I need help or advice IT is bad

I have no idea what else to do . Firs off to tell you about me I live daily with chronic pain.I was in a wreck an illegal immigrant hit me driving an eighteen wheeler I was in my car and due to his action I am now suffering, I also have bechets disease that really add to the problems. I now have permanent nerve damage and use to spend 8 years ago laying in my back yard screaming in pain ( I did that so my kids could sleep and my husband was in Iraq so laying in yard in rain sometimes was all I could do) I spent so much time trying to find a doctor to help. Fianlly I did and now here is what is going on..
# 3 months ago I notice his patients leaving mad upset etc. I should of look into it then but did not. I found out sometimes best to keep it to myself. Then two weeks ago I was told by my doctor he was taking me off my medication and it was nothing I done. I knew I was never abusing my medication (actiq 600mcg 4times a day ,Fentanyl 100 mcg every 3 days ,percocets 10/325 3 or 4 a day and soma. I never got them a day ahead or late always passed urine test and kept them under lock and key.. I am in a mess now spent 2 weeks looking for a way to help me. If I have to get off all my meds. what am I to do about the pain. He is taking me off like 3 a day 2 a day then none. I think it is going to kill me on top of the pain . Can anyone tell me what to expect and I am willing to travel to find help.

First of all, welcome and you'll find a lot of support here.

My advice is find a new doctor that specializes in pain management. Just about everyone here is in the care of a pain management doc. I'm not sure if the doc you were seeing was a pain management doc, but they really are the best at treating pain.

"regular" doctors learned about like 4 opiates in med school and never deviate from those that they are familiar with, which is good, because then they can help if something goes wrong because they're familiar with the medication. But if you need something more, your doctor should refer you to a pain management clinic. It doesn't sound like he is a pain management doc and I'm guessing (if he's not) that the DEA was getting a little nosy about what kind of scripts he was writing.

That's a lot of medication you're taking. If he's writing that many scripts for all of his patients I really think that's why he decided to cut you off, and to me it's unconscionable that he'd do that to you considering your high doses. Call around and find someone else now.

Good luck :( Withdrawals won't kill you, although you may wish you were dead. There is a thread on here recently "looking for help for son" that gives a lot of tips for dealing with withdrawals.

Hi Gmom & welcome to the forum. Sounds like your dr is getting ready to be in a lot of trouble & I can see why if everyone is on high doses of meds like you.

First thing you need is a copy of your medical records from this dr. If this were me I would get in to see my primary care dr & let him know what is going on. I am pretty confident your PCP will not prescribe you the meds you are on but he can help get you referred to a new PM dr as soon as possible. You will need a referral from another dr to see a pain mgt dr.

Good luck.

Jpjr,
Actiq has been Rxed off label a lot more frequently than Fentora as it is 1/2 the strength . . . Q

Welcome gmom,

There is a thread here telling what many others do for pain in addition to medication.

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=16&m=3182909

Please keep us informed of your situation. We care.

hi gmom,
First off, I am so sorry you are in such pain & now are having a change-up with your meds.

I guess I am of a little different opinion than some of the others on here. Firstly, I'd definitely ask the pain doc why he was changing his practice. I went to a headache clinic years back where the one neurologist used to believe in prescribing short-acting opioid medications as a first-line treatment. Then she had a "spiritual awakening", or so her story goes, and began to believe that homeopathic remedies, alternative therapies & hormones were the way to go, so she rolled all of her non-terminal patients off narcotics and didn't take on any new terminal patients. She continued to prescribe narcotics for her terminal patients until they passed, but that was it. I suggest that because perhaps your pain doc has found some new treatment that might work even better than all the narcotics.

Secondly, fentanyl actually is one of the easier meds to withdraw from. Because it's ultra-short acting, you move through withdrawals much faster. It is only miserable if you are on a high dose of fentanyl and quit it cold-turkey. Percocet is a little rougher, but not much. Of all the ones on your list, Soma will probably be the toughest one to quit. If you are really having a rough go of it with withdrawals (flu-like symptoms plus creepy-crawly sensation on legs), there are medications that can help. Clonidine patches help with the flu-like symptoms. If all you really have is nausea and/or runny nose, Phenergan is better than clonidine. If you have creepy crawly legs, best thing to do is a warm bath (be sure you don't have a fentanyl patch on for the bath); some people also find light exercise helps.

Your meds list seemed pretty ordinary to me except maybe the combination of fentanyl & percocet. If you tolerate percocet okay & it works, wondering if you ever tried OxyContin. OxyContin is available in a dose you take every 12 hours & doesn't contain Tylenol like percocet does. Docs are usually a bit more willing to work with patients on long-acting pain relievers than with those taking short-acting pain relievers like fentanyl & percocet. No guarantee your current doc would be willing to do that; just speaking in generalities. In the past, there have been OxyContin shortages, but the FDA just asked manufacturers to boost production in August and there are no shortages of it at this time.

Finally, you may wish to check out the ACPA's website about Chronic Pain Medication & Treatment. Maybe you'll find something to help there. theacpa.org/Consumer-Guide

Take care!

Tiz there's nothing ordinary about SOMA being prescribed with 3 opiates these days and being on whats considered a max dose of fent before adding the ir form, and having 2 b/t meds onboard is becoming a thing of the past. With all the new and ever changing recommendations of the FDA and DEA I see 3 different things going on that in many states violates the prescribing laws and 2 the FDA has warned against. After a Dr prescribing these meds at these doses and offering nothing more than a taper off that's even far faster then suggested tells me something is smelly!

I would be looking into finding a Dr, clinic, someone to get me through what's likely going to be very unpleasant on a taper that fast.