Thanks Seda Bug.
We didn't think the patch was going to work either. After having it on for 24 hrs., and taking a T3 at 2:00, Gordon was getting breakthrough pain at 5:00. We put the 2nd patch on and I went to pick up the morphine presc. from the pharmacy.

However, by the time I got back, the pain had eased off and he hasn't had to use the morphine so far (9:27). Maybe we just needed to wait it out for a few hours more. Now I'm not sure if we needed to put on the extra patch, but he couldn't go through that level of pain again. He's pretty woozy and has gone to bed.

It is hard to understand how pain meds. work when you're new to the whole thing. We tended to think that first you have pain, *then* you take the medication. But now we understand that regular doses of the appropriate pain meds. prevent things from escalating out of control. We've had the same problem that you did - worrying about addiction.

The clinic gave us a hand-out that tries to dispel the various myths about taking narcotic pain-relieving drugs, including:
- if you're given morphine, it means you're dying.
- if you take narcotics to soon, there won't be anything else when the pain gets worse.
- side effects from pain meds. are worse than the pain (um, I don't think so!)
- asking for pain meds. makes the medical professionals think you are weak.
- pain meds. cause addiction.
- cancer will always cause a lot of pain.
etc.
Nobody should have to go through weeks of non-stop pain. After observing the effects at close hand now, I can see how this kind of pain devastates the spirit and makes it really difficult to cope with anything.
Anne