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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

OxyContin Advice needed!!

PerkMeUp38

PerkMeUp38

Bluelighter
Joined
Feb 16, 2015
Messages
76
My PM Dr. Switched me from 4 10mgs Oxycodone to 2 20mgs OxyContin three days ago. I'm dying I'm in so much pain. He said take every 12 hours but I'm I. So much agony I can't hardly move can I take one or two now it's be 8 hrs. I know that's not in keeping with his "prescription rules" but at this point I don't care. Help me guys will 8 hrs be long enough to keep from OD'ing. I'm very opiate tolerant btw.
 
To clarify: 10mg oxycodone IR q.i.d. to 20mg OxyContin b.i.d.?

Even if it's the same number of milligrams in toto due to the time release (more even over time) vs immediate release (spaced out larger doses) it's may very well not really be equianalgesic. Your situation may improve in a few days of sticking with this regimen but this is not necessarily going to be so. Most likely yu'll need to talk to the doctor and hopefully you have an understanding one to get a dosage adjustment.

Switching to q8h if you are at all tolerant and these are ER pills is not going to be an overdose risk in all likelihood. Unless 40mg ER gets you nodding hard 60mg ER, spread out, is very unlikely to be life-threatening. But this will of course mean that you will run out of pills eventually, kicking the can down the road as it were and will wind up having to resort to black market pills/heroin/whatever, so really best to go through the proper channels and explain the situation to your doctor. He should not be surprised that switching from IR to ER causes some issues.
 
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Thank you for answering. I thought I'd be ok every 8 but I wanted to make sure. I'm calling him tomorrow, if he's open at the latest Tuesday and asking for a switch back to 4 10mgs oxycodone IR OR If he wants me to stay on the contin he's going to have to give something for breakthrough pain. The 20mgs ER are only lasting for 6 hours then I'm suffering bad. I've had neck surgery with hardware (titanium plate and screws and knee surgery) I'm really depressed and feel like just giving up and staying in bed. ?
 
The makers of OxyContin all but admitted the problems surrounding their every 12 hours dosing recommendation, knowing full well that dosing is actually needed closer to every 8 hours. I read that the reason they went with the every 12 hour level is because they had trouble getting the drug approved at the 8 hour level, so they backed off and listed to redose at every 12 hours. Most doctors, believe it or not, have no idea of this fact and continue to think the drug actually lasts for 12 hours. Luckily, when I was on it, I was dosed at 3x a day. Thank goodness!

Like SKL said, you have in essence, reduced what you are actually getting from your meds. You now have 20 mg over 12 hours, which is the same as taking one 5 mg pill every 3 hours. That is a really small amount of medicine IMO for what you're taking it for. These doctors really do need to do better when calculating an IR med to an ER one, taking into account the slow release over many hours of the ER meds. The actual medicine doing it's job at any given time over 12 hours is really very small. Good Luck with your doctor!
 
I remember long ago when I was on Percocet 10s QID my doc decided to switch to Oxycontin 10mg every 8 hours. The difference was extremely noticable. Not only did I get much less pain relief I felt like I was withdrawing. The doctor seemed to be perplexed by this when I called and couldn't understand why I was experiencing this. Ended up by not working out and we just switched back to the old Percocet regimen.
 
RE: several people's experiences with their docs here. The ignorance of so many medical professionals about the intricacies of things like pain management, benzodiazepine addiction, Suboxone, you name it, as it intersects with recreational drug use, is astounding. It's like anything tainted with the mention of getting high suddenly turns black and white, where most of the uses, both medical and recreational, are replete with many shades of gray. It's a rare but excellent clinician who recognizes and responds to this. I'm lucky that living in a major urban center I have my choice of providers, or the black market should I ever have to resort to it, but for people with less resources it is a shame. I've often fantasized, some day, about being able to teach a class on the pharmacology of recreational and related drugs to first year med/pharm/nursing/etc students. I have the credentials but probably on marginally so, but I think I could make a good impression and give some good classes. I've sometimes toyed with the idea of starting to write a textbook. To address this very sort of ignorance. Maybe someday in the future this will be part of a mandated curicculum about not fucking over people with pain issues or addiction issues. We can only hope.
 
KUDOS...SKL on your remarks in post #6

I am one of many who suffer with no hope, because IME doctors don't give a rat's ass about actually "managing" pain.

I'm in a NIGHTMARE of existence since 1979...I can't tolerate opiates, because my "PM doctor" does not address the effect on my mutilated GI tract. I am suffering so severely as I type, trying to distract myself from my own HELL.

I went to the ER (or die, literally) on Friday, with fear of ruptured bowel or perforated colon. CT scan confirmed my fears, but doctor didn't take it seriously. He sent me home with script of Lactulose. I posted in detail on Pain Management thread. I'll just say that I'm not the only one who's full of shit. These fucking arrogant self-professed gods in white coats do not SEE, because they choose not to...or listen.

I'm thinking it's time for some Hemlock tea, exit left for me. :\
 
My dr gave a script for break thru pain if 2 Percs 7.5 in between OxyContin doses, guess what I'm still in a lot of pain!! I go back in November for my next appt. and I'm going to tell him he has to switch me back to 4 10mgs IR a day or up the frigging OxyContin! I can't live this way....
 
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