DrugBuyers.Com: Oxycontin & Methadone?????

Thanks for the input everyone!! I do not know what I would do without this place sometimes! I mean who else would I have been able to ask this question of, my mom, my dad, my neighbor, NOPE, no one.....and that's why I love all of you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!!! O.K. enough lovey doveyness (my own made up word obviously!)

First I wanted to say to Pakersfan that I was so shocked to hear you Bombed from half of the 10 mg methaodne pill. I mean, WOW!!! I guess it is surprising because you really were taking what most would probably assume to be a pretty high amount of narcotics to begin with, therefore only 5mg of methadone somehow did not seem like a lot to me, but I guess it effects everyone differently. I never got "bombed" or "knocked out" at all from the methadone. I never felt anything but pain relief, and even that soon faded, as the extent of my pain finally reaered its ugly head.
Although on that note PACKERSFAN......I was so happy to hear that the combo you are now on has worked so well for your pain. I mean really, at the end of the day thats all that really matters, right? So I am really happy for you!

When I was first prescribed the methadone, the dose was initially set at 80mg daily. That was eventually increased to 85mg daily. I was then brought down by 5mg every month, or two. Now keep in mind that I was being prescribed this methadone again, by my family doctor, not through any kind of pain clinic. She had once again taking such a professional risk with me, and continues to do so.

So I had been on the methadone at a decreasing amount for about 8 months when suddenly my recovery took a turn for the worse. Instead of getting stronger and feeling less pain, it seemed as though my pain was increasing week to week. It was not until that first MRI post surgery that my surgeon realized that my recovery would be significantly different than from those without ant of these complications. However this surgeon (one of the best in his field I might add) was completely anti-narcotics. He initially had me on 5mg of vicodin, then switched me to Neurontin, even after the results of my MRI showed major scar tissue was now surrounding and pressing on my nerve, he was still convinced narcotics were not the way to go. Thankfully his anti-methadone stance once again did not move my doctor to give up. If anything after she received the MRI results we then discussed different pain control ideas. ie duragesic (which I tried but sadly I had a horrible allergic reaction to) and then we tried MS Contin, but then ended up trying the Oxycontin and it turned out to be the best thing for my pain, EVER!!!!

Like I said in my first post, even though my tolerance was building, a decrease of the oxycontin every month- 2 months was still not that horrible. And to answer NIGHT_SHADES question regarding what dose of each med I was taking, well its as follows: The Methadone was as mentioned above, at the high, 85mg daily, then I went down to 55mg daily. It was then that I switched over to the duragesic, where I eventually went up to 3- 100 patches and several 25's. I think it was a total of 325-375 as directed.(whatever the crazy little sign for how many milligrams was in each patch were, as it was written on the package.)I think my doctor messed up with that one. She somehow did not do the right conversion, although she does not admit that, but anyway, I was slappin' on far more of those patches then I ever should have been. I am lucky that I had an allergic reactiona and developed such a bad rash under the patches, as I think that rash was the only thing stopping the med on the patch to make it into my blood stream. Strange tot hink that maybe that was my own bodies defense mechanism against maybe too high of dose, I mean, thats strong stuff andis pretty dangerous, you know? Anyway, after 2 weeks with the rashes under each patch, my doctor and I finally realized I better just go off of it all together.

Then I was put on the Oxycontin: I think I started at 270mg daily, and up to 8 of the 5mg oxycodones daily for break through pain.

I am now at 180 of the oxycontin, yet the oxycodones are suprisingly still prescribed as up to 8 daily, with a great emphasis on the "as needed".

Thats where I am at, so as you can imagine, fearing being out of such a high dose of these is pretty scary. I am already 100% out of the 5mg oxycodones. However last month I was prescribed it on a different day, so I am able to get that filled in 7 days, not the now 9 days like for the oxycontin.

So I have really been doing my best to fix my own mess here, and just deal with having to suddenly lower my dose so much, especailly since the main reason I increased it this month to start with was because for some reason my back has been hurting more than ever, which of course only makes all of this that much more unbearable, in every respect.

Luckily I have learned my lesson now! I will never ever take more than I am supposed to without discussing it with my doctor first! As for now, I guess after reading everything that you all wrote, well I think I may just go ahead and take the methadone along with the oxycontins until I can get my next refill. I mean right now I am not only feeling the effects of such a dramatic drop in the amount of milligrams of the oxycodone via the oxycontins and the 5mg oxycodones, but I am also keenly aware of the reason I increased my amounts this month to begin with, and that was my increased back pain. Oh GOD I want to die right now. The pain is so much more profound than it had been with a higher dose (duh!) but all I can think of is how dumb I was in doing that. Did I really believe I could equal my self out before my next refill? Well i was stupid. I am the first to admit that!!!!!

But I am now sorta scared as well. My back is so bad that I am not able to sleep and I can not inrease what few oxycontins I have left or else I will be completely out even sooner, meaning I'd basically be up sh!t creek, if you know what i mean??

So for those of you taking the methadone along with the other narcotics, do you have any "unoffical" advice for how much methadone I should take intermixed with the oxycontins, until my next refll? I know there were a few comments that I should NOT mix the 2 without having a rx that says to do so, but right now I don't really see any other choice. I had already once, when I first got the oxycontins, I was putting them in my weekly pill dispencer and they spilled in the sink. I lost almost 16 of them, and a few others lost part of their coating, meaning if I did take any of them, I woudl get the immediate dose, as I learned the coating is also part of the slow realese function. Therefore my doctor had to give me more. Then several, several months later my husband picked up my oxycodone for me and then went golfing. Somehow, someway he either lost them or someone stole them, but who cared how it happened, bottom lone was 240 - 5mg oxycodones were now GONE, and that was almost an impossible thing for even me to believe, let alone my poor doctor. But I know thats what happened as my husband cant even take an aspirin without getting knocked out, so there was no way he was lying about the missing meds because he wanted them himself, or for any other reason at all. I mean we don't even know anyone in this new town, so what could he possible do with them? He finally realized he screwed up in that he thought he had locked the car but after getting his golf clubs out of the back and having his hands full and his keys back in his pocket, that he did admit that he had not locked the car, therefore meaning someone opened the car door and stole them. He later came clean in saying that his sunglasses and 6 CD's were also gone, but he felt like such a moron at the time that he did not even admit it at first. Well that suc*ed as had he filed a police report it would have been much easier to explain. Without that proof, I just looked like another "drug-seeker" using the same ole' tactics as all others, "some fell down my sink, they got stolen, blah blah blah! I mean whats next, my dog ate them? Geez, I better knock on wood or else that too may happen at the rate I am going,HA!. However for some odd reason my doctor believed in me and trusted me enough to once again fully relace the entire 240 pills. Crazy huh?

So I can not go to her yet again and ask for an early refill. Especially since this time it WAS my own fault, and I did do something that neither she nor the pharmacy would allow, under any circumstances. Heck, especially the pharmacy, as they are always rude to me in there but because it is part of my HMO and is loacted in the same office buiding as my doctor, I have no real choice but to keep going there. They are so strict that unless my doctor SPECIFICALLY changed the dose (increased it) they would not refill it early anyway.

So with all of the basis covered here, can anyone tell me what they would do? If they had an old bottle of about 18, 5mg methadones left, would they take them in ocnjunction with the oxycontins until their next full refill? If so, how much and when? All together, or at different times throughout the day?

Thanks again everyone, and I once again apologize for such a long post!

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Flea