Besides Morphine Is There Anything Else?

3 months ago my exhusband was finally told he had Myelofibrosis.  On top of that we just learned that he also has leukemia. We used Procrit for 6 wks which didn't help and now we are doing transfusions. It seems that in the 3 shorts months of finding out, he has lost 12 lbs and his condition has gotten worse overnight.Have any of you found anything that has helped.  The pain in the bones --we can handle but it is the high fevers and the uncontrolable shivers and sweats that is our biggest issues.  I don't know if this is from the MF or leukemia. At this point in his life he can not work and spends most of his day laying on the couch because of the meds he is on to control the pain.  The doctor has him on Morphine twice a day and tylenol and that is pretty much it.  I have searched the web but just cant find anything to ask for from his doctor that someone else has used that seems to help.  Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

On 4/30/2007 Shellys wrote:

3 months ago my exhusband was finally told he had Myelofibrosis.  On top of that we just learned that he also has leukemia. We used Procrit for 6 wks which didn't help and now we are doing transfusions. It seems that in the 3 shorts months of finding out, he has lost 12 lbs and his condition has gotten worse overnight.Have any of you found anything that has helped.  The pain in the bones --we can handle but it is the high fevers and the uncontrolable shivers and sweats that is our biggest issues.  I don't know if this is from the MF or leukemia. At this point in his life he can not work and spends most of his day laying on the couch because of the meds he is on to control the pain.  The doctor has him on Morphine twice a day and tylenol and that is pretty much it.  I have searched the web but just cant find anything to ask for from his doctor that someone else has used that seems to help.  Any information would be greatly appreciated.

There are few pain medications which can be presribed for pain.Morphine is one of them and often well tolerated.If the pain is not well controlled with the current dose of Morphine the dose should be /can be increased to keep the patient pain free.Also short acting Morphine can be prescribed to be taken for breakthrough pain (in between the two doses of Morphine your husband already taking).The Tylenol may be for pain as well but can cause sweating on its own even if it used for fever.

You might want to make sure he is not allergic or overly sensitive to Morphine or similar.  I've been on pain meds for 7 yrs (back pain). I've used most pain meds that are available but when my doctor had me try Morphine it made me sick in the manner you described.  My best success so far has been Norco 10mg 4x daily and Oxycodone ER 20mg 4x daily, by a manufacturer called Tiva.  This combo has given me the best relief so far.  Don't expect total pain relief if the pain is severe, sometime the best you can hope for is to take the edge off. Gregg