Medication and loss of cognitive abilities

How long have you been on the Kapanol? Your body will need a couple of weeks to get used to it before you can say if the side effects are intolerable. Do you feel as if the dose is too high? First think of your pain. Has it improved on the medication? They usually have you rate it on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being no pain and 10 being intolerable pain. How does your pain rate now compared to when you started it? Do you feel doped up and sleepy? Are your thoughts clouded all of the time? What about your speach and coordination? You might want to consider these things and discuss them with your doctor. Maybe the dose can be decreased a little bit. There's also a chance that you aren't tolerating morphine.Many people cannot take morphine, but they do well with another long-acting opiate. The key is to find something that relieves your pain so that you can live a normal life, but that doesn't have intolerable side effects. You don't want to be pain-free and end up in a stupor all day long! Give it enough time to get used to- maybe a week or two. If you're still bothered by this, talk with your doctor and ask that he consider another alternative. I have had many patients with chronic pain, and it's amazing how these medications affect each person in different ways. Sometimes it is a trial and error period before we find a medication that relieves pain and causes a minimum of side effects.