Wow, Morphine is kinda fun

SkyHog

SkyHog

Touchdown! Greaser!
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I'm a bit doped up on Morphine right now. I had to go to the doctor for a reason that I don't really want to go into publicly, and was given an intravenious drip of Salene and Morphine. That was pretty damned intense.

Now, I bring this up, not to appear to be a junkie, but to ask, how long do I have to wait before I can fly again, assuming the original condition that led to the usage is non-grounding?
 
Bleah - opiates make me nauseous - I can't stand Codeine. I fear ever having to be put on morphine - I'd probably prefer pain to nausea.
 
When my ruptured appendix was cut out, I was plugged into a self-serve morphine pump. I was able to dose myself, but the system metered it. I could hear the very faint 'click' every time it re-armed itself and, even when I was asleep, I could punch that button.

Ended up getting nauseous after a few hours and did without.
 
I vaguely recall Demerol in the hospital after the motorcycle accident in college. I do recall that it did a supperb job of killing the pain. Hope I don't need anything like that in July after surgery. Don't know what your condition is, Nick, but I'm grounded at least until early next year. Prostate cancer. Caught it EARLY, will have it taken out in July. Bruce tells me I can apply for reinstatement of my medical (assuming certain conditions are met) 180 days after the surgery. You old guys (like me), get your PSA checked annually and if it goes up a little, jump on it. I did and this should be an inconvenience, not a life threatening deal.
 
Meh, it was just a suspected hernia that turned out to be something much less serious and barely worth going to the hospital for (except I couldn't walk...I can now tho!).

Morphine is strange...when it first starts to flow, you get this weird feeling down your neck and spine, like a hot, burning sensation. Its very uncomfortable. But without about 30 seconds after that starts, you're just messed up, and its quite enjoyable, because the pain is gone, gone gone.

Thanks for the answer. 72 hours it is!
 
Skip Miller said:
I'm guessing you have never needed morphine.

-Skip
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Well - I nearly had my thumb taken off by a table-saw, once. That wasn't nearly as bad as the first time I changed the dressing - I nearly fainted from the pain. (I didn't soak it adequately beforehand, I later discovered).

Thats about the worst I've had though.
 
I got to experience Morphine as a 13yo after surgery. I didn't remember it quite as dramatic.

Then, last August, I had the gall stone attack. They gave me two 5mg shots over a four hour period. Man, did that do great at taking away the pain. I was in tears before the first one. I drove home about three hours after the second one when I couldn't get a one of the five mexican-run taxis to pick me up. Then, I slept for fourteen hours.

All those years spent running drugs, I had not been thinking about the strength of the stuff. Although, I didn't make deliveries to some parts of town without a four-cell Brinkman in one hand.
 
SkyHog said:
Meh, it was just a suspected hernia that turned out to be something much less serious and barely worth going to the hospital for (except I couldn't walk...I can now tho!).

Morphine is strange...when it first starts to flow, you get this weird feeling down your neck and spine, like a hot, burning sensation. Its very uncomfortable. But without about 30 seconds after that starts, you're just messed up, and its quite enjoyable, because the pain is gone, gone gone.

Thanks for the answer. 72 hours it is!
Click to expand...

Sounds like you were a little twisted. :hairraise:

Have some fiber around morphine can block ya up a bit.
 
SkyHog said:
Morphine is strange...when it first starts to flow, you get this weird feeling down your neck and spine, like a hot, burning sensation.
Click to expand...

The one time I had Morphine, I got it via the good ol' syringe to the leg, and I had the sensation of a growing patch where it felt like my skin was just going to explode outwards.

I don't remember getting a buzz at all, but not too much later I got the mask and the "count to ten" and I made it to about "Wuh". :goofy:
 
What a timely thread. I'm not a junkie like Skyhog :D , but I am having a colonoscopy tomorrow AM. I was going to ask the Doc / anesthesiologist how long I should wait to fly - I have a checkout in a G1000 Skyhawk scheduled for Sunday.

Dr. Bruce, is your advice on waiting 72 hours for morphine-type drugs, or would it also apply to whatever I would get for this procedure? Your advice on 72 hours makes sense, though I didn't anticipate that long, since I received the admonition not to drive the day of the procedure.

Thanks for your advice.
 
Ghery said:
I vaguely recall Demerol in the hospital after the motorcycle accident in college. I do recall that it did a supperb job of killing the pain. Hope I don't need anything like that in July after surgery. Don't know what your condition is, Nick, but I'm grounded at least until early next year. Prostate cancer. Caught it EARLY, will have it taken out in July. Bruce tells me I can apply for reinstatement of my medical (assuming certain conditions are met) 180 days after the surgery. You old guys (like me), get your PSA checked annually and if it goes up a little, jump on it. I did and this should be an inconvenience, not a life threatening deal.
Click to expand...

Wow. Good catch, and great advice. Good luck, Ghery.
 
nddons said:
What a timely thread. I'm not a junkie like Skyhog :D , but I am having a colonoscopy tomorrow AM. I was going to ask the Doc / anesthesiologist how long I should wait to fly - I have a checkout in a G1000 Skyhawk scheduled for Sunday.

Dr. Bruce, is your advice on waiting 72 hours for morphine-type drugs, or would it also apply to whatever I would get for this procedure? Your advice on 72 hours makes sense, though I didn't anticipate that long, since I received the admonition not to drive the day of the procedure.

Thanks for your advice.
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It depends on the drug. Demerol has a little shorter half life, and 48 might be okay. Fentanyl is even shorter, but the GI guys are not too comfortable with that one for other reasons.

