oxy / hydro withdrawal after two months

[dad's story]

Hello Everyone:
My father is nearing 78 and had knee replacement suregery three months ago. Prior to the surgery, he was taking hydrocodone for about a year...four or five a week at start and as many as four or five a day right before his surgery to relieve knee pain. Post operative, they placed him on 20mg oxycontin twice daily (w/ Darvon for breakthrough pain).

Sixteen days post operative he began to feel sick...
nausea, trembling, depression, palpitations of heart, sleeplessness. He was miserable but still took his meds as directed. On learning of his sickness, his General told him to discontinue oxy (cold) and use the Darvon for pain. He remained sick and, because his knee was still in pain, his general kept switching pain meds to try and find one that would ease knee pain but wouldn't make him sick. Finally, seven weeks after surgery, my dad decided to stop taking everything and see if his sickness would get better.

Six weeks after that, my dad is constantly ill...nausea, trembling, heart racing, and sleeplessness. He hasn't had a pain med in six weeks! Everyone he sees tells him (obviously) that it couldn't be withdrawal cause everything's been out of his system so long. But why is he sick with symptoms that so closely resemble withdrawal?

At this point, we're thinking all the drugs combined with his age, etc, have blown some sort of fuse in his neurological system. Is this possible?

Has anyone heard of a situation like this before? We're looking for some clues to get him out of his misery...he's at his wit's end.

Sorry for the long post! Thanks!

13th June off everything because he was

get off all the drugs.
Six weeks of the same symptons

[Francoise]

Could you possibly post a link to the story you're talking about in the Philly newspaper?

[CannabisDave]

Here's a link about the law-suit:

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1090/a10.html?186

We had that other national story in our local paper yesterday too. It says that doctors wrote 6.9 MILLION prescriptions for oxycontin from May 2000 to May 2001, producing $1.27 BILLION dollars sales. Oxycontin accounted for 83% of Purdue's sales this year - that IS a bit outrageous, and it makes them look like "pushers". I don't mind severe pain patients having it, but to promote it the way they did was VERY irresponsible, and now we are seeing the result in this epidemic of addiction. All they did was take pure oxycodone and put a thin coating around it so it absorbs slowly, and now they are making a fortune by charging so much for it. OF COURSE it ended up being abused by addicts - that was something anyone should have seen coming. I do hope this disaster will help methadone become more available. I'm looking forward to getting back on methadone again, because I can't think or sleep very well on oxycontin/oxycodone, and I'm very weak. I was getting by on just two 10mg. methadone tablets a day before, and now I'm already taking 4 20mg. oxycontin tablets after - I'm terrified of running out of medication. Oxycontin just doesn't work as well for chronic pain for me, and it seems to have worse negative side-effects than methadone. It seems to make more sense to use methadone for chronic pain, and use oxycodone or hydromorphone (my preferance) for breakthrough medication.

[Witchywoman]

hmmm
Well..I'll give my two cents here...
Isn't it pretty widely known that any opiate based drug taken over a certain amount of time is physically addicting?  I am wary of suing a drug company for making an addicting medication that is so helpful to chronic pain patients who truly need it and benefit from it.

Oxycontin was a wonderful medication for me. It stopped my back pain after my surgery beautifully, and because it was long acting, it did not produce the euphoria that the vicoprofen did, so I did not try to chase a high with it.  My Doc switiched me back to vicoprofen after the most acute phase of my pain was over, and I am sorry that he did..because  I am FAR more likely to abuse vicoprofen than the oxycontin, since it gets me high, and the oxy never did. Granted, I did not know that people chew and crush the oxy's to get high.. and I'm glad I didn't know that! lol

I worry that law suits of the makers of oxycontin will endager the availability of this medication to those who truly need it.

my two cents
WW

[Francoise]

I, too, am fearful that lawsuits like this may do harm to our ability to get the pain relief we need. However, my doctor told me that if even the worst happened with oxycontin that there were alternatives. He named the duragesic patch, methadone, and some other stuff.

The worst thing about the oxy seems to be that I'm so damn tired all the time. I will be sitting at my desk at work and fall asleep. I've done that in meetings, too.

As for the duragesic, I'm wondering how they titrate it so that you don't have the severe depression after being on oxy for so long? Anyone have any insight on that?

Francois

[wildcat]

I have to add my two cents worth in here. I think people especially [addicts in denial] will love to use any excuse to make money to support their habit and even get credit for it.

Meanwhile, those that really need pain relief suffer and other less effective pain relievers will then be put under scruteny as well and all of us chronic pain people will suffer for those greedy addicts who will always look for that free dollar or high without working for it.

I went off the Codeine because I was taking it too much and for the high effect. My doc refused Oxycontin because of the stink being made. I am allergic to acetimetiphen so I am limited on most of the stronger opiods. So he is trying me on Demerol of all things. I thought that was only for post surgery. So far it has worked better than the Codiene and does not produce a euphoric or high which is why I kept abusing the Codiene. The only bad thing is the demerol takes over an hour or two to take effective pain relief so I still have to take two Ultram with it for faster relief. Sometimes two Demerol will work a little better.

[Thomas] I have never asked you anything before because I read all the posts but what do you think about Demerol for chronic pain control?

I took alot of Ultram while off the Codiene so it really did't solve anything. I hit the pavement [shakedown/breakdown] after doing my yard work this past weekend and was glad I had that strong Demerol because after the 20-30 minute shaker I was in severe pain. I was already in pain from the work due to the Lupus but I pushed myself as my doc warned me not to, much to my own demise.

Oh well, Another day in paradise, at least I have my job and my little house in my garden of Guahan with my cats and dogs. That's all that matters.

I have seizures every four days or so anyway so I was due, although I wasn't expecting this one to be so long and painful, more so than usual.

I am really babbling and had better stop. I just wanted to say hi to everyone, too many to mention all.

God bless,

luv,   wildcat

[tylerdurden]

Hey everyone,
I was wondering...since we all agree that for chronic pain Oxycontin is a great drug.  Why can't the pharmaceutical company turn the pill into a patch?  You can't crush up and chew on a patch (at least I'm pretty sure).  I know there is a Fentanyl patch like people were talking about but from what I understand a lot of patients can't tolerate the side effects.  I think they use fentanyl with anasthesia when someone goes into surgery.  I have never had surgery so I'm not sure...just what I heard.  I heard of this surgeon in Maryland (where I live) was taking the Fentanyl for himself and not administering it to the patient when they had surgery.  From what I understand the patient would look knocked out but could feel every incision and cut being made (I think he was taking more than just the fentanyl).  Needless to say the surgeon is in alot of trouble.  Has anyone else heard about the story?  I'm not sure if it has been made public yet.  

Anyway, does anyone know if they can turn the oxycontin pill into a patch?  I wan't sure if the molecular structure would allow it to be a transdermal patch.  Oh well...just a thought.

Tyler