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I recently heard from a friend of mine who has been a spiney for many years. He’s very well educated and has taken a very reasonable and conservative approach to his spine problems and his medications. He told me about a very severe problem he encountered weeks before.

He’s not exit exactly sure how he did it, but he wound up in the ER with an overdose. It’s even much more serious than this as he went from the ER to the ICU. It’s not like he just spent a day or two in the ICU as he was there for more than a week. Several of his systems were shutting down. He damn near died.

I’m not putting any of the details in, because they are not relevant to the discussion I want to have. Based on what I have written, you all understand the seriousness of this issue. Any of us who take high dose opiates could be writing this. The person who this happened to has no history of substance abuse and was NOT abusing his medications.

While the big scary warning about high dose opiates is important, the discussion here will be about a much more mundane topic. Like most of us here, I am constantly battling the balance between medications, activity levels and pain levels. I’m not sure it’s the best way to go, but I believe that I under-medicate most of the time. I don’t believe it’s possible to take enough meds to be comfortable and functional. I don’t take higher doses on a daily basis because I fear the consequences of continuing to ramp up my opiate levels. Because I do this, if I have an activity that I really need or want to do, I can increase (or even double) my meds without being drowsy or would have difficulty driving or functioning. If my baseline does was higher increasing my meds and trying to function would be dangerous.

I can’t take my meds without a pill organizer. Maybe its age, maybe its years of chronic pain and medications, or maybe I’m just an airhead; but if I can’t look to see what’s remaining in my one day supply, I am at risk for making mistakes with my meds.

I’m lucky that my pain levels are low enough that I can get by on smaller doses. Many of my clients take three or four times what I take (and even more) everyday. On these high doses taking the even one extra dose can put you into a stupor. If you were to make this mistake, the risk of mistakenly taking another extra dose is even higher. It’s easy to see how dangerous this can be and how even the brightest of us can get into trouble.

Unfortunately, nobody makes a childproof pill organizer (that I can find.) With a toddler in the house I worry about the meds and would feel too unsafe without childproof containers, but I still need the organizer. I fake it by the organizing a week’s worth of meds at the time into ”daily” childproof bottles. It’s not the best system in the world but it works for me.

All of this seems so obvious that we shouldn’t have to discuss it. But my friend almost died and we both think it’s an important topic that should be discussed. Years ago a member of the BrainTalk spinal disorders forum died because it of a mistake in her meds. I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of this through the years.

OK… off my soap box for now. I look forward to what the community has to say about this.

All the best,

Mark