Saw My New Pain Management Doc Today

Well, I had an appointment scheduled for September 14th with this new Pain Management doc but they called today and asked if I could come in. I told them that yes, I could and I went to see him. I told him about the low back pain and these Fentanyl patches and about how they are ruining my life. He wants to do a test tomorrow to see if a procedure will help and if that looks like it will, he wants to do another epidural on me. Those of you that know me know that the last epidural pretty much incapacitated me. I will wait to see what the test shows and we shall see.

As for the patches, he still wants me on them but he doubled the dose to 2 100mcgs patches a time to be changed every 48 hours (vs 1 100mcgs patch every 72 hours). So he, in effect, doubled my dose of pain meds and removed that whole pesky last 24 hour problem I have with the patches not working right (Yay!). I will have to wait and see but THAT should help the pain a bit.

I'll update everyone on the whole situation as I find out what the test reveals.


Skrape

Skrape,
I don't have any experience with fentanyl but I just hope it all works out for you. Certainly if it feels like it's too much, well, maybe others here who have the patch can offer suggestions!

Good luck!

PaLady

 

   Dear Skrape,

     Hey there! *huggs* I am glad they got you in sooner! Even better you pain subsiding has got to be like a breath of fresh air. *huggs* It must be really hard thou, to go through with another procedure! I sure do hope it helps to bring your pain level down even lower.

*huggs*

   dani

I don't know that I am going to be on the two patches for long. I started these on Thursday and was up all night (all night, no sleep at all) Thursday with another migraine. I was then up again most of the night Friday fighting the same (it never really went away; just got a little less severe) and only got about 3 hours of sleep. On Saturday I changed them again and within 5 hours the migraine was back full swing again. I took the second patch off and was up again until 5:00am battling the headaches. I left that patch off and was able to sleep a little better Sunday night (only up until 3:00am so I got about 4.5 hours).

I talked with my Pain Management doc's nurse about the headaches on Friday and she said she would get back to me but never did. I need to call again today and find out what I need to do. I will take the changing every 48 hours but I don't think my head can withstand the 200mcgs, it is just too much. I have had headaches almost daily since being on Fentanyl; I used to only get a headache once maybe every 2 or 3 weeks (if that) but I have had the every single day while on Fentanyl. These have even gotten to the extent that I had to go to the ER for IV fluids and such.


Skrape

Skrape,

I think he knows what he's doing about the patches...after all, they weren't doing you much good on the last day so why not double up and take them every 2 days instead of three... Sounds like this Dr. might be ahead of the game when it comes to pain relief.... Let me know how it's working...

Me.

mrsm123 said...
Skrape,
It might be that he increased your fentanyl too much at once. The jump from 100 mcg to 200 mcg, without slowly increasing the dose is not ordinarily done. I have been on as much as 300 mcg of fentanyl at one time and when we went up that much, we went in 25 and 50 mcg increases to get there.

I just wanted to say ditto to that. 100mcg is a huge jump and would probably give any normal person a headache, so there's no telling what it would do to you if you have a propensity toward headaches/migraines to begin with! My doctor is very conservative when he moves my fentanyl doses around and only moves me 12.5mcg at a time, which really irks the pharmacist for some reason that I don't entirely understand.