I have Wonder this Question a long time. Please Read

[angeldotcom]

I been on 80mg oxycontin 2 a day for 7 years now i can not even tell it helps my pain but maybe a small bit.I was wondering if a person can get off them and like start over on low pain meds them build back up and help .I try to explain more i have took them so long i have got use to them is there such thing as starting low i don't want to raise my dose . I have been on pain meds since carwreck age 21 i started on Darvon then Lorcet, then Percert , to ocys 20mgs to cxys 40 mg. What if i could be off of them a while but i am sure i would get very sick plus couldn't handle pain . I think even if a person has bad pain like i do i mean severe pain after a while u would get hooked even thou u need them . I don't know what to do can someone please give me advice. I hate the side affects of them to i stay tired and sleepy take 2 naps a day. I wish i had no pain i would get off them.

[angeldotcom]

My pain was this bad before i started taking the oxycontin but i was taking Percert like 4 a day . I have terrible nerve pain also that just to breathe hurts me i can even just reach for something and it hurts the more i move around just to do basic things u can feel it get worser and worser till i have to stop whatever i am doing and lay complety flat on the bed and get still till it gets better it don't stop just is not as bad . I do have like 4 days out of the month that i want hurt and never have understood that its not like i did anything diffrent its just like its gone i do the same and take the same amount of meds but no pain if i do its so little .Can anyone explain that one? I thought well maybe i moved the bad nerve someway i wish i knew. I am always trying diffrent things to make the pain better . I have artititis in hips and spine also .I know with me being in a wheelchair is not good for my pain cause i can not walk that against my bones but i tryed exercise it that just kills the nerve pain even if its helps other pain so that makes me not do it . I wonder who has tryed LYRICA i started it once quit because i wanted sleep to much and made me feel strange out of it well i started it agin like 8 days ago i started out small spliting the 50 mg till i get little use to get fixing to try the whole 50mg i post to take 3 a day . If anyone tryed it please let me know or if u tryed any nerve pain meds . I ready for some relief .

[betatester]

It is worth a shot to see if it is opiate induced pain.  A couple years ago my wife and I decided (again her psychiatry side kicking in at home) to see if it was opiate induced.  At that time I took a total of 140mg of oxycodone per day.  I took 1 40mg oxycontin every 12 hours and could take a 15mg oxy IR every 6 hours.  She took a week off with me as I was already on LTD from work for the worst of it.  I did have some xanax I used from anxiety problems I had earlier in dealing with the pain from my injury so I used some of that to ease it.  I got so bad the first couple of weeks that she would hold me when I was vomiting from being nauseated not from w/ds as this was day 10 but from the pain and would watch me when I passed out.  I have some pictures of myself from the 90 day hiatus I took from my pain meds and I looked like death.  I couldn't eat, she practically carried me to the bathroom all the time or I had to slowly crawl and some days I didn't make it.  For me the meds make a huge difference but I haven't misused them so that might make a difference in some people I don't know.  Would I try it again?  Probably not if someone paid me to.  Was it worth it to see if it was narcotic induced pain?  Absolutely.  I don't know why my wife made me do it for 3 months but it was sheer hell.  In the end I wasn't passing out as often but it still happened frequently enough that I knew I was in more pain than my body can handle.  Before I hurt my back I sheered the socket off of my right shoulded and it had to be pinned, loop screwed, and nylon rope used to pull remaining material up to form a new socket.  When the doc asked me how much pain I was in then I said 10.  I wasn't lying as I had never hurt so bad but after going without my meds for my back and legs my shoulder was more like a 2 or 3.

It's a tough decision to make and hard to stick to.  I couldn't have stuck with it myself.  The one thing I did do was not tell the doc I was doing it as I didn't want to take the chance of not getting them back for some reason or another.  This may not be an option for some but at the time I was being treated by a doctor who knows me and has cared for me since I was 4 so I could call in scripts and the wife could pick them up and fill them.  If I had to go in for an appointment I don't know how I would have got in there nor do I know what he would have thought with my bp and physical appearance as I was going 7 to 10 days at a time without sleeping from the pain.  That time made me hate the fact that my wife went to school to be a psychiatrist.

