MORPHINE/HEROINE AND SICKLE CELL
Morphine and Sickle Cell
As someone who tries very hard to manage having a crisis at home before I finally end up in hospital, I heard someone saying in the outpatients clinic one day that sicklers are drug addicts! I was like what?! No I’m not!
But as I eavesdropped on the conversation, the dialogue was about how sicklers like taking Morphine, street name Heroine when in pain. As we all know, pain and sickle cell are good friends and pain embodizes Sickle Cell. The two people (professional) I might add, were talking about the psychological dependence that people with Sickle Cell have with Morphine.
If you are a sickler, then you know that they say some of the tablets that we take can cause liver damage and other organ damage to the body. So for a while now, my principle has been to have food in my freezer, so that when I am sick and have to take very strong pain killers, I do so, with food and I mean food good for Sickle Cell and not just take them with biscuits.
Some doctors do not like prescribing Morphine and they say, if you have to take Morphine at home, then you need to be in hospital, where you can be monitored. The use of Morphine can be somewhat controversial amongst doctors. I have had some consultants not prescribe it for me and I have had some prescribe it. The thing is, I use tablets wisely, as I don’t like to use tablets in the first place. I have been prescribed a box of Morphine and it expired in my tablets container with three quarters of it left!
Yes, they say people with Sickle Cell go into hospital with chronic or severe pain and leave the hospital drugged up; they say that people with Sickle Cell die from using Opiates such as Morphine… they say Morphine affects the brain negatively and also your whole internal system.
Truth is, I am scared of using Morphine at home when no one is with me, as I feel its too risky but when I have a crisis and the pain is unmanageable, I would take it as a last resort. I have a fear of it and so steer clear of it.
When in hospital though, I will ask for the injection every four hours or less. I will not go into hospital and take Codeine, as I already take that at home and it did not work. When I leave the hospital, its true, I am totally drugged up and I sometimes need about seven days to get the after effect of Morphine out of my system.
So, be careful if you are taking Morphine.
Take care and look after yourself.
