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I have an uplifting story about buprenorphine in case y’all in the #addiction #MedTwitter world are feeling down. A friend of mine recently started using heroin again after some years of recovery.
He texted me from his bed, sick and in withdrawal. Totally demoralized and hopeless. In agony. So he asked me what he should do.
He lives in Minneapolis, and I happen to know that Mpls is a city that, however imperfectly, takes addiction seriously. I said goto the ER right now and ask for a “bridge-supply” of buprenorphine.
He had previously been in 12-step/abstinence centered treatments and recovery where medications like buprenorphine are not always welcomed.
So he goes to the ER, and they bring him to a room. A young doctor walks in and asks what the deal is. He told her he’s miserable, that he can’t keep doing this, and that he wants to get on buprenorphine.
She checks him out, and he’s clearly in withdrawal, resting heart rate 105. The ER doc told him that she took a training to learn how to use bupe in the ER, and though she doesn’t have an x-waiver, that she could do it. So she says, Let’s do it! And she’s leaving the room...
And she walks over to a gaggle of nurses and staff and before the door behind her closes my friend hears the young ER doc say: “I’m SO excited!” And he thinks to himself, this doc cares about me. She wants to help me. I’m worth being helped.
All this happened last week. And he’s stable on 12mg. He’s working out again, eating, sleeping, going to work and attending virtual IOP a few days a week. I asked how he felt. He said, “Normal.” ...for those of us with addiction issues, normal is BIG. Normal is great.
Just want to share this. There’s a lot of darkness, a lot of misery, but things are changing. The system is adapting. A new generation is stepping up and they’re ready to treat people with the compassion they deserve. That’s the end.
