Alternatives to Morphine

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brunoandbear

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
78
Location
Atlanta, GA
Well, I think I had a reaction to the Fentanyl (Spelling? A derivative to Morphine) that the hospital gave me for my TEE. The reaction did not occur immediately, but about 5 - 6 hours afterwards. I began to feel very weak, like I was anemic and then quickly developed shaking and chills. The shaking was uncontrollable and at times it was very violent. I then developed a spiking fever per the thread in the Heart Talk forum. The doctors thought it was a virus since my wife was sick a week ago; I don't since I do not feel sick at all, despite being on only tylenol, Z-pack antibiotics and Tylenol (1 pill every 5 hours).

So, I have checked with a pharmacist and a friend of mine and they both said it sounds like my body had a withdrawal from the morphine. I have never had morphine in my life, this was the first time I have ever had it. I suppose the only way to find out for sure would be to take it again, but I do not want to do that. Since I have to have surgery, I have read here that morphine is commonly given for heart surgery. What are my alternative options to ask the doctors about?

I don't drink, I don't smoke and I don't do any drugs - nor do I ever take painkillers for anything. The only medication I have been on for the last number of years is Nexium - so really, my body is not used to at all painkillers or narcotics of any type.
 
Are you sure it was the fentanyl? It sounds like when Justin had reactions to the dye used in the cath. He hasn't had a problem with the newer (10 years??) dye, but he also gets loaded up with steroids and bendryl for them. IMO I would look into that.
Do you have any problems with shellfish?
 
I'm one of those people who can't take codeine, or extra strength anything.
Regular Tylenol is my limit, and I had told this to the anesthesiologist, but they have to give us something.
My reaction to Morphine was vomiting and severe nausea....it's nasty stuff.
 
Well, they gave me versed and fentanyl - and I've had versed before and did just fine with that. The only other thing they injected me with was saline and I've had that before.

I don't feel sick today at all - you'd think if I were sick, I would have other symptoms but I don't. I have been so hopped up on Tylenol that I don't know if I even still have one, but I am afraid to stop for another day.
 
No problem - they don't want to give me a cath - I am going to get a CT Angio scan instead. I think this is because of my age.
 
Hi Bruno

I had a very similar experience after my TEE, but I'm still not sure what caused my fever. I've also got no idea what type of anaesthetic I was given for the TEE, but it was the horrible tasting spray down the throat that seems well documented on this forum! Conscious throughout the procedure, I can say that I wasn't administered any other sedative.

Sent home with the usual sore throat, soon after dinner I suddenly felt incredibly tired; about fifteen minutes later I started shaking while having a shower. By the time I went bed I had developed a full-on fever. All up it was a terrible night, the fever compounding the anxiety I felt in regard to the heart surgery scheduled the following day.

Eventually I got to sleep and when I awoke at about 5AM I was amazed to feel fine. However, a precautionary blood test taken at the hospital showed a very high blood cell count (indicative of a possible virus), and my mitral valve operation was postponed for two months. Thankfully, the virus the doctors thought I was about to get saddled with didn't eventuate.

After the operation took place (earlier this year) I was given Endine, an opiate painkiller that they seemed to dole out to everyone who didn't have morphine intolerance; apart from the inevitable constipation, I didn't have any problems with it.

I'm very curious about the similarities in our experiences but unfortunately I don't know whether I was administered Fentanyl prior to the TEE. Are you referring to the anaesthetic used to stop gagging reflexes, or an additional sedative?

Andy
 
methadone

methadone

.
one day after surgery i told the surgeon i was feeling great. he replied "you will not feel so great when i stop your methadone tommorrow"! he sure was correct about that.

so obviously i was being given methadone instead of morphine, just like druggies. that does not sound so nice !
 
Andy, I was given both the spray (that was pretty nasty wasn't it? it even caused my sinuses to feel weird), and a gel like substance I had to drink and swallow. After that, they administered via IV versed and fentanyl (fentanyl is a derivative of morphine). I did ask for a very small amount as they were rather insistant on giving it to me, so they did. It made the room spin slightly for a few minutes and that is about it when they injected me with it.
 
Bruno and Andy- It doesn't sound too much like a reaction to opiates,and definitely not any type of withrdawal. It sounds more like an allergic reaction,but if its a reaction to the fentanyl or something else is hard to know. Have you ever had any reaction like this to an opiate? and since the med given IV,any impurity going into your system could cause a reaction.
Though this is very unlikely.
I have seen such a response when someone was given the wrong blood type
(a few drops),but this reaction occurred immediately--a mistake made in the
hospital that was caught in time, thankfully.

It would be good to know who is the culprit.
 
Hi Bruno
Thanks for telling me more about your TEE. The only problem I had with it was that the spray was administered while I was lying down, and some of it seemed to find its way into the nasal cavities (which made me cough uncontrollably for about a minute; it stung as well and I ended up with tears streaming down my cheeks - all pretty embarrassing!). You mention that the spray seemed to effect your sinuses, so maybe we had some sort of common reaction? As Dina suggests, I suppose we can only really speculate about this and the fever and shaking, but at least I can rule out the morphine derivatives you were administered by IV as a possible cause in my case.
Thanks again
Andy
 
lilteach3234 said:
I have trouble with percodan and percocet. Oh it makes me sick to my stomach. I sure hope this isn't one they use.
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Tell them in advance it makes you sick so they can try a different drug. These are all things you should mention in the pre-op appointments.
 
I had the same experience with whatever they gave me for my c-section (almost 16 years ago). I was still in the hospital obviously when it occurred and they just said that it was the anesthetic wearing off. They treated it like it was no big deal. I don't know what they gave me for my spinal block. I have had versed and other drugs for other surgeries since and never had it happen again.
 
lilteach-
You might not have time to do this, but ask them to give you one of each possilbe pain killer to try at home (1 each night-- not simultaneously)
I did this before gall bladder surgery a couple of months ago. I learned I CANNOT tolerate anything with codeine (sp?)--like loritab. There' is nothing worse that throwing up after abdominal/chest surgery.
 
Dyna said:
They had me on a morphine drip but it didn't seem to do much. Switched over to percocets & for me that's been much better.

Funny how everyones body reacts differently to the various drugs.
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Only thing Morphine does for me is make me dopey and in pain, then nauseated.
 
They asked me if I wanted to use Toradol for pain managment, the surgeon said it was good for pain control. He called it a kind of super ibuprophen. It worked just fine for me. This stuff must be injected very slowly or it burns like fire going in though. I had a nurse that musta missed that class, she shot that stuff up that IV tube and believe me it stings.
I told the attending Dr. no more unless it goes in slow, very slow. By then they were ready to get me off of it anyway. I think they started giving me Tylenol 3 or 4. All I remember about the Tylenol is that it worked for me.
 
Ross said:
Only thing Morphine does for me is make me dopey and in pain, then nauseated.
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Isn't it strange,I find that morphine is not effective as a pain killer also.
Now if you want to sleep...:rolleyes:
I was given percocet and it worked for me better too.
 
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