Question about methadone

I have been on meth. for the past 4 years as a pain medication. It's worked fine but having been on it for so long, I naturally have developed a tolerance for it. My dr. has boosted as I needed and has me on oxycodone for breakthru pain. I've begun to have a lot of swelling in my lower legs and ankles. And I noticed on one of the MRI reports that it had some swelling in the tissues inside my leg. I've perused some of the websites about side effects of methadone and swelling was among them. I questioned both my primary(prescriber) dr and my ortho. They both said no, the methadone was not causing my leg problem. I can't help but wonder if it can cause swelling, why couldn't it be causing all the swelling I'm having. Just thoughts that I have. I rack my brain trying to figure out what is causing all this. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Hope everyone had a great weekend !!!!!!!! Thanks !!!

Ponylady I don't generally post about drs being wrong but as a far too experienced methadone user I have to here!! 14 years of experience allows me to say I know more about side effects of the drug then they have been taught or read about.

Yes it definitely causes edema and fluid retention and I had to be put on lasix the last several years I was on it. All opiates have a tendency to cause some issues but methadone has far more than a tendency. Since being off methadone over a year and on Morphine I have not taken one dose of lasix and don't even fill it anymore.

Methadone used long-term can cause such a wide range of side effects from hearing loss,cardiac issues,early dementia,altered taste,to vision problems,the list is long and although the manufacturers report most the Drs seem to downplay them.

It was a good choice for me at the time and I will be grateful it pulled me from the place I was at in the time I was there but I should never have been left on it and been titrated higher and higher rather than off to something else. It was a horrendously near to impossible journey off and took years not months to accomplish.

If you feel you have reached the end of its usefulness versus the side effects than your likely correct and don't allow them to keep you on it. If your current Dr won't prescribe different than start the search for one who will.

I am not a fan if you couldn't tell!! Lol

It's a drug that sneaks up and gets ahold and is extremely difficult to get rid of. Where most opiates will clear your system within weeks after stopping people who have used methadone years see months of still dealing with w/d from this med. Because of the nature and design that allows it to be a good long acting med and the far differing actions to the pain receptors it has unlike other opiates it remains longer and is not easily overrode by other opiates. What that means in terms of going off or switching meds is there's a far greater amount of discomfort from your bodies need for methadone specifically that other opiates in the lower spectrum of dosing are not going to cover. Example here is the methadone to morphine ratio and this is the amount of morphine that is likely to cover the amount of methadone comfortably is 1:10. So that means in terms of simplicity to have the same pain coverage and not experience symptoms of w/d in any degree if you are taking 20mgs of methadone a day its going to take 200mgs of MS to proper conversion. In a perfect world not going to happen in a CP setting where Drs are restricted,regulated and extremely conservative in understanding and prescribing methadone conversions. Also you are at a really low end of dosing and if you would need 200mgs to not be in any way bothered by w/d imagine what someone in the median range or higher would require? When I started out I was on 30mgs a day and at my highest point 80 mgs a day and even in the middle at 40 versus 400 mgs of morphine? Considered lethal amount by most standards. It didn't take long for me at that point to figure out that to get off without being sicker than a dog for far longer than I cared to they would have to kill me!! I can laugh and joke about it now but I assure you that for a year there was nothing amusing about any moment of it.

I got to 15mgs a day on my own but fought another year trying to get lower than that and just could not and I tried with everything in me as ppl here can tell you. I finally ended up on clonidine,butrans patch and hydrocodone,a great stride in stock of the makers of Imodium,increase in lyrica,and months of solitary seclusion but made it thanks mostly to one of the few Drs who understands the ramifications and necessary steps to take for long-term methadone use.

If you can I certainly would get onto something not so harsh.

Its a diuretic or fluid pill and its action is to help eliminate excess fluid retention.