New med starting Sunday.....

Well, first off, I have to say that the Oxycotin has changed my personality (I'll apologize for all of the spelling errors right now as my thinking stinks) drastically because the 10mg. was not enough and I was in withdrawls for three days and I hated myself and everyone else. I was in contact with the pharmacist and my doctor and we increased the dose to 15mg. and then to 20mg. twice a day. Now I'm going to run out of the pills when I'm on vacation 12hrs away from home! I hate myself and everyone else on this Oxy. I have a lot of stomach problems any way and this seems to burn my esophagus and then it feels like my stomach is trying to crawl out I take it with yogurt to try to help with the symptoms. The muscle spasms in my legs are awful. The Zanaflex that the doctor ordered only made the spasms worse!! The demon that has taken over my personality has just about been the death of me. My husband is a Pediatritian so he was not involved in the world of chronic pain except the education he received when he married me. Which by the way, he has gotten a lot of extra education from all of this. He is so frustrated...watching me suffer the horrible pain of withdrawl. I was screaming and scratching and pulling and my skin, trying to make it stop. I know how bad it was for me but I can only imagine how bad it must have been for him to have to watch and be unable to help me.

I got the steroid injection in my shoulder last Tues. and the results seem good so far. My arm was as rock hard as a steel pole and now it feels like a normal arm. The redness is almost gone also. I loved the lidocaine that he shot in there too but unfortunately it has worn off and the pain is back. We drove two hours to see the two doctors today and they had made a mistake on the schedule. They had scheduled me with the pain doc for May 20th instead of April 20th for my follow up and he couldn't work me in because he had an appt. and he was leaving. It worked out O.K. as we went to a store called Half Price Books and spent and hour and a half in pure heaven. Then I went back to follow up with my neurosurgeon. Our local hosp. read my x-ray against my previous one and said that the plate in my neck was "falling out". My neurosurgeon said that everything was in place as it should be, thank God, and that he was going to talk to the pain doc about my situation since they work in the same building. My neurosurgeon felt that the nerve block would be a safe way to go and that he was not aware of anyone who had the problem of partial paralalysis of the throat afterwards. I guess we shall see. I just know that after this prescription of Oxycotin is finished I will not take it again. I'll go back to the patches. I'll barely have enough meds to get through vacation. My 4hrs. in the car were bad yesterday. so I'm already dreading the 12hr. drive Sat. My doc. wrote for the good old Valium that I'd used before for my legs. Why people do these drugs for "fun" is something I'll never understand. I do, however, understand that when you are in withdrawls why they will go to extream measures to get the next fix to that they need. I would have done about anything to have gotten rid of the hell I was in!!! Wheeew! What a ride these last 8 months have been! I'll be so happy to get off of this train!
Nurse2

Hi Nurse..

I am sorry to hear about the issues you are facing...

May I ask if you are on Oxycontin or just plain Oxycodone? The reason is that I was confused when you said you went from 10mg to 15mg then to 20mg. as Oxycontin doesn't come in 5mg and you can't cut or split Oxycontin pills which I can't imagine any pharmacy or Dr. would advise as it could be deadly...

So I was wondering if maybe you are on 10mg of Oxycodone short release pills? And does it contain any acetaminophen?

I wonder if they maybe prescried the wrong thing for you and that is why you are having withdrawl type symptoms?
That is what caused my stomach troubles and when I switched over to OxyIR, this helped tremendously...And my LA medicine is now MSContin...

If you are still on your vacation..I would call your Dr. and see if he could at least call in some Lortab/Vicoden to help you through until you get back home to start up the Fentanyl patches again...I personally couldn't handle the patches..I like hot showers and it's too warm in the summer walking my dog and they release too much medicine under those circumstances..

So it just shows how different we all are with our medicines..When I was on Oxycontin many years ago...it was one of the best LA meds...I got good pain coverage for 8 to 10 hours...but I was on 40mg..

I will say some prayers that you can get some relief and at least enjoy the rest of your vacation...and just take lots of breaks on the ride home to stretch..maybe some ice packs on your neck too...

Take care..

Nurse2 I said in my other post to you that I thought what you were describing was withdrawals. I am so very sorry you went thru that mess. Since you will be switching back to the patches why is is not possible to have them available while you are on vacation? I don't think you should take off without having all of the medications onboard with you. By not having the pain medication you truly need you are really putting yourself and your body thu an awful lot of stress and withdrawals all over again. You really need to let your PM dr know about this vacation you have planned and have those patches available for use when you finish up with the Oxycotin.

Matter of fact, why is it written in blood thatyou have to finish the Oxycotin up before switching back to the patch? Looks to me like your dr needs to be thinking of your comfort level here a little more seriously. I hope you can get this handled before leaving and going out of town.

I can't thank you enough for all of your prayers for me through all of this because when things where so bad that I had hit bottom I couldn't remember the words to the Lord's prayer. I tried and tried but the words would not come out right. So I'm sure that I was riding on your prayers. I stopped and talked to two local pharmacist that I go to and explained my problem of having the Oxycotin and the fact that my 30 day script was not up but that I was not tolerating it and that I wanted to go back to the patches. I had called my doctor and he was going to see me yesterday afternoon. I was going to give him the Oxycotin that I had left and wanted to switch back to the patches even though they eat my skin alive. If I keep my Valium in my system the spasms are kept at bay and the pain is bearable. The Baclofen was doing nothing for me when I was taking the Oxy.

I just love my internest. He is so down to earth and he is so willing to work with me to do anything he can to help me. He wrote another script for the patches and I took them to the pharmacy that had worked with me with the Oxycotin. I gave them the bottle of Oxy's to destroy for me because I want NOTHING more to do with them, ever. And, my insurance company won't fill the script until Fri. so she was going to fill it as a " for pay" item and put it in the bin and then when I go back Fri. they will run it back through as insurance and I'll be all set to go on vacation. Praise God. I won't be crawling all over the front seat like a worm on a hot seat!
This vacation comes at a good time for my husband and I. We need some time for just the two of us and with the patch I'm not grouchy. At least no the demon crazed person that I've been these last few weeks. My whole face changed! I've lost 12lbs. in the last 3 wks. because this Oxy has my stomacy so tore up. Oh well, this sister is on the road to a new attitude!!!

Thank you, thank you again for all of you prayers and good advice. You are such wonderful friends and I couldn't get through this ride without you! God bless you.
Nurse2