Hi all, :wave:

I have been a chronic pain patient for years. I also see a chiropractor. Unfortunately, this last year, another chronic pain issue has occurred and I now suffer with 3 painful conditions.

The pain clinic treats me with medication therapies. They include Ibprophe, Duragesic Patch (25) and Percocet 10/325. I was to take up to 6 a day and/or 8 a day on really bad days. This allowed me to take 2 Percocet at a time. 20 Mg. Each time. However, my doctor preferred I stick to 6 a day which became impossible the last several months. He said to me “when you are ready, we will discus changing your medications. Methadone is a great medication for chronic pain.” I panicked at this point and never mentioned that I needed up to 8 Percocet every day instead of just 6 (and 8 on really bad days because with my condition, there is no telling how many bad days there will be!!!) because I do not want to take Methadone! But I finally had to give in and tell him it was time for a change on one condition...Anything but Methadone. I am just not comfortable with that. So he asked me what I wanted to try and I said “I don’t have a clue. I don’t know how this works” He then prescribed me Roxicete 15mg 4x’s a day.

I just started taking this Roxicet today and the problem is, I see absolutely no difference! Well, that’s not exactly true. My pain control is worse than when I could take 2 (10mg) Percocets at a time. With Roxicet, you can’t take 2 at a time. He explained to me that even though I am used to taking 20mg of Percoet at a time, the 15mg Roxicet will work better. It hasn’t and it’s frustrating!

Now what? Anyone else switch from percocet to Roxicet and benefit from it? Have I not given it enough time? I am afraid to call him and say “uhm, this medicine sucks!” Well, you get my drift. It just doesn’t work as well and I guess it’s because it’s along the same lines as percocet which he already said I had a tolerance to so why give me this other than?

Hi Prince,

While I would never presume to speak for another person, I think what shore was doing was honestly reacting to your statements.
You yourself said that you sometimes take 8 per day of the percocet, even though that is more than is prescibed, and that 'you panicked and didnt mention it'.
One subject that is discussed here on an almost daily basis is the role of LA or long acting meds. Their whole purpose is to take us out of that up and down cycle that short acting meds cause. The doctor put you on the patch, with a break through med. If you are not only taking the breakthrough med daily, but occasionally exceeding your prescibed doseage. It is an obvious statement that your LA med is not sufficient for you.
Instead of communicating with your doctor, and raising your LA med, you chose to use your breakthrough meds.
No where on this board will you see one of us tell you thats a great thing, because its not. it is counter productive to your successful pain management.
I am not going to say anything about methadone, because to me, the bigger problem here seems to be that your communication with your doctor has completely broken down.
I would urge you to be honest with your doctor, and try going to a higher dosage of the patch, really, percocet or roxicet, if you need your breakthrough meds more than 3-5 times a week, they are no longer breakthrough meds, they are part of your regimine.
I wish you much luck and I hope to read more of your posts.
Your Friend, Fabby :wave:

[QUOTE=Fabrashamx;3007194]Hi Prince,

While I would never presume to speak for another person, I think what shore was doing was honestly reacting to your statements.
You yourself said that you sometimes take 8 per day of the percocet, even though that is more than is prescibed, and that 'you panicked and didnt mention it'.
One subject that is discussed here on an almost daily basis is the role of LA or long acting meds. Their whole purpose is to take us out of that up and down cycle that short acting meds cause. The doctor put you on the patch, with a break through med. If you are not only taking the breakthrough med daily, but occasionally exceeding your prescibed doseage. It is an obvious statement that your LA med is not sufficient for you.
Instead of communicating with your doctor, and raising your LA med, you chose to use your breakthrough meds.
No where on this board will you see one of us tell you thats a great thing, because its not. it is counter productive to your successful pain management.
I am not going to say anything about methadone, because to me, the bigger problem here seems to be that your communication with your doctor has completely broken down.
I would urge you to be honest with your doctor, and try going to a higher dosage of the patch, really, percocet or roxicet, if you need your breakthrough meds more than 3-5 times a week, they are no longer breakthrough meds, they are part of your regimine.
I wish you much luck and I hope to read more of your posts.
Your Friend, Fabby :wave:

Hi,:wave:
Thanks for replying back to me. About what you said....NO...I think I either didn't explain myself correctly or you misunderstood. Ok, the doctor wrote my percocet script like this....(10/325mg) Take 1-2 tablets by mouth 4x's a day as needed. In other words, he left me the leeway to take only 4 on "s0-s0" days and up to 8 on really bad days. He was allowing me 8 a day if needed but I had to "back it down" on better days. This is where the problem came in. I was having trouble getting it back down to even 6 on “good days” because I wasn’t having many with the 3rd chronic issue that came about just this year. When I explained that to him, that’s when he mentioned Methadone. I panicked at the thought of methadone. I did not panic with telling him how many percocet I was taking. I obviously told him and he was aware because he would have to fill me early when I would take 8 a day for weeks at a time. That’s when he said “when you are ready, we will discuss switching your medication to something like Methadone which is very effective” I am afraid of that particular drug (as I am sure there are those out there who are afraid to take what I take now) so I didn’t mention to him for a few months that I was “struggling” and tolerant to the percocet. But I finally did because the stress at the end of each month was just too much. So he put me on Roxicodone and now I am having an even harder time. The pain is even more out of control. I am not even taking the 4 that he allows me to take of those because it just makes me so darn tired. It doesn’t do much for the pain other than make me very sleepy. Which, as a diabetic, I am already tired all the time anyway! Don’t need medication to do that for me!