[angeldotcom]

My pain is there when i first wake up and when i get up to go to bathroom and get dressed the pain gets worser with me just moving before i have took any meds . Yes i feel dead when i wake up so i go for the coffee first .When i get finished putting makeup on the pain so bad i hurry as fast as i can so i can lay to get relief then sometimes it hurts when i am laying but better laying than sitting the spams are so bad i have to sit up a minute to help them get better . My mother helps me she been in hospital i have really suffered because i have had to do everything myself . I sure i am hook on the meds but i hurt real bad the pain is worser than being in wheelchair . I started neve pain meds Lyclia for a week i am on 50 mg 3 times a day i am at one a day but have to only take half because it wipes me out so bad i would be sleeping all the time i am trying to get use to it little at a time. If i lay to long i would hurt super bad so i have to get up both ways i pay for it . I have several things that cause my pain as i said before one is nerve pain my spinal canal is so small that said it squeezes the neves inside . I want to get better i hate the meds and hate the pain some of the pain is worser because i can not get up and walk .I tryed swimming a few years ago i was doing it everyday but at night i screamed in pain had to quit . My marrage has suffered because of the pain and pain meds . I want to get off meds so afraid pain i can not handle maybe i need to switch pain meds since i been on them the oxys for many years .What do yall think i need to try i know i can not keep this up . I can handle pain some because i will be hurting so bad and i cover it up from my family till i am ask to do something then i have to tell them i grit my teeth trying to bear it. Yes i do take my meds sometimes because i feel like crap but same time hurting awful which if i didn't feel bad i would be taking it for the pain anyway i know that.  Thank yall and God Bless each of u !!!!

[shelliAS]

Hi, It sounds like you are really miserable :(     It is hard to say what your pain baseline would be without the narcos, but Gnarly and the others made a good point:  You do reach a point where your body becomes hardwired to generate pain with narcos.  They are a complicated med, and I don't pretend to be an expert.  But my experience was similar to others who reported that once they were cleansed of narcotic pain relievers, their original pain was much less.  I can't tell you whether you should or shouldn't try to detox off of them; I personally think that pain killers have a place in medicine, because there truly are folks who suffer terribly from chronic pain.  But I think most of us on this site started pain killers due to real pain issues, and somewhere along the line, these darned things got the better of us.  I can offer up what got me to question if was taking too much: 1) I had 4 pills/day to take, and I took all 4 whether I needed them or not; 2) I would take them without asking myself if I truly was in pain at that moment; 3) If I was about to face a stressful situation, I would take one; 4) I would panic if I was out of the house and forgot to put my pills in my purse; 5) I questioned if I was addicted; 6) I noticed that my cognitive functioning was getting compromised, which was very embarrassing at work; 7) I made sure that no one saw me taking a pill, lest they "get the wrong idea;" and 8) I woke up every day feeling absolutely horrible, until I got my morning "fix;"  then I could function.  I had to get brutally honest with myself, pain and all.  The pain you feel is real, but it is possible that some of it is rebound pain that can set in within a few hours after a narco dose.  Rebound pain is worse than regular pain.  I suggest that just as a possibility. It seems that you have some really severe issues; I am sorry you are having to put up with so much misery.  I wish your docs could help you more.

Shelli        

[angeldotcom]

