Opioids Question on Dilaudid/Oxycontin vs Dilaudid / Fentanyl

[Bostonterror]

I was diagnosed with cancer in November 2010 and the cancer spread to my bones. I am stable now and have gotten excellent treatment but the cancer is incurable in my bone. One thing I have never been able to get a handle on is effective pain management. My doctors are amazing but I can not find the right combination to work for me.

I have a question for anyone who is familiar with oxycontin. I have basically tried every pain medication under the sun and prior to getting diagnosed with cancer never took a pain med except maybe Aleve! I found what works for break through pain is Dilaudid but because it wears off so quick I needed a longer term solution. My doctor tried me on Morphine which did nothing and we also tried Fentanyl which did not really affect me either. As soon as it kicked in I would get sick.

The last five months I have been off pain meds completely because I have had no flare ups. Last week I got a flare up in my right femur and can barely walk now on that leg. Today the doctor prescribed Oxycontin to replace the Fentanyl. She gave me the lowest dose which is 20mg and told me to take 1 tablet in the morning and 1 at night. As of right now Dilaudid is doing absolutely NOTHING. I take 4mg 4 times a day and it does not even take the edge off. I am hoping some of you could give me some feedback on if oxycontin has worked for you. Its my last hope. I am going to fill the prescription tomorrow but I was curious what some of your experiences with it was for pain and if it worked well. Thanks alot!!!!

 

[brighton]

What exactly is your question? How have people found oxycontin for pain?? I think its amazing for my chronic pain.
You should check out the pain management mega thread too - http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/635645-The-Pain-Management-Mega-Thread-version-3-0

 

[BiggDirty01]

I was diagnosed with cancer in November 2010 and the cancer spread to my bones. I am stable now and have gotten excellent treatment but the cancer is incurable in my bone. One thing I have never been able to get a handle on is effective pain management. My doctors are amazing but I can not find the right combination to work for me.

I have a question for anyone who is familiar with oxycontin. I have basically tried every pain medication under the sun and prior to getting diagnosed with cancer never took a pain med except maybe Aleve! I found what works for break through pain is Dilaudid but because it wears off so quick I needed a longer term solution. My doctor tried me on Morphine which did nothing and we also tried Fentanyl which did not really affect me either. As soon as it kicked in I would get sick.

The last five months I have been off pain meds completely because I have had no flare ups. Last week I got a flare up in my right femur and can barely walk now on that leg. Today the doctor prescribed Oxycontin to replace the Fentanyl. She gave me the lowest dose which is 20mg and told me to take 1 tablet in the morning and 1 at night. As of right now Dilaudid is doing absolutely NOTHING. I take 4mg 4 times a day and it does not even take the edge off. I am hoping some of you could give me some feedback on if oxycontin has worked for you. Its my last hope. I am going to fill the prescription tomorrow but I was curious what some of your experiences with it was for pain and if it worked well. Thanks alot!!!!

Ok, my advice is coming from someone with 3 spinal fusion surgeries under my belt in the last 18 months and have been on every med under the sun. Last year after my first surgery I was put on Dilaudid 8mg every 4 hrs, 200mcg fentanyl every 2 days, MsContin 100 every 4 hours and 60mg methadone and this year just methadone and either dilaudid or oxycodone 30mg.

To me there are a few options for you to consider

A) Extended Release: MsContin
Instant Release: Dilaudid

B) Extended Release: MsContin
Instant Release: Opana

C) Extended Release: Methadone
Instant Release: Dilaudid

D) Extended Release: Methadone
Instant Release : Opana

E) Extended Release: Opana ER
Instant Release: Dilaudid

F) Extended Release: Opana ER
G) Instant Release: Actiq (IR Fentanyl)

I didn't mention any oxycodone combinations because I don't think, even at say Oxy IR every 3 hrs (240mg), that you would get sufficient pain relief (and probably more of a buzz than analgesia).

If you have further questions please feel free to PM me privately if you need to.

 

[Treefa]

dilaudid has a bad oral bioavailability. I snorted an 8mg and felt no pain..for like 4 hours then i was back to square 1.

 

[MrRoot]

Well according to my Dr 20mg oxycodone equals 4mg hydromorphone when both are 12 hr sustained release. Therefore 20mg Oxycontin would not be enough imho. Try first though as the Dr said and call him and ask to titrate up if the 20mg + 20mg is not enough as he will most likely do that. In fact she should have gave you orders to do so.

In my opinion OxyContin works better for analgesia in chronic pain because it feels as a stable relief. You might got some breaktrough but that can be handled with smaller mg IR capsules. Reason I switched to sustained release hydromorphone (Dilaudid) was the sweating the OxyContin caused.

My (chronic) pain cames from herniated disc, so it is quite different than yours but I went up to 40mg Oxycontin twice a day. I guess if I would have had incurable cancer in my bone I could have got much bigger amounts. Like 60 to 80 mg twice a day plus lots of 5 mg instant release.

But anyways. Oxycodone is very good analgesic but as it is strong (well of course there are stronger but I mean stronger than codeine for example.) it must be gradually titrated up to the point where there are no pain (or atleast no severe pain).

The idea of uncurable cancer in anywhere just gives me the creeps. I truly hope you can manage through. Godspeed.