Posted 8/21/2013 11:35 PM (GMT 0)
Hi I'm new here. Just signed up. I was searching for something and found myself reading this thread about Fentanyl causing sweating. Surprisingly no one had mentioned any real medical solutions. I will get to that. I'd like to fill you in on my situation a little. Nearly one year ago I had a pain pump implanted after being on fentanyl patches for nearly 3 years. The problem for me with the patches was any dose increase wasn't enough in a few months. I didn't want to end up on such a high dose that I'd be unable to drive. I no longer work as my pain is so unpredictable. And I also suffer from bipolar among other physical ailments. So now 9/6/12 I have a pump implanted. I couldn't tolerate the morphine or Dilaudid due to my IBS. So here I am back on Fentanyl. I asked the doctor around the start of the year when all the patches have been weaned away what his target dose was for me. He told me 1800 mcg/day. I'm now at 3700 mcg/day. And yes I do sweat. It's just awful. We tried adding Clonidine which is suppose to help, but I just had too many side effects. After no help for a month were trying zanaflex which is suppose to help. But my question is am I going to need it since we decided on my visit yesterday in two weeks were going to try and switch over to Sufentenil, no relation to fentanyl but 10 times stronger. Why switch muscle relaxers (flexural to zanaflex) if I'm not going to need them. Yesterday I told him my husband says now not only do I forget things (medication dr says) but now I'm irritable, not easy to get along with (he used a more choice word) my dr looks at me like I'm crazy and says I'd be the first. Come on, we know what these high dose pain meds do to us. Anyway, has anyone tried Sufentenil?
What has your experience been like? Anyone received a pain pump and wait over a year for it to work? Does it cause sweating like fentanyl? Any input would be appreciated. Sorry for going on so long. By the way I have degenerative disc disease. I've have two surgeries each removing discs with cervical fusion. My catheter is at C7. I have another bad disc & surgeon says no more surgeries. Too risky, may end up with vocal and/or swallowing problems. I've been like this for 8 yrs. it just keeps getting worse. I'm a 56 yr. old female.