Janet Street-Porter refused painkillers

OHMYGOSSIP — Janet Street-Porter combated the pain of her knee replacement operation with exercise.
The 71-year-old presenter was prescribed a variety of different painkillers after undergoing the surgery last summer but she vowed to take “control” of the situation and find other ways to manage because she didn’t want to take highly-addictive legal drugs.
She said: “When I had my knee replacement operation, I was in agony. I couldn’t sleep at all and I was at my wits end.
“I was referred to a pain specialist and initially I took hydrocodeine but I felt unhappy, it made me feel queasy and didn’t agree with me. Then I was on amitriptyline, which is a pill that, if you take it in enough dose, it is mood altering.
“Then I was put onto pregabalin , there is a huge rise in the number of prescriptions, I think it has gone up 10 times in 10 years. it’s an epileptic drug and the side effects are euphoria and it’s supposed to make you feel more able to cope with pain.
“I refused to take tramadol.
“This went on for about two months, it was me being unable to cope with pain but also I realised all these drugs was bad news.
“I just stopped the whole lot and had an absolute realisation I had to control my own pain. I worked out with a trainer and did specific exercises to reshape the muscles around my knee.
“I stopped taking sleeping pills and I managed to stop taking painkillers.”
Janet is worried powerful prescription drugs are being over-prescribed to older patients for far too long and called for people to “take charge” of their own pain and not be afraid to reject medication given by doctors.
Speaking on ‘Loose Women’, she said: “I’m saying to anyone watching, if you know anyone who has been taking a drug like [those] for more than a few weeks, consider what it’s doing to their mentality, the long term effects because I think the NHS is just buying time, they haven’t got time to go through each individual person and listen to their aches and pains.
“We as a population have to take charge of ourselves. I know pain is difficult but we have to find another way round it that is not these medications.
“I’ve got an elderly relative who has been taking tramadol for two or three years and I talk to her, she comes in and out of being in the moment, she’s in serious pain and not mobile, she’s typical of thousands of people in Britain and I worry about it.”

Source: Female First
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