain pills. If pain pills are not at hand then she will reach for an alternative medication which will hold her over until she can devise a new plan of action. The lying about the lyrica is a warning sign to you that she will go to any extremes and put herself in harms way to find a replacement med.
I have tried the ole switch a rue method, ice packs, heat, massage therapists, physical therapists and guess what? You can go full circle right back to I want you to give me MY pain pills or else. If you have the time and I mean a lot of it along with plenty of patience, she can be trusted again, but only with you help and loving encouragement. Keep me posted.
You need to inform everyone of the problem including doctors, family, pharmacist etc so they can be aware and not give her anything without you knowing. Is this straight out addiction or is she suffering with dementia?
I have a sister who is a hypochondriac and she has huge plastic bins of bottles of medication she has been given. She use to "doctor shop" and went through tons of medication meant for headaches....she could take 100 in two weeks. It led to ulcers and she was taken off of them, now she has ulcers again most likely due to the use of these medications again. If she were to drop over, we would have NO IDEA what to tell paramedics that she has taken.
LOCK UP EVERYTHING and GET A LOCK FOR YOUR DOOR OR LOCK UP YOUR MEDS AS WELL.
You feel like a jail keeper but hey you do what you have to do! Good Luck and God Bless!
I can see when I fill the box whether she missed any. Since she has several hours to remember she does pretty good. As above maybe a small safe would keep the other meds safe. I bet you are getting crazy over this. If she is like my mom, she will hound you until you satisfy her. I like the idea of the look alike pills. Prayers for you.
Jenz I sympathise with your worry about your mother's abusing what are, after all, narcotics. It must be very frightening for you, and very hard to know what to do. I was going to suggest a locked medicine cabinet, too; but for one thing locks can be broken and for another this is your home, it's not a bank vault. You shouldn't need to lock things away as long as they're kept in a safe place where they can't be taken accidentally or unnoticed. Very difficult for you, that you feel you have to.
I wonder, though. With Parkinson's and a back injury, your mother's pain is real. At the same time as being as strict as you reasonably can with her current meds, would it be a good idea to get back to her surgeon and get him to buck his ideas up? He doesn't know why she's in pain? Well - FIND OUT and deal with it. Because his patient is a little old lady who is living in constant pain. And if he can't get anywhere, he needs to refer her to someone who can.
The other plus that comes with focusing on tackling the pain issue is that instead of your being anxious and angry with your mother (understandably, of course) you would be offering her active help with her pain problem; which might usefully take the limelight off the addiction problem. It's hard enough to face up to being an addict, almost impossible, I'd have thought, when you are also coincidentally in genuine pain.
This is me being seriously naïve, I expect - but why do people like taking Vicodin? It's a horrible drug! What's wrong with a single malt?
Agree fully that its back to the health provider to sort out the medication problems and the pain, and allow OP to be a daughter not a security guard
What part of Do Not Exceed The Stated Dose is ambiguous? I agree about the teens. I'd show videos of acute liver failure to all secondary school age children if I had my way and see if they still thought it was romantic.