Zanaflex, oxycontin

[Guest guest]

Crone elle in Oregon previously wrote: About 6 weeks ago my doc

started me on samples of Zanaflex. I alredy take OxyContin (40mg 4

times a day) and Paxil (20 mg) for

chronic back pain resulting from work related injuries over 3 years

ago.

Crone,

Glad you decided to come out of hiding and share your experiences

with us. Keep us posted on your " personal experiences " with pain

control.

I've been taking oxycontin 10 mg. every twelve hours for several

months now. I'm suppose to go back to see the pain clinic doctor

in January. I'm going to ask that he change the prescription to 10

mg. every eight hours.

The 10 mg dose (time release) is enough to lower my pain levels to

a good functioning ability, however, the pain soars starting six to

eight hours post dose. The difference is rather remarkable. When

I hit bottom with the pain I will take the next pill and within an

hour I feel like conquering the world again.

This situation has me on a yo-yo like existence. Up and down, in

pain and out, active and unable to move, you get the picture. One

of the worst parts of it is that when the oxycontin wears off I get

terrific muscle spasms that have me jerking all over like I'm

having a seizure.

To increase my ability to accomplishy things I take the first

oxycontin tablet at around 7 AM. This means that by 2 PM I'm

crashing and need to go to bed. I take the second tablet then,

rest an hour, and am able to keep functioning through dinner as

well as spend some quality time with my youngest daughter and wife.

Since I cannot take another tablet I usually take my other

medications including Ambien (sleep aide) and just go to bed. It

is a very unrestful sleep due to the high levels of pain, but what

else can I do?

I've noticed that many others have reported the time=release

tablets as wearing off after about 8 hours. Is there anyone that

takes the oxycontin on an every eight hour basis? I really don't

want to increase the amount of medication, just the times I take

it.

Ray in Virginia