I'm wondering about people who have/had used oxycontin for pain relief. At present, I'm in heavy to severe pain due to nerves/muscles "waking up". EMG has shown that I have got electrical signal going to/from nerves that were 0 signal since my accident March last year. Anyway I take 400 mg tramal (200mg time release X 2), Endep (anti-depressant, taking for pain relief. 50mg 25 X 2 just before bed), 3 g paracetamol, 1200 mg ibuprofen (recently started taking as we're hoping it helps with new pain) and oxycontin. I am very tolerant to morphine and oxycontin naturally. Morphine in normal sized doses has NEVER worked on me every time I have needed it (after operations and initially givn by paramedics after my bike accident)
Anyway with oxycontin, I initially started it again about 2 months ago. Started with 10mg dose. 3 days later, it hd 0 effect. Moved to 20. Every 3-4 days the current dose I was having became ineffective until about 120mg per dose. Even then, it doesn't "do that much". It does help me manage the pain that the other pain stuff doesn't manage. I do not feel a high from it, only the initial relief that the pain I was feeling (when I first wake up and about 6-7 hours later, I am back to baseline so my second proper dose is roughly 4 hrs of it. i.e I have it at 6:30am and 5-6 pm that day).
It's been just ok of late. Sometimes the 120mg initial dose doesn't help much so I supplement with 40mg and sometimes need another 40-80mg in the next 2-3 hrs. Some days it's good, some days 120mg seems ineffective at managing pain. I've been doing this for about 2-3 weeks. My local G.P (general practitioner doctor) and I have been working pretty closely together and we have a good bond. I don't lie to him and he is ok with what he gives to me. Initially he was hesitant with giving me "high" doses until he did some research. I initially was prescribed oxycontin by a pain management specialist who takes a few weeks to get an appointment with so I visit my GP each week or so for another script when current oxycontin is about to run out.
Today my GP was different. He told me I should cut down my dose as it seems he was "told by someone" what I should be having. The thing that made me think this is my local chemist said almost the same thing word for word a few minutes after I finished when I went to get get the oxycontin script filled. As said, I seem to not get much effect from oxycontin "for what it is for people normally" but it does help me manage in a way (it doesn't keep me completely pain free/lack of worry or whatever way to describe it) as I personally don't want to be "high"/free of feeling ANY pain as I feel that feeling a little bit of pain keeps me alert on any changes if I suddenly "feel different".
With the GP and chemist telling me I should cut down (as it seemed they wanted to show that they thought this wasn't their thoughts) I am beginning to worry I will be forced to take a dose that will have the pain being back to uncomfortable to have on a day to day basis. When this happens, I just feel crap and "struck down" and generally hate the way that makes me feel. I.e I can't do much to anything and usually sleep all day as that is the way my body/mind seems to handle "too much pain". I sleep it off. I really don't want to sleep off the unmanageable pain daily. I've booked in with my pain management specialist in 2-3 weeks and would like to get anecdotal reports from people who have been in similar/same situations. Do people who take oxycontin (and haven't felt "a high"?) daily and come off it ok? Last week I "grin and beared it" to test myself how I would manage not having the oxycontin, I still took the other pain relief drugs. I wanted to see if I still "needed" the oxycontin. Anyway, I felt the pain that I felt when I woke up, some got managed from normal pain stuff I had and felt pretty crap. I slept a lot as per norm when I have unmanageable pain. I didn't have any withdrawal effects from the research I have done. "flu like" symptoms, cold sweats, aches and pains ALL over, headaches and a WANT for oxycontin. Well I didn't experience any of them, just the pain I have in my injured areas (upper arm + shoulder).
Sorry if I am repeating myself or not making much sense. I've felt like I've been "hit by a car" from the shock and thoughts of possible crap days/weeks I am "looking forward to" if I 'must' cut down to make whoever told the doctor + chemist what they were told happy. I'll research more about people's anecdotal reports on using oxycontin as opposed "just" clincal reports.
Thanks all for "putting up with" this post, I don't want to come off like a "junkie missing their hit" as actually missing oxycontin isn't a worry, it's the pain associated with not taking more pain killers than "the routine" stuff I've been taking. I would also like to hear if people have alternatives with their pain management routines or know of alternatives from research/being told by health experts. Any information given will be highly appreciated by me, that's for sure! I don't know what the pain management specialist will do, he might be able to prescribe something else that will make everyone happy (myself the main one that counts
)Thanks!