Morphine question.

[StrwbryblndRN]

Anyone every heard of IV morphine causing pain to worsen?

The reason I ask is I had a Lap choli a few weeks ago and stayed overnight. (I work on the same floor I stayed the night)

They gave me morphine 2mg as my first dose after surgery. I felt pain but figured it was just because I moved or something. Well when I said the pain did not change they upped it to 4mg. I thought I was going to go through the roof. I went from a 5-6 pain to a 9-10. I had a sore throat and that worsened also. All I could do for the next 45 min is breathe like I was in labor and rock back and forth.

None of the nurses really heard of it but my sister said she had the same thing happen to her with a previous surgery when given morphine.

Just curious if anyone has heard of this or experienced it.

[TXstudentRN]

Morphine can cause spasms of the sphincter of Odi, causing pain. There is a morphine-tolerance test to check for gall stones..I think it's been pretty much replaced by HIDA scans. But yeah, morphine most certainly can increase pain in some instances. Second favorite drug for pain control (right behind Dilaudid).

Glad people mentioned the Sphincter of Oddi - it was actually because of the increased pain to morphine and fentanyl (they both cause it to spasm) that we figured out I had SOD dysfunction/pancreatitis... who who have ever known! Actually a GI I had used to work in the Navy and said they would have sailors come back with pancreatitis that would be literally crying in pain after being given morphine because of this weird connection! I just think it's interesting how they find out these strange relationships!

[everthesame, LPN, LVN]

I have experienced the Sphincter of Oddi spasms from both morphine and codeine after my lap chole. Even 5 years later, I can't take codeine because it still causes the spasms. It is a horrible pain and, in my opinion, is nearly as bad as kidney stones. For me, Demerol didn't help much with pain but rather made me too loopy to tell anyone I was still hurting. I have found Toradol to be the best pain med for me.