A warning about using post-operative opioids

Dear Editor, On April 16, 2018, I received knee replacement at a Poughkeepsie hospital. I was sent directly home the following day, rather than to begin to recover for several days in the health facility here at Woodland Pond. But, as I had a short list of medications, and instructions to ice my knee, home seemed fine.

I was given three medications, including hydromorphone, an opioid. The directions on the bottle read: “Take one or two every four hours as needed for pain.” Being groggy from medicine received in the hospital, I opted for the full dose and spent much of the first week snoozing and icing. The second week, feeling better, I guesstimated that five pills through the day would be enough. This continued into the third week when, feeling so little pain, I decided to discontinue the medicine. Directions had been given to me describing side effects of hydromorphone and how to get off it, “gradually” being the operative word. But I assumed that, as I had already lowered the dose, I would be fine.

Not so. In four days I fell into a black depression, making it imperative to see a psychiatrist who works with drug addicts to council me as to how to get off the drug correctly. It is important to note that her recommended regime will last three weeks, by which time I will be safely off the drug.

When I called the office of the orthopedist who performed the operation to report my depression, the nurse repeated what the written instructions had advised, but was unable to tell me any detailed program as to how to withdraw from this opioid.

I now have experienced what the nation is experiencing concerning opioids and have great concern for others who, like me, are not experts as to how to substitute for or avoid this terrifying pitfall. I hold my physician directly responsible for not spelling out withdrawal procedure, especially, as I have also learned, older people are more sensitive to drugs. Katherine Greene Woodland Pond New Paltz, N.Y.