SCD & Pain Meds #3: Good Judgment

Some time ago, I read a post on the Sickle Cell Warriors facebook page that has haunted me a little. A young man, I believe he was in his twenties, said that his father, with whom he lived, had a rule; if anybody was using methadone for pain management, they were not allowed to drive. When I read that, it saddened me that this man’s father didn’t trust his son’s judgment.

For home pain management, I believe I was first prescribed Tylenol with codeine around the age of fourteen. By the time I was that age, I had proven to my parents that I only used that medication when needed and I never used more than prescribed. When I began driving at the age of seventeen, I always timed out where I would be when the pain medication I was about to take, would kicked it. Back then, my pain medications made me very drowsy, and I always took the necessary actions to ensure I would not be driving when that happened.

Over the years, the prescribed pain medications I take have changed; but that same judgment has not. I’m grateful that my parents trained me to have and use this good judgment. Long before I began driving, it was drilled into me that driving while under the influence of pain medication is just as dangerous and illegal as driving drunk or high from “recreational” drugs.

For the past ten plus years, I’ve been using methadone and moraphine for my home pain management. Because I’ve used these medications as long as I have, very seldom do they make me drowsy or impair me so as to make driving unsafe. Though they seldom make me drowsy, there certainly are times when they do; and when they do, I don’t drive. Sometimes this means not going somewhere; sometimes it means waiting to take my medication; sometimes it means asking someone else to drive.

I express these things to you not to toot my own horn about my Yoda-like wisdom. My purpose is to illustrate to parents and patients...just because you are taking prescription pain killers, doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t be trusted to drive.

Good judgment is key to so much in life. When to drive and not drive when taking prescription pain killers demands good judgment. Help your child learn this life skill. As a parent, you have to start early in training your child on how to use these medications responsibly. As a patient, we have to acknowledge the dangers in using these medications, and always act accordingly. Prove yourself worthy of the trust your parents and doctors are putting in you. As you do, no one will ever have just cause to question your integrity.