Stopping Norco while on the Fentanyl Patch

[Healiing2]

Hello all!

I have been on pain medication a very long time now-for arthritis and joint issues. I take the Fentanyl Patch-but I am also given 2 Norco Tabs per day for break-through pain. Yes-I have pain issues-but..I DO NOT like how I have gotten used to the tablets. I would like to take them OUT of the equation and just stick to the patch (for now-my goal is to also not need that either).

My question is:

Will I go through a true withdrawal if I take myself off the Norco? Will it be more of an emotional withdrawal-seeing as I have a constant flow of the Fentanyl patches in my system?

I REALLY want to try to at least stop the tabs. If I could get your experience, input and wisdom-it would be VERY much appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

[momof2angels131]

Hello,
I am on the fentanyl 25mcg/hr patch and was taking 7.5/750 norco tabs 2 times a day. Well, I ran out and I really dont think it was a wd but it was like my mind was thinking i was in pain like i needed one. I went 3 days feeling like this and went back to my pain specialist and he put me on norco 7.5/325 2 times a day again. I have severe arthritis in my hips, severe spinal stenosis and a bullet wound in my right thigh with nerve damage from a deployment in the army. I know what pain you are going through. Get better!

[Simon52]

what is the method to remove the patch use when and if the time comes.
my experience in california is and was awful, as the state does not ever do a selective detox, they do an "all bad medicine detox", clap their hands while you feel like a folded tree cracking and drooling and they send you out the dam door with a bunch of anti-depressants, and a host of neurontins and good medicines that rendered me useless, to the point I was almost fired as I was clearly lost and remain tramatized now 3 years later.  ( I was treated like an insane idiot of what the california institutions did to me and this was for a headache detox drug) but they took me off all my bad stuff, for other maladies, as well.  at the time, no one knew I had 7 brain lesions, that I had no nerve in my bladder, that I had cervical dystonia, and severe spinal problems from head to toe, not till I just about got fired, then went on the fight of my life, trying to fight to stay employeed while sick - I found the truth out, had urodynamic testing, oops she has urinary trouble as her nerves are damages, or oops she does have migraines as she has 7 brain lesions, hmm could she even have ms, (still do not know) pain is unreal to this day) and ****, he bones and her spine are a mess, with bulges, stenosis, and whole host of things, the system I was in never once looked at, rather they medicated me for 10 years, then called me a drug addict, then some shrink said you are too skinny (only 40 bm a day, had colitis and even without it, I have it, my gut is and has been moving all day since april of 2005, flared on not) and I was on maintenance meds to the max.  well the detox centers took me off all meds, including clonazepam, a drug I was told never to stop, as I would have a seizure, and at the time no one knew my 100 pound body at 5'5" had a combined hdl/ldl of (300) and not till I left the unnamed hmo did I find out by an incredible team of doctors when I left the horrors of the hmo system and finally mri, and blood and scans and surgery and temp help for pain, and a try at tramadol, (made me ill) lost a toll of 30 pounds as it constipated me, - but in the end, my work clearing trying to dump me saying I was useless, still harms me to this day, I cry after 25 years to have left battling a company I loved, but finally closed by going on ltd and ss, as clearly can not even walk on my own now, but I know.  So I wonder, if the pain the came over me, 6 months after I left work, and I only know part of the reason, could be brain lesions could be the spine, but it feels like bone cancer or it feels like the pain of death.   but there is a chance one day some one will say, get off the ****.  What on earth and where do you go, and if in California how on earth can one get through such a withdrawal.    I am concerned (not now) but when my fab docs retire- I am really scared.   I work with a team of about 6-7 docs and all have right to talk to each other.  
what do we pain folks do if we are taken of fentenyl.  what is the detox like, and where do you go, and why is there not a place that is humane?  and worse, why stop people in pain, why not find alternatives that REALLY work, even if it is an addictive substance, if you can live better, then that is good.  
Any body know,
I am on 50-100 mcg / hr, and have an rx with alternatives given so I determine how many patches to use, one 25 or a 50, or a 25 and a 12.  I do that after a surgery with cortisone in spine knowing my legs are going to be better, but they do go back to a 50 need with succers.
help me know, I am scared to death of this fentenyl thing.
I am also afraid of the ridgid way california detoxed me off a headache med, and took away every other drug for true and proven maladies putting me at risk for death, but never knowing as my hmo had not done a dam single test, but a colonscope?

any one who is not in pain, can not judge a person in pain, it is not a fair thing, as not one person I know wants the life we lead.  we all want simply to be loved to be appreciated to be mobile, functional, or so I do.  if a drug brings me to normal, then I am happy but I have faced horrible words and adverse comments since being on fentenyl, and went through a 5 hour gum surgery with out anesthesia, as the doc anesthesia person said "no" she is on fentenyl, as if it would help me cutting open my mouth and taking tissue and transplanting it would not hurt, well it did, and all I could do was cry for the entire 5 hours, only to find the tissue reject.   (still rejecting 2 more surgery's later) but using laugh gas to get through it as I am thought of as a scum bag I suppose.    It is not who I am and I want to know how you ever do get off this properly.???

