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Greenlighter
I've had the generic Mallinckrodt brand 100mcg/hr patches for a while now and I want to discuss and get some feedback on this phenomenon I keep experiencing with these patches. They're the non gel patches (I don't think u can even get those anymore). So, I'm supposed to change my patch every 72 hrs which is how long they were manufactured and advertised to last. I know some great Doc's will prescribe to change every 48 hrs but I'm not so lucky. The problem I'm having (and after researching it, tons of others have this same problem), the stupid patch totally drops in effectiveness at the 48 hour mark so every 3rd day I start to go through withdrawal along with rebound pain till I can get my next patch on. Let me explain why this is such a weird phenomenon. Right on the patch's individual packet, it states that the patch contains a total of 11.0MGS, not mcgs, of fentanyl. So I went on to do a little math. 1mg=1,000mcg. So, converting Mgs to mcg, each patch contains a total of 11,000mcg of fentanyl. Now, also according to the label the patch will release 100mcg/hr steadily. If that's true, this means that after 72 hours of wearing the patch only 7,200mcg or 7.2mgs of fentanyl has been released. If there's 11mgs (11,000mcgs) in the patch total like the label says, after 72 hours, there should still be a whopping 3,800mcg (3.8mgs) of fentanyl in that patch! So why the hell does it drop in effectiveness so much at the 48th hour mark. With the above calculations the damn thing should almost last 4 days! Does anyone else have any comments or insight into this? With the old gel patches, you could wear one for 3 days, take it off, cut it open and just eat the remaining gel and get pretty damn loaded. So that shows there is a significant amount of fent left even after 72 hours of application. With these new non-gel patches, I've had no luck on trying to find a way to at least extract the remaining fent in the patch. I've tried chewing up brand new patches to no avail. How do you get through these tamper proof mechanisms, for my diagnosed pain relief of course. Any comments or experiences you can share would be appreciated.
Opie
Opie
