Hi,
I have been taking 35-40 mg of percocet a day for breakthrough pain along with 30 mg of morphine sulfate ER every 12 hours. I was switched to Opana ER 30 mg every 12 hours. Is this too high of a dose of Opana ER for me? I'm afraid to take my first pill this morning, please advise. Thank you.
femmy
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femmy
LaurieShay
Hi Laurie,
Thank you for your response. You aren't the only one that told me to take the Opana. A pharmacist and another person online told me to take it too. But I did the conversion and I knew how much it was going to give me in morphine equivalent and I was worried about it. I also went to the Opana website and used their converter too and our results matched. I am currently taking 120 mg of morphine equivalent per day and the Opana ER would have upped that to 180 mg of morphine equivalent per day. That's a 60 mg increase!
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So, after posting this question, I decided to call my doctor's office just to make sure as after talking with two different pharmacists, the first pharmacist said the dose increase was very high and the second one said everyone is different and to take it and if I had trouble breathing to call 911. She also said I should call my doctor's office to see if I could speak to a on call nurse. So I called my doctor's office and explained the story and they called back and told me NOT to take it. Whew!!! Laurie, I almost took it today, I was sitting waiting for them to call back and waiting for online responses and withdrawal was setting in (so much pain!) and my blood pressure was climbing (I was going to take the Opana before taking my bp meds to see how low my bp levels would drop). I actually set out my old medications on the counter and stared at them and then I preceded to open the Opana ER bottle and just take one to see. Before proceeding to take the Opana, I started putting my old meds back in their bottles and then I stopped everything and stood there to think about it some more. I finally decided to put the Opana ER bottle back in the bag and proceeded to take my old meds out of the bottles again. About 5 mins later my doctor's office called back and told me to continue taking the morphine w/ percocet and that my doctor wanted to see me Monday to switch me over Opana ER 15 mg twice per day. That makes more sense to me. And if I ended up needed the 30 mg then at least I will definitely know my body will tolerate it well.
I do have somewhat of a resistance to medication such that I believe I would have been fine and would have just felt really out of it as when I had surgery a couple of weeks ago they told me after surgery that they had to give me A LOT of medication to properly anesthesize me. They said my body was doing weird things signalling it was in pain. I was long gone from the propofol and didn't feel any pain and don't remember any pain, however.
Glad the doc called back so quickly and that all is well.
it seems to do a better job for me with relief for severe pain and it does seem to take less of the need to use other medications for breakthrough pain. I do hope that the same applies here. I wish you the very best Caringsonbj (Billy)
Hi All: Guess what? I am now on Opana 30 mg tablets twice a day. The 15 mg Opana tablet I took at bedtime sent me into withdrawal in the morning and I was waking up in pain at 3 am. This is my first night sleeping on the 30 mg tablet. I hope it works. Pain was bad during the day today so my doctor said up the Opana to 45 mg during the day... Whoa... I can't believe it is taking this much medicine to kill the pain. The morphine worked so much better. He said the next option is to go back to the morphine. Had to take 5 percocets today and the pain in my low back still wouldn't go away. Right now the Opana has muffled the pain pretty good but it is still there! Ugh! BUT I have read on the internet that it can take 3-7 days to reach a steady state level in the blood stream so I am going to stick with 60 mg of Opana until Monday and then up it to 75 mg next week if needed. I'll post an update this weekend. Thank you both for your comments and help. :) femmy
Wow, I'm a little surprised that you are finding that the Opana isn't working as well as the morphine. You are taking the Opana ER right? If not, I think you'd find the ER works better than the immediate release. Anyway, stick with the program and hope you get the relief you need.
Hi Laurie,
I am very surprised too! But I have good news, the Opana ER is finally starting to work! I took my first 30 mg Opana ER tablet at bedtime last night and I slept through the night and woke up with no withdrawal symptoms. And then this morning I took 30 mg Opana ER and my pain was controlled without needing the percocet from 7:45am to 5:30pm. I needed two percocets at 5:30pm. I am about to go to bed now and I get to sleep in tomorrow. Usually the pain wakes me up at around 7:30am on the weekends so I am hoping I will be able to sleep a little later.
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I've decided that if I do need te extra 15 mg of Opana, I will take it 8 hours after the 30 mg morning dose versus 45 mg all in the morning so that I have a different option for breakthrough pain during the day other than percocet. I think taking the Opana ER 15 mg will provide a more steady stream of pain relief versus the percocet is so short lived. When I increase my activity level my pain jumps from a 2 to 3, to a 7 to 8 on the pain scale. It is almost unbearable! So I hope with this flexibility, I will be able to get out more and do things around the house (home improvement) that I have really been wanting to do for a long but because of the pain, I have been unable to.
I will keep posting updates on how I am doing over the weekend. Right now I am pretty comfy... took the 30 mg Opana ER tablet about 2 1/2 hours ago. There is still a nagging dull ache in the low back (threw my low back out again somehow) that has been there since Wednesday. Hoping that once it heals more, the Opana will be able to kill the pain in my low back. I have lumbar DDD with radiculopathy and chronic myofascial pain syndrome throughout my entire back.
The Opana is getting stronger. It is strange that it is taking several days to really get going.
Anyways, talk more later in the weekend.
femmy :)
So glad to hear things are looking up. Be careful to not overdo once you have the pain under control. The pain is actually there for a reason, to let you know that something is amiss, so let it be your guide. Would hate for you to mask the pain and cause more harm. Have a great weekend!!!