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I am weaning off of methadone will Nucynta cover me?

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Posted 9/30/2016 6:46 PM (GMT 0)
My brother who is being weaned down from 40mg's of methadone also takes 300mg's of Nucynta (150mg's twice daily) his doctor has told him he doesn't need anything else, The Nucynta he is taking will cover him as he goes down 10mg's of methadone every 2 weeks and when he is off of the methadone she will add Nucynta ER to his instant release Nucynta. I think she is nuts, When my brother drops down 10mg's in 2 weeks I figure 3 days later he is going to hurting and sweating and as the days go on even worse, How can see say that the 300mg's of Nucynta that he has been on for more than 18 months is going to help him. I really don't understand their thinking at this CP group. Also if I didn't mention this before 40mg's is their maximum dose unless you have a cancer diagnosis.

This is in Cary, North Carolina next door to Durham (The City of Medicine) my Chronic Pain doctor who I have been seeing for several years gives me 100mg's of methadone, 30mg's of oxycodone and 200mg's of Lyrica daily and tells me that the clinic my brother is going to is trying to have 0 patients on methadone. And his clinic is a hospital-based program with several locations.
Thanks again RB
Posted 9/30/2016 7:01 PM (GMT 0)
I think your brother is going to have some problems even on 40mg. It works completely different than our usual pain meds. I sincerely hope I am wrong. We have had countless people rave about wonderful Methadone helped their pain but when they were taken off of it they were sorry they had been on it.

I personally do not recall anyone being on both the ER & IR Nucynta. I do know many had no relief on the IR alone, usually worked better with another pain medication.

You may want to talk to your pharmacist about this. He may be able to give you some good insight on the conversion. I also hope that you see a cardiologist once a year since you are on Methadone. There are lots of older threads here about Methadone.
Posted 9/30/2016 7:59 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Susie,
Thanks for helping, This doctor my brother is seeing has taken everything I've known about methadone and Nucynta and thrown it out the window to accommodate this Chronic Pain practice, By telling him methadone is short acting, anything over 40mg's will cause him to have a heart attack (he does have EKG's done every 6-months No problems) And now telling him the Nucynta he is taking will cover his weaning and she usually does the weaning in 5 days. The funny thing is when she was seeing my brother on 9/29/16 she had a witness in the room to observe what was going on.
I am doing OK, I still need to replace my R-hip and L-shoulder ASAP and then redo my L-hip again but I've been having lots of problems with my lungs and after 5 yr's I was finally able to see the main pulmo doc at UNC and told me I didn't have bronchiectasis but Just severe scarring with many spots I can't think of it right now but no cancer just severe restrictive/obstructive pulmonary disease that will keep getting worse and he told me it was due to my Ige being very high (something with my immunoglobin) and the 1 medicine Xolair that is injected once monthly is the only medicine out there and is not covered due to cost, $1200 a dose. Amazing. I stopped posting and reading on the different sites due to just being so tired of dealing with being sick. Thanks For the help. RB
Posted 10/1/2016 2:46 PM (GMT 0)
Well,when I was switched from Hydrocodone(Lortab at that time) to Nucynta,I went through withdrawals.

jmho,I don't think Nucynta has any Opiate/Opioid in it.

The Nucynta may make him sleep more.That's what it did to me.

Hope it's not too bad.

Take care.

Rick
Posted 10/3/2016 5:38 AM (GMT 0)
Methadone has an extremely long half life, and that is why it works so well for chronic pain, and people who are not good at taking their meds on time or forget. I , too, was weaned off it, and it was the worse thing I ever went thru, and I went down 2 mg at a time and was on Oxycontin 60 mg every 8 hours. Would I love to use methadone you bet , but never never never do I want to go off it again, so I never will Instead I will use my fentanyl patch, which is next best for me as Morphine of anykind makes me itch incessantly. Good luck
Posted 10/6/2016 12:13 PM (GMT 0)
I believe an alternative to the doctors making life hard is what I've found works: [Yes this may sound like ravings - but keep in mind it is necessity and control over our one and only life that should give us the power to decide our fate]
Anyway
Use a file to shave off 1% off that 10mg pill every 5-10 days as comfortable as he can. once he hits halfway he tells his doctor to switch him to 5mg. [when did doctors become gods to control us?]
I digress... your brother would then file off the same amount off the 5mg pill until he is hardly able too.
At this point he takes what ever he is able to get that pill down too [if he still needs too] and only take it at night.
during the day he could take Pregabalin [and only a 1/4 of that pill] and only if he needs too. Alternating with a 5mg valium every 4th day if things get on top.
The problem is all the drugs involved here can be habit forming, so there needs to be a will to do this.
The reason Doctors take control is without them you cant get it... so to them it makes sense. However I found giving me control allowed me the self confidence to move forward with a life without methadone.
These days I may take a valium pill once a month if I cant sleep.... how its meant to be used [NOT abused]

Good luck and hope someone can provide more sound advice than mine. i can only speak from experience and the good graces of an amazing Doctor.
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