Ms Contin, 15 mg. works great; but.....

[Gimpy]

Last week my pain dr. started me on ms contin, 15 mg. x 3. It really works wonderfully for me. I had relief all day long and even could sleep finally. I suppose I could sleep from the pain relief. Maybe I never realized how bad it was at night and it was the cause of all the tossing and turning, who knows.

But, and this is a big butt (:o , can't help myself some times) I have extreme difficulty urinating when I take to much morphine. My instant release morphine doesn't do that. But if I take more than 1 dose of the long acting stuff, I feel like my bladder will explode. It wears off in about 8 hours and all is good again. I remember one time after a surgery complaining that I felt like I had to urinate but couldn't. The nurse told me that it was the morphine, that is part of the reason they want you to use the restroom before they discharge you.

Does this happen to anyone else? It is in the list of side effects and I can see it could potentionally be a serious problem.

Any suggestions or ideas?

Gimpy

[photonut]

I just wanted to give you a guick Hi. Someone will come around with a response soon........Allie

[Kira]

I get urinary retention from the high doses of IV morphine I get when in the hospital. It has been bad enough that I have needed a Foley catheter while hospitalized a few times. It goes away when we taper back to my normal pain meds. I did not get urinary retention when I was on MS Contin, though... but it was much lower doses than what I get IV while in the hospital with rhabdomyolysis attacks. I don't get it from my current pain meds (fentanyl patches and vicoprofen; used to be fentanyl patches and oxycodone IR). I am not sure what you can do about it, but I would tell your doctor.

[shotspine]

I also have problems with retention. The very worst was when I was put on nortriptyline.....that almost put me on a catheter. I was terrified as it took awhile to figure out what was happening. Got off that med as soon as I realized what it was doing to me (lots more s/e than retention). My problem is much less, but still there.

I've mentioned it to my Doc at almost every visit for the last many many months, and he never addresses it. I'll be looking here to see if anyone has a remedy, short of changing meds.

[Mark N]

MS Contin works great for me too. I don't have the retention problem but I also drink 128 oz of water each day. I don't know if the constant water keeps me going and it is a case of use it or lose it but you may try this to see if it works for you.