Patton Oswalt shares the cause of wife Michelle McNamara's death

No. That wouldn’t make sense. It has the opposite effect and it’s a lot more expensive.

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I’ve only had it as part of anæsthesia, and given its microscopic effective dose I can’t imagine it being prescribed to outpatients, at least without one of those IV dosage control robots.

I have been very hesitant to take anything, even though not doing so has imho negatively impacted my life. I had almost become convinced to take it when a friend’s husband, already into his 40s, decided to start taking an amphetamine. He was doing well, even landed a management job, but shortly after taking the job suffered a stroke. I noped right out after that.

I kinda figure, too, that with high blood pressure, they might not want to prescribe uppers.

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why is BB even posting this? This is like People magazine type stuff.<

I don’t work for BB, but have read it almost daily for eight years. I think it’s because Patton is “one of us.” Just about all of his comedy intersects with the “happy mutants” ethos.

His wife’s sudden death was one of the few “famous people” deaths that really bothered me from last year…and it wasn’t even him; it was his wife. (Who, it turns out, was an avid “true crime” writer/researcher.)

The part of this that bothered me the most was not the Fentanyl, although I wonder why she was using it, but the undiagnosed heart problem. That’s been in my family: perfectly healthy dad goes in for a checkup - Oops! - you need a heart valve replacement or you can suddenly drop dead. Yikes!

But I think this is here 'cuz Patton is geeky, brilliant, punky, and hilarious.

Merely an observation.

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exact same thing happened to my father.

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The question is whether serious ADD really is as common as it’s diagnosed. “Community” writer Dan Harmon, I believe, is also on Adderall (and a friend of Oswalt), and from what he says in his podcast, this is pretty normal in Hollywood. Is that because Hollywood attracts ADD types, or is it just because people there tend to be more open about the meds they down?

I’m not much younger than Harmon or Oswalt, but didn’t grow up in the US; nobody I know was ever prescribed Adderall.

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Fentanyl isn’t just a “chronic pain” analgesic, it’s a “day after abdominal surgery” analgesic. That stuff makes heroin look like aspirin.

Stimulant, anxiolytic, top-shelf opioid. That’s either a party, or someone in serious trouble.

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Yes I know. I take low dose bp med. the doctor said work to lose weight and exercise … till then unless you want to have a stroke, take this. So I do.

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Transdermal patches are how it’s prescribed to outpatiets. Even those are fucking lairy. I got hold of some once, put one on and was out of my head quite seriously (I was an avid opioid abuser at this point, and it still knocked me for six). I had to take it off, as it shut down peristaltic functions so effectively, I couldn’t even go for a piss. Never again.

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Right? I don’t think you’d need a special undiagnosed condition for that cocktail to kill you. Just mess up your dose or timing once, or have a beer on top of it, or really pretty much anything. Any one of those could be pretty dangerous all on its own.

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Thankfully, I haven’t personally been in that boat, but it’s a fucking travesty that the shit-eating dogs in the DEA are preventing doctors from prescribing painkillers to people who need them.

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That’s not what the comment you’re replying to said. Anxiety is common in people with ADD, not a side effect of stimulant medication.

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I don’t see how that’s a relevant question. Low-dose stimulant medications are hardly a problem worth worrying about.

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I take Dihydrocodeine for pain (supposedly ten times less powerful than a medical dose of heroin,), and I refuse to take more than four tablets at one time (most of the time I only take one, and my default reaction is to not take it and sit in pain until I am reminded I have it).

Fentanyl is ten to twenty times more powerful than Heroin, and 100-200 times more powerful than what I take.

What the fuck are US doctors doing?

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After back surgery I was on morphine IV drip for a couple of days then switched to hydrocodone (Vicodin) pills for some of the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. Years later I still remember how out of it I was with the full dosage (and also how pleasant the feeling was too). I take a single naproxen daily for arthritis pain now and even then I worry about the long term effects.

Can’t imagine the need for something as strong as fentanyl.

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I am sad for Patton Oswalt and family.
In a general context (and I do not know if this applies to Patton’s wife) it is tragic that we all self-medicate in one way or another and consider that normal.

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How does Fetanyl compare to Novalgin/Metamizole?

I had a rather unpleasant surgery three weeks ago and got up to three 1g Novalgin/Metamizole doses the first two days while lying in the hospital, later they reduced it to 500mg. When I left the hospital I got a big bottle of liquid Novalgin.

Metamizole is banned in a lot of countries because of the potential for adverse effects but apparently it’s rather difficult to overdose or get addicted. I rather liked the stuff because apart from pain suppression it doesn’t reduce motor skills or consciousness.

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I was on a morphine drip for back surgery with a button to get a bump if needed.

Mmmm morphine. I can see why people get addicted to it, its nice.

But as someone who lives in chronic pain and who honestly feels like illicit drugs would be EASIER and CHEAPER some days than my legal drugs - everyone needs to stop abusing shit please. You are fucking it up for the rest off us.

Addiction is a weird thing as the chemical aspect is only PART of it. There are people who use addictive substances but don’t get severely hooked, or at all, because of various factors not well understood. Part of it I have read relates to how happy one is normally. If you have a decent life, casual use is easier. And then you have genetic predisposition and etc.

Anyway, as for the article - Patton Oswalt is one of my favorite comedians. He seems to have one of those genuine relationships with his wife which would have happened if he were famous, or working at a regular job.

Fentanyl is a hell of a drug. It seems elites are able to coax these restricted drugs way easier than you or I out of doctors. I guess “consultation visits” that cost as much as a car can convince a lot of people to make just one little script. That is speculation, but it costs me $80/mo for my script to be written. But considering the semi-regular occurrence of the rich dying from prescription drugs, I imagine it is a fairly not uncommon thing.

This is all very frustrating, as I truly don’t care what people ingest, but at the same time I don’t want people to die unnecessarily. I don’t know if this lady had chronic pain (which is possible), or was using it just as an escape, but it didn’t need to happen. Although, perhaps she was using at “safe” levels, but the heart issue made it unsafe.

Anyway, I am rambling. I think our current system sucks. The illicit drugs vs legal and restricted drugs just make it more dangerous for everyone. I think we need a different approach. I am not sure what that looks like, but this ain’t it.

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I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the comments calling the woman’s prescriptions into question, but I am. Heart disease is often overlooked in women, which I think is the real issue here. If her heart condition had been diagnosed, it is likely her medications would have been monitored closely and dosages timed to avoid dangerous interactions. I think if any lesson is to be taken from this senseless loss it’s that medications should always be taken as directed and only after a thorough physical has been conducted (but that would require changing how medicine is practiced in the US).

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What did Mr Oswalt choose to share this information with the public? Why did Boing Boing ‘report’ on it? I feel the conversation on this topic has been encouraged.

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