Need to reduce my 360mg per day of OxyContin help

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my consultant has told me that after 25yrs of using prescribed opioids they will not be working for me and are in fact making my pain worse, my comment "you put me on them" so he would like me to reduce them by about half, I don't seem to have any dependent signs but I bet they're there just waiting to pounce. The last time I tried I reduced by 10mg but could feel the difference in the pain so didn't pursue it but I have nowhere to go for my breakthrough pain, I take other drugs to but I have stopped the Ketamine, didn't do much anyway, any help would be much appreciated.

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  • Posted

    Hi Julie: I am so glad your physician is working with you. You didn't indicate what type pain introduced you to the opioid. Many people start with post-op, and feel they have to take all of them. Tapering is also very important. After my spinal stenosis I took Oxy for a couple weeks. I was still having a good deal of pain, and was very uncomfortable. Fortunately, I have a great fcp, and we decided on a regimen of Gabapentin and Tramadol. I can't believe how great I feel. The tram takes care of the DJD, and spinal arthritis while the gabby handles the nerve pain from the stenosis. If your pain is similar to this I would suggest discussing this with your family care physician. Good luck!

    • Posted

      Hello, thank you for taking the time to reply to me.  My story or journey has been a long and complicated onebut here's the basics, I wrote this for 

      Ritchie so please forgive any overlaps.

      happy reading

      Are you sitting comfortably?

      25 yrs ago I was 32 and had three small children aged 4, 5 & 6 whitest leaving work I missed the bottom 2" step and broke my ankle, I heard it snap owwww! Was taken to A&E put in a half cast three days later a full cast, it was ok I was hobbling around towards the end of the 6 wks, went to get the plaster removed and when the guy took it off he called for a dr, I've never seen anything like it it was mottled black, green and red it looked like a movie prop, any way a few hours and tests later they said I had 

      reflex 

      sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) next followed a year of physio and hydro every day except Sunday but it just got worse and more painful by the end of that yr I was on 5mg  mst. Next came some sympathetic nerve blocks but they didn't work so they decided to remove my sympathetic nerves from the spinal cord but in doing so the damaged the nerves to right hip and groin and I got an abscess on my cord causing mor damage and pain, I then ended up in a wheelchair although I still managed to use my elbow crutches indoors. The next 13mths was spent in hospital they let me home for some weekends my husband was and is an absolute saint.  They then told me of this new invention called a dorsal column stimulator I was to be the second person in the U.K. To be fitted with this and they said it would solve all my pain issues, can you guess what comes next? Yep it didn't work, so they'd now taken 2 discs to be able to get this thing in, when some healing time had passed they switched it on it was the strangest feeling but it did help with the pain for three days when it stopped working on the right leg and started on the left leg! So the did it again and again and again, each time ment 6wks flat on my back and the MST is going up after 13 attempts they sent me to see the top neurosurgeon in the U.K. At the Royal London. He said I can fix this no problem after 5 more try's I said that enough was enough and I wasn't playing any more, they weren't very happy but as you can imagine I couldn't take it any more, so they took all of the stuff out from inside me all except 2 small pieces of tattainum which have embed right in the spinal cord, that was the end of 98 and I have refused to play their game since so from that point there's nothing they can do for me other than pain management I'm under Chester and I also see 

      Andras Gobal at the Walton pain center, I take other meds, Tegrotol they like to use it for pain, Gabbapentin would be better but I'm allergic, propranolol For the headaches the OxyContin gives me and zopiclone to help me sleep. They also changed the name of the condition a few years ago to Cronic Complex Regional PIn Syndrome ( CCRPS) I've recently been offered som deep brain stimulation I'm sure you can imagine my reply, lol. 

      For me the first thing I think of in the morning is Pain and the last thing is Pain, to be honest it's always pain, I have learnt over the years how to help myself and that's distraction if you give both your hands and you brain something else to focus on it definitely makes a difference

      well I hoped I've not bored you to death and thank you for reading.

      incidentily I asked my consultant many, many times over the years if I would be addicted to the opioids and the consensus was that your body useses it in a different way for Pain I never really believed him but I do think that they should hold up there hands and offer as much supper as they can.

      if there's any thing else you want to know please ask.

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