72 for morphine, though.
 
nddons said:
What a timely thread. I'm not a junkie like Skyhog :D , but I am having a colonoscopy tomorrow AM. I was going to ask the Doc / anesthesiologist how long I should wait to fly - I have a checkout in a G1000 Skyhawk scheduled for Sunday.

Dr. Bruce, is your advice on waiting 72 hours for morphine-type drugs, or would it also apply to whatever I would get for this procedure? Your advice on 72 hours makes sense, though I didn't anticipate that long, since I received the admonition not to drive the day of the procedure.

Thanks for your advice.
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How's the prep going? :D After you get through that, the procedure tomorrow will be a non-event. BTDT.
 
So Morphine may be fun, but percocet most certainly is not. Any idea how long I should wait after the percocet regimen ends?
 
hmm.. I was wide awake with no drugs at all for my colonoscopy... I suppose I could have gone flying as soon as I was done.. but it was a rather humiliating experience and I just wanted to go hide.
 
No IV or anything? I had to have someone along to drive me home as they weren't about to let me do it myself. Don't think I would have wanted it any other way. The relaxants really helped.
 
bbchien said:
It depends on the drug. Demerol has a little shorter half life, and 48 might be okay. Fentanyl is even shorter, but the GI guys are not too comfortable with that one for other reasons.

72 for morphine, though.
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Mmmm demerol, yum. When I had my cervical fracture they kept me pretty well doped up. I was on demerol every two hours with some morphine if I complained about any pain. I was in a cervical collar and sandbags the first few days since the circle electric bed was being used by another cervical fracture. So they did not want me moving at all. Like I could anyways I was pretty much paralyzed from the neck down, only one arm sort of worked. But my toe would wiggle so there were good signs.

I remember watching episodes of Cosmos while completely wasted on the heavy stuff. Hmmm star stuff!
 
Ghery said:
How's the prep going? :D After you get through that, the procedure tomorrow will be a non-event. BTDT.
Click to expand...

Well, I won't be drinking Gatorade for another year. :vomit: I've had three: in 2001 I had to drink a gallon of some stuff. In 2005 I was down to a small bottle of stuff. Now this time I was back to quantity, and had to mix 255g of a powder in with 64oz of Gatorade. They can put a man on the moon, but ... :dunno:

The procedure wasn't bad - just mortifying. (Why do all the best looking nurses work in GI?) I was completely out this time; in prior procedures I was about 95% out, kind of like when you get wisdom teeth pulled. I kind of like the completely out thing.
 
nope, nothing at all! It sucked. But, like I said, I could have gone right out flying!

I was young and I didn't even know what exactly I was going in for.. I know now!!
 
nddons said:
The procedure wasn't bad - just mortifying. (Why do all the best looking nurses work in GI?) I was completely out this time; in prior procedures I was about 95% out, kind of like when you get wisdom teeth pulled. I kind of like the completely out thing.
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Somehow I don't remember what they looked like for mine a couple years ago. Now, the nurse at my urologist's office for the prostate biopsy, who cares? I just wanted to get that over with and get the heck out of there.
 
Back when I was getting kidney stones on a regular basis, (8+ years since the last one, yay!) I've had ER visits where one visit they gave me morphine, and another they gave me Demerol.

Morphine didn't do much for the pain for me. And I didn't like the feeling.

Demerol didn't do much for the pain either. But I didn't care. Which made it much more effective at any rate. [homer] MMMM Demerol. aaagggghhhh [/homer]

After my spine surgery, I was also hooked up to a PCA machine with morphine. The anesthesiologist comes by each day to collect stats and tells me, "Considering your surgery, you should be hitting the button way more often than you actually are."

--Carlos V.
 
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dilaudid - ER gave once for a kidney stone.... it was the best I have felt in years.
 
I once dropped a motorcycle with super hot exhaust pipe on my leg while wearing shorts, and got 2nd and 3rd degree burns on my calf and a permanent tattoo of a partial Yamaha logo in the scar :(

The doc gave me a months supply of quadruple strength Vicodin pills for the pain and every evening I'd have to take two of them, and let them kick in full blast before I could scrub the wound clean in the bathtub with antibacterial soap and then apply a fresh coating of Silvadene cream and a bandage over it. That nightly cleaning ritual hurt worse than anything else I've ever encountered in my life until my next motorcycle injury. After about a week, the Vicodins started making me have hellish nightmares in my sleep too. I was so glad when the pain from the burn went away enough so I could stop taking them.

A couple years later, I had an off-road motorcycle wreck and woke up in a hospital bed, after breaking my clavicle into three chunks and also having a fractured wrist and a mild concussion. There they gave me my first ever shot of Demerol for the pain. The fluorescent lights on the ceiling started spinning like a ceiling fan and I hurled so violently, puke shot all the way across my room and out the door into the hallway. The pain from the broken bones went away but I was truly miserable under the intoxicating effects of the Demerol. A few hours later when the pain returned, they gave me a shot of something called Toradol (sp?) which I guess is a kind of injectible NSAID like ibuprofen. It was wonderful... killed the pain of the broken bones and did not make me puke or buzzed out of my head. Good stuff that Toradol, it's definitely a miracle drug.

I gave up on the motorcycles, those darn things will kill you.... and started taking flying lessons instead right after I healed up from the broken bones. Now more than a half-decade later, I've got over 500 safe hours of PIC time logged, and the yearn for two wheels is coming back :yikes!:
 
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