KN, p. 326 “Death by Opioids”

Nov 21, 2024

If there are no paragraph separations in this article, please doubleclick on the title to create a more readable version. From the American Society of Anesthesiologists: “Opioids, sometimes called narcotics, are medications prescribed by doctors to treat persistent or severe pain. They are used by patients recovering from surgery, experiencing severe pain associated with cancer, hurt playing sports, or seriously injured in falls or auto accidents.” (https://madeforthismoment.asahq.org/pain-management/opioid-treatment/what-are-opioids/) Potential side effects Mild side effects of opioids include sleepiness, constipation, and nausea. More serious side effects associated with an overdose (even accidental) can be life-threatening and include shallow breathing, slowed heart rate, and/or loss of consciousness. And then there is the possibility of addiction, for some people and with some drugs, in as quickly as five days. “Opioids can make your brain and body believe the drug is necessary for survival. As you tolerate the dose you’ve been prescribed, you may find that you need even more medication to relieve the pain.” More than 2 million Americans misuse opioids, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and every day more than 90 Americans die by opioid overdose. The most common opioids are sold under several names:

• Codeine
• Fentanyl
• Hydrocodone
• Oxycodone
• Oxymorphone
• Morphine

If you think your pain meds are not on this list, here are some brand names also used, depending on your physician preference or insurance carrier:

• OxyContin
• Percocet
• Palladone
• Vicodin

Not to forget heroin…”it is an illegal and highly addictive form of opioid with no sanctioned medical use.” If we are not among the legal or illegal drug users, why should we care? While the numbers have dropped from a year ago, the stats posted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, indicate just over 100,000 people died of a drug overdose during the 12-month period ending in April 2024. With numbers like that, it’s likely somebody you know has a family member affected by the deadly side of opioids. https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates Real Life Experiences When we’re young and invincible, we generally don’t think about the toll that life exerts on our bodies. It never occurs to most of us that popping a tendon would ever happen to anyone not involved in professional tennis or football or rugby. Or that tripping and falling on macadam would result in a smashed kneecap. Or that a nasty car accident would change our lives forever. Thank goodness we don’t live life based on what accident might ensue in the next five minutes. The point being…nobody wakes up planning to become addicted to pain-numbing drugs, but those normal activities might be the path to get you to the dark side of what is designed to help us get through recovery. Friends of ours have suffered through multiple sports and accident related injuries and surgeries, and lived to tell the tale. But, two became heavily dependent on opioids while the complications post-op were dealt with. One became addicted and needed to go to a drug rehab center for a time. Counseling wasn’t enough. A supportive family wasn’t enough. Long after the injury healed, he had to deal with getting away from the dangerous drugs he had taken in good faith. Why does this happen? A physical therapist mentioned that opioids can affect people quite differently. Just as no two patients recover from the same surgery in the same way, some patients never have withdrawal symptoms from them. Many  are extremely sensitive to being on any Class A narcotic for even the five days. Once addicted, the likelihood of a successful outcome becomes an almost impossible task. Reputable doctors and pharmacists carefully monitor which drugs they prescribe and deliver, but for the desperate, other avenues are available. Take a look at celebrities with unlimited resources and lowlifes willing to supply them. In other cases, unintentional deadly combinations can and do put people into an early grave. The brother of a close friend wound up in an institution at age 26 because of party drugs. He’s been there for 15 years and will be there for the rest of his life, the brain damage permanent. Death by Opioids? Yup. 90 times a day, in the USA alone.