Thank yall so much for trying to help me .I need to say i am in so much pain i can't sit in my wheelchair sometimes only 10 min sometimes a hour but not long at all .I have to lay on my side with a pillow between my legs to get relief i hurt laying but both as bad as sitting i had a bad disk in lower back when i sit all the pressure is goes to the lower back almost drives me insane . I have been in wheelchair for like 27 years and have gotten Arthitis and Degerantive Disk ,Nerve damage super bad , Spinal Stinnios ,bad spams that draws my left legs up likes its going in my back . Me beening in a wheelchair has gotten my joints real bad because i can't move much just to hold a cup of coffee hurts lower back to reach for something will start my pain to a bad place if its not already . I wouldn't move much due to it hurt me so bad.I almost jump out of a van due to i was in pain so bad .I went to church and would have to lay on pew so i quit going .I don't get out much because it hurts me so bad and i love going places. So i don't know if our pains are the same . There some words i didn't spell right but u know what it means i think. I have done actpunture ,nerve blocks tens unit etc.... I don't like the pills i hate the side effects i have a hubby and a daughter she is 20 who need me i know . I do wash dishes and clean house and i grit my teeth in pain and it makes it worser . Do yall really think i would be in so much pain without meds . I hurt like this almost this bad before i started the oxycontin .

[quitinoxys]

I was on oxycontin 80 mg 3X/day for 7 years due to falling through a collaped roof when I was a firefighter. After surgery and PT I started out on 20 mg 2X/day which helped for a little while but the pain keep getting worse. I eventually was given 80 mg 3X/day which worked but I felt like I was a zombie and had no life. My pain was severe while I was on the oxy but I found once I stopped CT the pain was not as bad and I now control it with acupuncture and yoga. If you are looking for advice about getting off the oxys I would you will get your life back as I and many people have. I will pray for you and hope you get off those terrible pills you will be glad you did.

[Ballgame]

Not sure if anyone answered the tolerance question. If you have high tolerance, then stop for a whole. Can you start over at low dose or are you always at high level?

[tjrox]

Hi, I think we all started on the pills due to some sort of pain and I, along with the rest of the people had it, mine was neck pain.  After a long addiction I realized the neck pain was still there and I continued to use it as my excuse to get pain meds.  After going through detox 2 years ago my neck pain was there BUT I could deal with it now, it meant I could feel things again.  The pills don't ever take away the pain except in the beginning and then we tell ourselves we need the pills anyway.  In the two years I've been off them I've taken maybe 6 Ibuprofin and that's only because the pain gave me bad headaches.  It was a tough ride to get off the Vicodin and Fentenyl patches but was definitely worth it!  Please try to get off any of the opiates if you can, you'll be glad you did and maybe the real pain won't be so bad anymore.  Take care!

[pattifan]

Truthfully, the opiates probably aren't doing much for you pain at all now because your body has become so tolerant to them.

As Gnarly said, a combination of paracetamol and ibuprofen can be very effective. The amino acid 5HTP also helps a lot with pain.

A specialist pain-management doctor has lots of tools at their disposal. A low dose of the antidepressant amitryptilene can be very effective.

Don't forget alternative help like acupuncture which is really helpful gor some people.

There are enough alternatives out there that you should certainly consider coming off the opiates, particularly now that they seem to be affecting your quality of life.

See a doctor about the alternatives, and if you decide to come off, then all the help you'll ever need is available right here on the forum.

Good luck.

[gnarly_1]

HI and welcome to the forum.....I to am a chronic pain sufferer ...lower back pain to be exact
I to started out on a low dose of darvoset over a 10yr period moved up to hydros perks
diladid morphine then finely as a lst resort methadone...I became an addict and used for both physical pain releaf but also for the "High" i would get by abusing them....I rode the narcotic train for 16 1/2yrs and finely 298 days ago detox off the methadone...it was one of the best decisions of my life...I can feel again...life is back to a beautiful place once again
I no longer live under the narcotic fog...and today I live in less pain then when I lived on all the narcotics...it a viscous cycle your body craves the narcotics and it will create pain to get them..once vthe cycle is broke you may find like me and many other members that your pain can be managed with otc stuff like ibuprofine and tylonol once you flush all the narcotics out of your system...its defently worth finding out what your actual base line pain is once your on the stuff like you have been it no longer works for fighting pain any longer..if you need help detoxing we can help you many here have vwound up here just like you have and many have concurred there addictions the choice is up to you
there is so much more to life that your missing because of the pills its nice to be back on the other side of active addiction good luck and God bless.....Gnarly