I was prescribed Oxycontin, a narcotic that is supposed to give 12 hours of pain relief. I never have gotten more than 8 hours. I worried also about my increasing tolerance and lived in more pain than I needed to for a couple of years. What happended for me was that my wife called my PM Dr. and told him that I was in more pain than I was telling him. He had me come in and told me that there was no reason for me to be in pain, as I responded to the opiates pretty well. He told me not to worry about the tolerance. He said eventually it would level off. He was almost pissed because he said that he had patients that NOTHING works to relieve their pain and I should trust him and let him treat me. I let my Dr. prescribe me more pain meds until I was pain free most of the time. My tolerance eventually leveled out - far from the end of the scale. I have plenty of room for more tolerence should my pain become more severe.

I currently take 3 80mg Oxycontins, 6 Dilaudids and a 50mcg Duragesic patch every 2 days.

As I take Oxycontin and Duragesic(another time released med), I was give oxycodone and then Dilaudid for break through pain and to cover the 4 hour gaps between the Oxycontin. The trick is to get the pain meds in your system before the pain gets bad. Numerous studies have shown opiates are more effective if you use them before the pain gets bad. For me, once it gets bad, no amount of drugs will relieve it. Thats what the BT is supposed to be for, to give you a turbo boost past the pain so you can get ahead of it. There are times when I don't need the BT meds, but by the end of the month I've usually almost exhausted all of the BT meds.

I've found the Dilaudid to be the best BT drug for me, but the oxycodone usually worked too.

I don't know if this helps and forgive me if I've told you what you've already learned.

Best of luck and never give up.