Breakthrough Pain

[Nixiam]

My mother of four requires fentanyl patches to function. She takes 100mcg of fentanyl, matrix style transdermal patches. She is not a junkie by any stretch, and dreads the thought of getting doped up from medicine.

She is prescribed regular percocet, 10mg Oxycodone HCI and APAP of some dose I can't remember.

Basically, she knows percocet potential for abuse. So as you can imagine she is very reluctant to use it as breakthrough.

I don't think that she will notice a buzz at all, but I'd like to get some opinions from here on either if she will or won't buzz from the perc, or if there is a better alternative breakthrough pain medicine that would do better than percocet (preferably if it didn't give a high).

Fentanyl is the only prescription pain medicine that she takes.

This is a bit important to me, she often times loses a patch at night or sweats it off, so a fall back might be good.

But it scares me, Prince just od'd on fent, right? Don't want to overdo it wih the pain meds.

 

[Alien47]

For a fent replacement she could try Methadone could be an option sense it can't get u high and is very strong also if she has break through pain and takes whatever pain med for the breakthrough pain she wouldn't get high on that either because I'm pretty sure methadone block certain receptors or soemtbing like that, that makes u unable feel a high
Methadone is a very strong drug tho it's is pretty much heroin but without the high but it may very well solve her break through pain issues and not wanting to get high

 

[Pilll_head]

Fentanyl is much stronger than oxycodone so I don't think using Perc occasionally for breakthrough pain would really increase the risk of addiction. When you have breakthrough pain, you need to use an instant release to really get it under control. Depending on the severity of the pain, a higher dose of oxy might be required. I might recommend Roxicodone which is instant release oxycodone without any acetaminophen. Too much acetaminophen can be bad for the liver.

 

[Alien47]

My mother has ankle pain becsuse she has osteonecrosis (in an x-Ray her bones look like Swiss cheese) and also she 3 herniated discs in her neck and so she has a lot of pain without her mess she takes oxycodone instant release 4 times a day because extended release mess don't work

Like pill head said switching to an ir med might be better it's a bit more of a hassle because u have to take it every 4-6 hours
but it could help

If u truly want to find meds that work for her go to her pain management doctor with her and express your concerns I'm sure he/she would be open to help find a better combination if its what she wants and it helps her

 

[Nicholai]

Ask for Tegaderms at the pharmacy. They are covers for fent patches so they don't fall off.

Taking two different opioids can actully have a synergistic effect. Fent and oxy hit different sub receptors, so while that dose of oxy is a bit low, it could help her out. Just tell her to take them, to be honest with her doctor about any concerns, and if the oxy is unhelpful, there are of course other medications she can trial.