Re: Zanaflex, oxycontin

[Guest guest]

<<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,

Till recently i was on oxycontin every 8 hrs.

When my pain doc and his pa met with me on my 2nd visit and they put me on the

10mg oxycontin They went into great discussioon how oxy does not last 12hrs,they

told me themselves that even though the makers of oxy say it is a 12 hr medicine

that for most people it last about 8 hrs and not 12 hrs and because of that they

believe in prescribing it every 8 hrs instead of 12.I had taking it before at

the 12hrs and like with you it wore off before the 12 hrs.

It works much better taking it every 8 hrs.

Over 5 months i still had to have my oxy increased from 10 to 20 then up to

40,The 40 makes me light headed and just yucky.

I went in last week and saw the doctor instead of his pa like i usual see i

saw him and he changed me off of the oxy all together and put me on the 25 mg

patch 1 to 2 patches every 72 hrs.1 patch does not work and 2 makes me very

ill,i was on 50mg when i first saw this doctor and they took me off of it then

because i was so ill and now here i am right back on it.

I suggested what you had mentioned to me before about 30 mg of oxy or using

break thru meds with the 20 mg oxy and he refuses to give me break thru meds,I

don't understand why but months ago his pa told me the doctor after reading my

records from other doctors he decided i was not allowed to get break thru meds,i

assume one of the jerk docs i have seen in the past wrote i was a drug seeker

and thus the reason to not give me break thru meds.It really pisses me off!! I

now am dealing with a choice between pain or being so sick i can't get out bed

and even with 2 patches still deal with allot of break thru pain.

I called yesterday and told them this is not working so another hr drive to

Austin to see the doctor and prey they will get over this crap about no break

thru meds! The 20 mg worked i just had some very bad break thru pain if i tried

to do anything like clean the house,walk thru the mall,grocery shop or drive

longer then 15 mins.Break thru meds would help allot,i would only need to take

them after i did one of the above.

Anyway sorry i got off on a tangent about myself i'm just so frustrated with

these darn doctors!!!

Good luck i hope your doctor adjust the time between doses to work better for

you.

Penny

Tx

[Guest guest]

Ray in Virginia on 12/22/01 11:17 PM wrote:

>

> 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.

>

I do Ray. I take 20mg 3 times per day, with IR for breakthrough pain. My new

docs down here are switching me to Morphine, but for now I¹m still taking

that dose.

I too fought going to a larger dose. You¹re at the rock-bottom tablet dose

level, and you¹d need to increase to get coverage (to 30 mg per day, since

the baseline is 10 mg tablets).

Three times a day is pretty standard. Almost all the OC patients at my old

pain clinic were on the same schedule. If you read the professional journals

like Medpulse, Medscape etc, which I know you do, check for physician

guidelines on OC pain treatment. They know it usually lasts about 6-8 hours.

Going to 3 times a day gave me dramatic relief. I was losing it at about 4pm

every day, until bedtime, when I could take my 2nd. The third dose gave me

my evenings back.

I know where you¹re coming from- you don¹t wanna titrate up to some ungodly

dose right away, but on OC it¹s perfectly normal to get dramatic

improvements and then have them scale back, once your system gets used to

it. Most OC patients get their dose upped slightly in the beginning. It¹s

usually a small increase, so don¹t worry too much.

OR, as my old pain doc put it to me, ³You¹re still at a homeopathic dose.

Whaddya worried about?². : )

Think South Boston accent there. ; )

---

Robbie in FL, AS/ReA (RS) 18 + years and counting.

feralelf@...

[Guest guest]

Hi Ray,

I'm not on oxycontin, but I'm on methadone. I started out with it at 5mg

every 12 hours, then about a month later, added another dose in so that I

was taking 5mg every 8 hours (6am, 2pm, 10pm), and then just last month,

the doctor raised me again to 10mg every 8 hours. I'm getting really good

pain control, although the more pain control I get, the more activity I do,

so the more pain control I need because I'm getting back to a " normal "

life<g>. I absolutely could NOT be on an every 12 hour schedule, or I

would be spending half the day in bed. My biggest problem is that if I

ever DO start hurting during the day (I'm on 3 lortabs a day for

breakthrough pain in addition to the methadone), then there's nothing that

stops the pain short of lying down and sleeping for a couple or three

hours. Even if it's close to my scheduled dose of methodone when I start

hurting, and I take the dose right on time, it still doesn't take care of

the pain unless I take a nap also. So I've pretty much learned how to pace

myself so that I DON'T start hurting (unless I have time for a nap<g>).

This means that at the first twinge of back pain, I'm taking a lortab to

try and head it off and making myself sit down and take it easy for a half

hour or so. But - to answer your quesstion<g> - YES, the every 8 hour

schedule works for me too. Oh - I'm like you in another respect that my

muscles start spasming also, even on 20mg of baclofen every 8 hours if I

let myself get too worn out or the pain gets too bad - in fact, I'm sitting

in the bed right now jerking around like I'm having a seizure because I

spent all day today cooking and cleaning (way more than I should have) and

my back is telling me ALL about it.

-

At 11:17 PM 12/22/01 -0500, you wrote:

>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