Our experience with medication side effects can't really help you -- everyone reacts in their own way to these medications.
If you do well with percocet, why not ask doc about Oxycontin? (Perhaps medicare will not pay... )
Morphine is very different from oxycodone, so who knows how you'll do?
I'm reading reports from people here about uncontrollable anger with fentanyl patch -- I never experienced this, but I was only on for 2 years. Perhaps this is a long-term effect?
Good luck with your facet procedures. I'm in line for another set of lumbar RFA procedures for my facets.
hope your procedure went well.
the thing with the fentanyl patch is-- it does seem to help with the pain. doesn't come close to taking it away, but i do not have the ups and downs i had with short acting percocets alone.
the thing is---- it ROBS you of every ounce of energy you have. so, am i really having a small reduction in pain or is it because I hardly move all day and stay in bed?? my guess is it is because i have no energy to move because when I have to move I am rolling on the floor in pain.
so when deciding on whether to take it take that into consideration, especially since you have a small child.
First I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to share their experiences and opinions. After being on the Burtrans patch, I started having problems urinating again, I had this same problem while taking nucynta. I am unsure if they have any common ingredients that would cause this issue but I made the decision to stop the Butrans patch. I was not getting much relief from it as it was and that is not a side effect I am willing to live with.
This Friday, June 6, I am going in for B/L Facet L3-S1 and will let my dr know that I decided the Butrans patch was not for me. After trying this patch with no success I am not hopeful that finding something to control my pain is going to be easy. I have read some other forums where people have said that any patch is difficult to wear in the summer because with the hot weather, it can cause the patch to release too much medicine at a time.
I don't know what to try next and what will work well with the least amount of side effects!
I used the Fentanyl patch and though I know there are people who find it ti be a wonderful med, for me it wreaked havoc on my body in so many ways. The only way I would ever go on it again is if I was using it for end-of-life pain and knew I would never come off it again.
since being on the fentanyl patch I do not get the 'euphoria' I used to get when taking the percocet, so it seemed as if they were not working.
if you only take them when you are truly having break through pain and not as a timed ritual you will find they work. before being on the patch I was always watching the clock for that 4 hr period to be up so I could take the percs.
so now I only take them when I am having excruciating pain and I also take otc naproxen or motrin with them and do notice a decrease in pain.
I have been having more and more 'excruciating pain' and I think that I need an increase in either the patch or break through meds, but I am reluctant increasing the patch. I am on 50 mcg and have been here for about 5 months. I have read too many horror stories about withdrawing from them. I am scared.
Sounds like you are opiate tolerant, and I hope you enjoy the long-acting benefits of the patch.
For those of us who are on opiate analgesics for life, the problems of stopping medication aren't really an issue. These medications allowed me to raise a family, have a profession, and enjoy life.
Breakthrough meds are a way to add 10-20% more medication for those times of increased pain.
Best wishes.
Thank you both for your responses. I have heard that people who have been on opiates for long periods of time do not have such a terrible reactions to stronger meds like fentenyl like people who have not taken opiates. I have not tried Oxycontin I started off on norco then went to dilaudid and now percocet with the Butrans patch. The percs work well but they haven't been working as well with BT pain since I started the Butrans patch. Unfortunately, it does seem all the meds that work well will have withdrawal symptoms which I am not looking forward too either. I know I have built up a tolerance because I went in for a gastric block where they do like a light sedation but do not put you completely to sleep...and I was wide awake the entire time, the meds had no affect on me at all and my doc did say patients who are used to pain meds have a high tolerance to the meds they use. All I really want is to live my life with my kids and not have to be doubled over in pain.
Yes I am a Raiders fan but I wont hold it against you philnoir that you like the Broncos!! BOO!! haha
Hi there! I'm 29, have had severe abdominal pain for about 14 years and started going to pm about a year and a half ago and for about 4 months I was on over 200 10mg Percocets and 90 10mg morphine a month. After 4 months of that I changed doctors and he out me on the fentanyl patch. Started me off at 25 and I am now taking 125mg every two days. Personally, I do not even feel like I am on any type of drug when taking these patches. They do not and have not ever made me feel high in any way at all. I am a single mother to a three year old boy and I haven't ever had any problems being able to take care of him being on the patch. Not sure how you should approach your doc about getting onto the patches beside being honest with him. However, the more I am researching these patches the more nervous I am getting about being on them because of how difficult it is to get off of them. I would research the patches a little more first. Good luck!
Butrans is used because the powers that be in medicine are more concerned with opiate abuse that treating pain.
I prefer the fentanyl patch because it is all pain med -- fentanyl is a pure opiate agonist, like morphine, where as Butrans depends on a medication that is part agonist / part partial agonist.
But either patch should be worn only by those who are opiate tolerant. Even the circular provided with the Duragesic patch warns against using the patch in those who aren't used to opiate analgesics.
Have you tried Oxycontin? Also, if your body does better with hydrocodone (like in Norco), there's a new long-acting formulation that is based on this drug - Zohydro.
You should also know -- I'm a Broncos fan and we do not like the bad-boy Raiders. Better step softly here! :#)