I am not complaining I got on oxycotin but I would really like to know if I will ever get used to it. I am always SO tired, my memory is shot and I feel so unmotivated. It has not changed how much I can do during the day and that is the thing that is depressing me the most. I want to rake leaves. How long did it take for YOU to get used to these strong pain relievers????
Hey Roxy!
I am now on Kadian (partially synthetic long release morphine) I am on 3 of those a day one is good for 12 hours and each hour they put 50mg of morphine in your system. So every hour for 12 hours minimal I have 150mg of morphine put into my system. This method is actually much stronger than Oxycontin. I tried Oxycontin for a month and it didn't help me not a bit, it didn't even make me feel sleepy. I mean they were like eating M&M's they had no effect at all on me. So then they put me on straight regular morphine, 30mg tablets that all of it hits you at once and that barely helped then we went to this really strong Kadian started on 2 of them then went to 3, 3 of them for me is perfect. But I just use it for flares which I have been in one for about 3 months and that is the time I have been in pain management. So my breakthru pain med used to be Percocets but they didn't do crap. So then we tried Roxycodone take one every 4 hours or two every 6 hours. That was the right one for me too.
So for me it didn't take long at all to find the right pain medication combo for me thanks to me being in pain management. But Oxycontin just has the same narcotic as Oxycodone and Percocet does which Oxycodone is the generic of Percocet, the only difference with the narcotic in that Percocet and in that Oxycontin is Oxycontin is just quite a bit more of it and it's in a extended time released form. That is the only difference.
Now my Roxycodone is just narcotic it doesn't have any Tylenol or IBU in it. It's just straight up narcotic but my Roxycodone is related to Oxycontin (Generic Percocet, same thing as one) and Oxycodone (those two have the same, identical narcotic in both). But my Roxycodone is like 2 steps up from a Percocet 10mg of the narcotic and it's 3 steps up from Vicodin or any form of Hydrocodone.
So really my meds are quite a bit stronger than yours but like you said perfectly, once we got to the bigger meds they made me feel sleepy. For me it took about a month if that long to get used to them. But I am 18 so I generate a tolerance to anything very quickly. I have the drug tolerance of a drug addict (I swear I am not one though!!! LOL) it is just from having JRA and not from being put on so many pain pills, I just started taking any kind of pain pill what so ever a year ago! It's just from where I have been put on so many different medicines period. Like the tons of NSAIDs thru the years all of those failed DMARDs the anti-depressents, etc, etc, etc. So thanks to all of that junk that I had to start taking at the age of 10 now for something to make me sleep has to be potent and at a high dose. Usually what will keep me asleep for one night is enough to make someone else sleep for a week. LOL! So that's a small part of the reason I am on such powerfull pain medications. Technically they have me down as having what they call Severe Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and severe Mixed Connective Tissue Disease which pretty much is like having RA in tissue like muscles, tendons, that kind of thing. I've had the connective tissue disease for a year and a half now and I have had the JRA since the age of 10. At least that is when I was diagnosed but all of my MD's think I have had it since day one. Another reason I have such a strong drug tolerance is because my immune system is outragiously strong. I haven't been sick in 3 years and for 2 of those years I have been on Enbrel.
But like I said it took me about a month before it stopped making me sleepy. But I still won't drive if I have to take even one of them. I know I could do it but I just don't like the idea of it. Because even though you get to the point to where it doesn't make you sleepy anymore and my pain management specialist told me this, the medications will still alter your sense of judgement, reflexes, and drain your energy as to most people narcotic pain medications are a depressent to their systems meaning it makes them sleepy and such like you are saying. But there are some people that can take it and they will be jumping around like a little crack addict LOL! because it acts like a stimulant on their system but still their sense of judgement will be different, reflexes will be different, just the same as with the people that the medications make sleepy.
So see we're all different and react differently. As where it took me a month at most to get used to my little coctail it could take you 2 or 3 months for you to get used to yours or you may end up having to get the dose lowered. You can't cut those caplets in two though! You'll end up having an overdose that way because the special coating that allows only so much to come out will be comprimised. Even if they don't look like they have the coating, they do of some sort. I have seen plain looking tablets and some how they are time released. So like people you can expect all different colors, shapes, and sizes.
But I started out just on Vicoprofen which is hydrocodone and Ibuprofen. My PCP gave me those but when they just didn't help that's when he sent me to pain management and they dropped the Vicoprofen and put me on Percocet 10's but like I said it didn't work and we just had to try something else for that month or up the dosage. The doctor from pain management that put me on my present combo that works wasn't even my doctor, he just took a few of my docs appointments for her to help out. So I am glad he saw me instead! lol!
