Anyone who wears a patch please I need help.

Gosh Shaw not sure what's going on. I certainly didn't feel great for awhile but also was wearing a clonidine patch to assist in settling the w/d symptoms down. I don't buy into the theory that butrans won't cause those w/d symptoms because i know first hand they do. Drs know what a drug rep tells them.

Its a strange drug to say the least . I had some very strange mind things go on and was never exactly sure how i felt . The more use to the medicine i got the better i was until one morning i just felt normal .

As for the patch and the transdermal delivery system we know heat and sweating profusely can cause more medicine to release . I also would get online and see if theres anything your ingesting that's possibly reacting with the butrans .

I've honestly Shaw not seen anyone have luck with the butrans and an opiate b/t onboard . I also don't give a hoot what they say about it not causing a reaction to other opiates because partial antagonist or not it does .

I also thought it strange they would go to the higher dose right outta the barn with you. Rule of thumb seemed to be from everyones experience to start low go higher if necessary.

I didn't stay on it that long .Never intended to use it as a replacement for methadone only as a aid to stop it more smoothly and comfortably and then give one of the other opiates a fighting chance. Life after a decade or more on methadone was going to make anything else trivial at lower dosing and getting to the least med and being able to reset those receptors was the plan in the first place .

Im worried now for you without the patch . How much w/ds are you going to have on just a rescue med? You may have been feeling strange but it obviously was keeping some of the harshest symptoms at bay.

Is there a pharmacy insert in the box ? Maybe you can find something in there to shed some light .

Definately call your Dr if you decide to apply another patch . Im not sure how much stays in your system after removal.

Shaw the butrans site Definately says people addicted or dependant on higher doses of opiates would have withdrawl symptoms from butrans if the original med wasn't tapered first place. It also said those on methadone would have withdrawl no matter what ?Lol

What boggles my mind is why butrans is bup as as subutex and other then one being transdermal and the other being sublingual theres not one iota of difference between them yet butrans reads for chronic pain and subutex reads for opiate addiction ? Clearly i think theyre very misleading and evasive in explaining.

There are alot of side effects as well as interactions and many do's and dont's about when and how to apply the patch .

Linds has a point as well and there could be a actual problem with the batch you got.

I think it worked for what i needed it for but for a adequate pain med for CP i found it pretty useless .

Also the number one side effects were headaches. It did say that it wouldnt reach maximum blood level until after day 3. That's about when you were at your worst correct ?

Everything i found said not to apply the patch after taking a hot shower ,not really anything specific about showering with it on but it did say avoid spas ,sauna,and hot tubs and i don't see much difference between them.

Also the manufacturer was adamant about notifying your Dr if you ran any fever whatsoever? Well the darn thing causes hot flashes ? Your own bodys reaction to that is to open skin pores and sweat ?

Im just personally seeing way too many contradicting things going on with this med and its system of delivery . Possibly the reason so many don't find it at all suitable or adequate for CP ?

I don't see why the thing at day 4,barely halfway thru its course it should have been empty of medicine . I've seen many fent patches that still retain at least some moisture in it after 3 days but since butrans is 7days I've nothing designed after it to compare to. Never noticed mine being or looking drained either .

You may have been having a reaction to the med itself but it still sounds like mild w/ds along with it reacting to your b/t med. Nowhere in any of my reading did i find anything advising adding a opiate with this med and. Matter of fact i found a lot advising against addition of one as well as a muscle relaxer and any of the benzos or tranqs .

I sincerely hope you find something to work for you. Have you tried or checked Nucynta ? We've had some who've had some luck with it .

Edit afterthought:

Did you apply the patch in one of the allowable eight sites? If not and you put it below your heart, especially on the insides of your legs, this will cause an early, fast release of the drug.

End edit.

If you have the patches distributed by Purdue (I think they are only brand in the US), there is no gel in the patch. The active drug is bound in a polymer matrix and there is no visible difference between a new and a used patch.

