Quote from rlcowboy:

Hey, I have some questions about Methadone. Ok I am 33 yr. old male and have had 4 back surgerys in the last 7 months. I was going to pain managment for a few months before my last couple of surgerys, witch had me in the hospital for 7 weeks, they had me on oxy 40mg but I had some problems with that, like I would run out early one time, I mean way early! Anyway before leaving the hospital the same pain managment had to do a blood patch on me to stop a spinal leak. By the way all 4 surgerys were on my back, so now I have all kinds of rods and screws back there, and I have more pain now than before I had the first. Anyway one of my doctors asked me to start pain managment again, because now besides the back pain I am having severe headaches that sometimes lead to vomiting because of the pain. So the pain doc came up to my room and talked to me and we decided to try methadone instead of oxycontin and dilaudid. It is really working well but I have gone through withdrawals before and I KNOW IT IS THE ABSOLUTE worst FEELING IN THE WORLD!!There's just no way to explain how bad it is. Im just hoping I'm not going to have worst problems with the methadone, and I dont know how long I will be on it either, but right now I can barley sit here without having too much pain!! He also talked to me about the duragesic patch, he said they were the other long acting med but it really cost a-lot of money, even with insurance. I just dont want to go through all that when its time to stop the med, witch may not be anytime soon.I just know with the methadone I never feel like taking more than prescribed and it really works longer and to me better than the oxycontin!!I have heard and read the methadone is harder to get off of than any other pain med.!! What do ya think? Instead of tappering with the methadone, why not just switch to another pain med and then stop so the w/ds wont be as bad?? I am really sorry so long.

Had 2 neck surgerys in the 1990's that left me with bad headaches. Pain managment put me on Methadone and it really helped for several years. Was taking 9 pills aday. Also on amitriptyline at night. I got so that it wasn't doing anything any more so it was time to tapper down. It was ugly, ended up in ER. Then was put on Ms Contin and a helper for break through pain of Morhine Sulfate, that went on for 3 years. Finally at my 10 year mark of the first surgery, I asked pain mangement if I could try get a good schedule to back down from the Ms Contin. Asked why I wanted to do this, simple I wanted to see if I could live without the drugs. Took it slow and easy and got off it all. Still get tenion in my neck and a headache her and there. Now it is Tylonol thankfully. Before Methadone I had tried at least 12 other meds that did nothing, or made me sick. Good luck to you.