When she saw what he did she asked me if it helped me and I told her it did but the Kadian needed to be increased by 1 capsule and she agreed. So lucky me finally found something to kind of take the edge off. But if I were you, I would do like I do and when you take your strong pain meds, stay inside for that day and that night. Because while you are out at anytime those meds can hit you and if you're walking and you have your pulse up when it hits you then you are going to get dizzy and feel like you are falling off the earth. I know this because my docs warned me even just with the percocets. So if you take anything more than tramadol (docs keep me in it to take 400mg if the pain isn't too bad or if I need some relief even just a little but I have something I have to do later), don't go out, not even to rake leaves, just sit on the porch and go no further and keep a cordless phone or cell phone with you while you are on the porch just incase.
I thought they were full of crap, and I had to take my medicine then I went with my sister to the mall. I was walking then all of a sudden it was like I lost all of my bearings, forgot where I was going and why I was going there, I mean it was like a total brain hiccup and if I didn't have my sister there who knows what would've happened. I would've had to use my cellphone to call my parents to get a ride if I was by myself but whenever my sister and I go she always takes her car and I ride with her. I was very happy for that after that happened. So I mean even when you feel just peachy and you aren't hurting as bad as before, still stay home. It may save your life. Always remember too, never ever drink while you are on narcotics this strong, not even a whine cooler.
I hope this has helped you out a lot. Hang in there with it if it helps, you may not find anything else that does!
Hugs,
-Randy
Randy, What an excellent explanation. My instincts must be right as I am afraid to drive. I just hate it I can't remember a conversation I had an hour ago. It is unlikely I will go lower in strength as I still get breakthrough pain. I have had enough pain. Sick of it. Whatever it takes to not feel pain, I will take it. I sure would like to rake leaves thoughBut yes on the being afraid to drive, people don't realise how much it takes to drive yet alone the conscious ability you must have to drive safely without hurting yourself or others. You have to be fully aware of everything around you at all times. Always have some idea of where you are going, stuff like that. Because of these meds they could cause you not to look into your mirror before switching lanes then you could end up hitting someone. Just like how you can't remember a conversation the same thing can happen in that car as if you haven't been driving for years and years, but just now started driving. Plus they inhibit your vision you could see 2 cars then have to decide which is the real one, horrible sceanarios like that. So you have to think if you are on the inside lane when that happens, how in the world will you be able to navigate to the outside lane safely to pull over on the shoulder then call for help? You'd need someone to come and pick you up and someone to follow you home in your car, that's ideal. But if you have to leave your car then leave it. A car is replaceable, you aren't. Plus they are easier to fix! lol! Also another thing I did is I have friends all thru town and I just explained it to them and some of them know what I am talking about as they have to take these meds themselves but what I do is just explain it to them and ask them should confusion or sudden tiredness occur that if they would mind if you stayed there for a few hours till you improve or to wait on someone to come and get you. So I have pretty much made what I call "safe houses" along every direction that I normally travel. That's another tip I can give ya.
But what will help more than anything is your instints, and good old common sense. Knowing all of this and knowing how to plan just in case could save your life and the lives of others if you didn't know what to do and just kept going on the highway you'd be endangering others too not just yourself. So that's another thing you can use to kind of reinforce and really get these "protocols" in a case of "emergency" due to your pain meds in your head and then follow them as if they were law.
Just one more thing, don't ever carry like a few of your pain pills with you or anything like that because you don't have proof they are yours. Like, heaven forbid, if you got pulled over then searched and an officer found them the first thing they would do is use the pill book that every cop keeps in their cruser and they would identify the pills as being narcotics then in the back of the car you go to county jail. Now once you showed proof they were yours they'd probably let you go but it would just be a gigantic headache so even if it's an old bottle, as long as it has the description of the pills and your name on it, you're alright.
One person I know didn't know that and they carried like 5 of their Oxycontins incase they were out and needed one. They just kept that many incase they forgot to refill it after they had used just that one, you know the drill with us and forgetting stuff. Well she got pulled over and from where the cop saw she was a chronic pain paitent he searched the vehicle and she was within 1000ft of a school and here if you are that close with those meds even on the highway, it is so many years in prison per pill!
So they took her to jail but after her husband brought her bottles and they had the description of the pills on them and with her name on them, they let her go and sincerely apologized but it was a major headache for her because rumors got started and you know how that goes because this is a small town. But anyway, just always carry the bottle if you are going to carry any on you. Which you shouldn't take one while out and about unless someone else is driving like if you were out with your hubby then it'd be ok.
Two more things and you'll know all you need to know about these pain meds, Common Sense is a powerful thing, always use your common sense. And the last thing but most certainly not the least, when in doubt, go with no. Meaning if you can't remember if you took one, assume you did till you could take the next one, or if you aren't sure you can handle going out, don't go out. Simple as that!
Good luck and I hope they find something that helps you! Kadian what I am on is a very good one though because it's like customized pain relief like the med is just finely tuned like just for your pain level. www.kadian.com and you can read about it there and suggest it to pain management or whoever treats your pain. Like I said, that's the only one like that that I have had any luck with what so ever.
Take Care and best of luck!
-Randy
Roxy. See if you can switch to another narcotic...like morphine. It is