Lesser of Two Evils : Benzodiazepines or Opiates for severe pain

[Fantasian]

I have explained SWIFantasian's situation in several posts but here it is in short.

He gets severe acute abdominal pain down and left of his belly button, he is still undergoing many diagnosis for it and has had many tests but still to no avail. The pain is excruciating and needs some sort of treatment. This is where SWIM's decision becomes difficult. The pain lasts for 8-12 hours. The pain occurs EVERY WEEK!!!

SWIM can take narcotic opiate pain relievers like morphine and such but then he suffers from physical withdrawal for 3 days and psychological withdrawal for a further 3 or 4 before the whole experience startsagain. He cant live like this! For this pain relief he also mustgoto hospital to get IV morphine every week!

SWIM's other choice is thathe goes to hospital and is given IV benzodiazepines normally a large amount and a mixture of diazpeam and lorazepam which literally sedates him so much he's knocked out for 12 hours. SWIM has never had a benzo addiction but sees this as a potentially dangerous way in as well as not wanting to have to use either of these drugs for pain. Also this makes SWIM very depressed and drowzy for 4 days.

Basically SWIM is wondering if anyone else has a further alternative as SWIM can't carry on living like he is. SWIM can't fight through withdrawal and then be ok because he has to redose to cope with the pain.

SWIM has tried Cannabis with little effect, Ketamine but it just made him sick, nitrous oxide which helped a bit but wasnt strong enough.

Thanks for the input guys.

Basically im wondering which is the worst of the two from a danger point of view of withdrawal and long term use?

ANd also if you can offer a suitable alternative...

[Forthesevenlakes]

swim would first say that in choosing, he would go with the painkillers. withdrawal isnt PLEASANT from them, but its not potentially lethal like it could be from benzos. swim's next suggestion is to do some research on potentiation and neurological pain. swim is aware that dxm can potentiate opiates' analgesic properties in subrecreational dosages, meaning that less would be more when it comes to using painkillers. since the pain seems to be neurological in nature, swim reccomends talking to a doctor about that, since alternative therapies like acupuncture, electrostimulation of muscles and nerves, etc. can be a great asset in helping to reduce swif's prescription intake.

[Forthesevenlakes]

SWIM will also look up what he knows on these topics, and let SWIF know if he finds any other helpful information. however from this post it sounds like the problem is arising in the spinal nerves, and that this means there are alternatives to these two paths.

[IHrtHalucingens]

How did SWIF administer the ketamine? You say nitrous oxide helped a bit but wasnt strong enough, this would lead me to belive that a stronger dissociative may be the answer and ketamine is a good one. Does ketamine always make SWIF sick or just with one type of administration? There have been post here about ketamine being used as an effective pain killer. And if ketamine is not an option what about PCP? in SWIMs area PCP is widely available in the form of dippers, a cigarette laced with PCP, has SWIF considered this?

It seems SWIF is in a terrible situation and i feel for him. If SWIM had to choose between the opiates and the benzos he would choose the opiates, because at least he can somewhat finction on these and hell if you have to be doped up on a daily basis opiates are nice. And from what i hear the withdrawals are better than that of benzos.

I wish you good luck and hope you find a suitable solution! =)

[Fantasian]

Ketamine insuffilasted had no analgesic effects just created nausea. SWIF has never used Ketamine IM or IV as he's afraid of getting too potent effects without a sitter. SWIF has never used PCP, he heard it was quite addictive and has little knowledge of it.

Thanks for the advice on the opiates it's the same conclusion SWIF came to

Cheers