[Healiing2]

Hi! Thanks for your reply! You know-it does seem trivial in the scheme of things in taking the patch and having concern over the Norcos. I guess it is because I do know how STRONG the patch is and it is my ultimate fear that they really do a number on our bodies-that if I can at LEAST do one little thing to remove 'some ' of it-that is ..I guess..just something I can do. I don't like being on the meds and sometimes I think of things like "oh my gosh-what if I got stranded on an island (don';t laugh!) and I couldn't replace my patch"!!!! Seriously though=I could get deathly ill if I was to not have it. I know I will need SERIOUS help to get off of them-when that day comes. Even so-it is my hope that there are other ways that I will be able to deal with my pain and be able to not have to WORRY about these narcotics.

Hey-I really appreciate your post and taking the time to share with me. This is a great place.

Thanks again

[Healiing2]

Hi! Thanks for the post! I really appreciate your honesty. I do know about the patches and how horrible it is to get off of them. I really researched it before I decided to use them. I know I will have to get help to get off of them when the time comes. You must have REALLY suffered and I am so sorry-it must be the worst ever!!

I just wanted to say thanks and I hope things are getting better.

[worried878]

taht patch is so strong and flooding ur body with such a strong dose of narcotics that the loss of 2 norcos a day will probably not even be noticeable except psychologically as mentioned above...just curious..why are 2 norcos bothering u if u r on a fentanyl patch and worrying about narcotic use?  just seems a bit trivial in the scheme of things..bit if it is bothering u then it is something u should take care of to set ur mind at ease...now if u took that patch off for a few days u would suffer tremendously..the 2 norcos should not be a problem

[SHELLBELL79]

I was in a similar situation. I was on the 25mcg patch and vicodin ES for 2 years and started going to a pain management doctor. Well he didn't like vicodin so he tried me on opana er, oxycontin, I hated them, made me feel aggrivated. I just wanted to feel normal and not be in pain. He gave me 30 norco's for the month for breakthrough pain and put me on the fentanyl patch again. Well from being on the oxycontin 60mg my tolerance went way up. I had to start on 75mcg of fentanyl and 3 weeks later started having w/d symptoms, like head thrashing, restless legs and arms, pain. I was so mad b/c I just wanted to wean off them then but, I was in summer school for a month and 22 days. After the 3 weeks had to go up to 100mcg them 2 1/2 weeks later 125mcg. He took me off the norco and said I wouldn't need it. Well 2 weeks later and a week and a half before I took my final for my classes I had to go up to 150mcg. The day after I took my finals I went to a 3 day detox and went through hell! That was waste b/c I did it cold turkey. The fentanyl patch is the worst. I wish too that I would have just been on the vicodin or norcos. I wouldn't been going through this hell. I have been off all pain medication for 34 days now. Fentanyl really messed up my body. I am not trying to scare you, I am just telling you my experience and what I went through. I wish someone would have told me.
Good luck
Michelle

[extrmeski]

you might be better off stopping the patch and staying on the  norcos for a while then trying to get off the pills.  I wish that is what I would have done.  Getting off the patches honestly takes months (like 6-8 or even a year) before you start feeling normal again.

[Healiing2]

Thanks for your post! I totally hear you about withdrawal from the patch-that is he11 I have heard too! Very scary!

Peace,

[Healiing2]

Thanks very much for your post! You are very kind to have replied. :)

[extrmeski]

I've been on the patch and percocets, and with the patch, you will not experience w/d's at all, however from experience w/d from the patch is pure he11.  I've never expereinced anything even close to the agony!

[OnOxyfor10yrs]

You should not have wd since you have the patch on. If you do and I highly doubt it since the patch is so strong, the only thing you may feel is some anxiety. If you do have anxiety, I believe it will be psychological only. Good luck and you are doing the right thing. Good luck and keep us posted.