I was on the 20 mcg patches for three months rx'd for back pain. While it worked well for my pain, I never got a full seven days of pain relief, typically it was four, sometimes five days. According to Purdue (I did call and spoke to one of their pharmacists), this is an indication that the drug level is too low for my pain levels. Since 20mcg patch is the highest dose, my doc moved me to another long acting drug.

While I was on the patch, I had two episodes of patch "dump". These were both precipitated by body overheating during exercise - in the high temperatures of August in the eastern US. The results were the same - a rather nasty headache that got to the nausea stage. It did clear after cooling down about two hours.

IMO the delivery system stinks. The initial 72 hour lag to build up serum levels followed by early exhaustion of the drug will have you on a weekly roller coaster of drug levels that is very frustrating at best, painful at its worst.

Post Edited (Litespeed97) : 1/14/2014 8:37:31 AM (GMT-7)

Hi all! Thanks for your help. This forum is so helpful and the moderator and all who share are God sent! I am now 1 full day after taking patch off. The crazy thing is that I might have been wearing the patch after all the medicine was used up as I have said there was nothing left on the patch. I am in a bit of a pickle. I am scared to put another patch on. I may have been feeling the way I did cause the med was dumped into my system. Also, maybe I put the patch on a bad spot for my body. I put it on the right side of my chest under my arm a little higher than halfway up from my waist. Maybe I should try another spot. I would also every now and again sort of rub the patch or kind of just push it down flat with my hand to make sure it was sticking. Could this have cause the med to release early?
So I get 90 of my b/t meds a month and have always been fine and never ran out. My doc even said last visit that I was a good patient that way. Now, I really have no choice but to take more to a) keep my pain levels down and b) keep me out of withdrawals because I am not on a long acting med as I have been for 8 years. I usually took 3 a day now it's been like 6-8. I am afraid I will run out and get in trouble. The good thing is I will see my doc in 1 week so I have enough till then but not enough for the rest of the month. This is unfamiliar territory for me and would love some input from you all. Thanks so so so much!

So I slept through the night good but woke up in minor withdrawals so I took a vicoprofen and I was ok. My lower back hurt this morning but I tried to keep myself busy so I wouldn't ponder. Before I went to bed last night I took 1 vicoprofen and a .5 mg Ativan my doc gave me a while back for nerves. It helped.
The breakthrough med works at keeping my pain down a bit and withdrawals at a minimum but I have to take 1 every 4 hrs which is 6 a day. The bottle says 3 a day. He did give me 90 knowing I would be back in 2 weeks so maybe he knew I would need more. He originally wrote the butrans for 2 patches but pharmacy could not break so he changed to 4. Remember my long acting med is now out of the picture. It's been 1 week since last morphine cr 30mg3xday and 2 days since butrans patch came off. I will have enough bt med to make it to appt next week but will my doc understand? I know you all are thinking call the office. The reason I don't want to do that is a) they NEVER return calls and B) he will not call anything in (practice doesn't call meds in) for long acting med and C) I have appt next week. What should I be doing? Anyone?

Your right straydog. I will do it. Thanks

Shaw I would make another call today to see what you can find out, at least it should be on record that you have been trying to contact them. I know you don't want to hear this but I would not be taking the meds every 4 hours simply because I am afraid come next week the dr is going to say sorry, those 90 pills were for a month and then you will have nothing. I just don't think its worth the risk of having nothing to fall back on. The other problem is the script was written 3 a day & your insurance most likely will not fill this script because of that, so you really have 2 situations staring at you. This is why we tell folks to go by what is written on that label so they are not left hung out to dry. Does the dr know you have ditched the Butrans? You may want to try for an earlier appt with him. Good luck.....Susie

Linds has a very good idea, hopefully their office is close by so you can stop in & get this taken care of.....Susie

Hi Shaw, of course whatever road you take here is ultimately your decision. As Linds mentioned perhaps running by their office could get you the answers you need, who knows. I hope it all works out for you......Susie