[IfItDoesTheTrick]

By posting this, I really don't want to have people that don't understand to comment as they normally do on these forums.

I have severe chronic pain and have had a spinal fusion of my lower back for spondylolisthesis (Spelling). Before surgery I saw pain specialists and was put on everything under the sun. I am pretty young, even still, and at the time was only 16. They put me on everything from actiq 1600 mcgs with patches, to oxycontin. I developed a severe tolerance to opioid therapy and finally broke down and got the spinal fusion in L4, L5 and S1.

It worked for about six months where I was on absolutely nothing, and it was great. For the first time in my life I didn't have to go to the pharmacy and the doctors every month and no medications were controlling my life.

About 2 years ago now, the pain came back. I was put back on pain meds and they needed to go way up in dosage to work whatsoever. They tried dillaudid, ms contin, they didn't cut it. Then the patches again, but I became allergic to those.

I am back on OxyContin. I started on 80mg 2Xday, but after some time it became in effective. Over the last two years the dosage almost has to be adjusted every couple months.

For me it OxyContin only lasts about six hours even at such a large dose. I kind of don't even want to say how much, because I know I am going to get posts from people just about that. Currently I take 3 tablets 3 times day and in about a few days it will probably go up to 3 tabs 4 times a day because they dont last eight hours anymore. 240 mgs really works but not for a long time. My doctor and I have been working for some time to get a dose that kicked in and lowered my pain enough so I can function like a normal 22 year old. I am in college and I really need to concentrate to pass calculus 2 and the organic chemistry courses I take. Oxycontin is the only pain med that doesn't cloud my head.

I was thinking of switching to Opana, but my doctor would have to start me off so low, that my first few months on it would be a nightmare. I can't afford to be in that state because school won't wait for me.

It would be nice to see if there are other people on these dosages of Oxy's or even other meds. I don't want to hear from doctor shoppers, drug dealers, or people who seek to just get high, for that is a waste of time and I don't want it to cloud the thread. If you take large amounts of meds it would be nice to hear any ideas you have as to what I could do to not be taking pills all day, or if you know of any new drugs coming out.

I am extremely educated in pharmacology and the human body. I am not a doctor I have just always needed to know, but I could really

[PAPSTISY]

I will not say if the meds you are on is a high amount or not. However, It is clear from both of your posts your tolorance level increases very fast.

My suggestion with your young age would be to ask your pain doc about a SCS stimulator. This could allow you to keep your meds down while you study and go to class.
Its not a solution but it would be a aid to your problem while in school.

You can go to spine-health.com to learn about the SCS. There is also many there who have the same problem as you that might give you more insight.

[IfItDoesTheTrick]

We have talked about a stimulation device. My surgery went really wrong, as well as all the procedures I had done before hand. I have had my electro frequencies and cortizone shots out the wazoo and am trying to stay away from anything surgical only because I have had such bad experiences with them. Thank You for you input though, its ways like this that you learn new things.

[Robert_325]

Originally Posted by IfItDoesTheTrick

We have talked about a stimulation device. My surgery went really wrong, as well as all the procedures I had done before hand. I have had my electro frequencies and cortizone shots out the wazoo and am trying to stay away from anything surgical only because I have had such bad experiences with them. Thank You for you input though, its ways like this that you learn new things.

I would certainly not judge you for the amount of meds you take as I understand that large amounts of RX narcotic meds can obviously be required. I have also been on huge amounts of oxycodone for legitimate reasons but haven't ever transitioned to Opana as a replacement.

I need to check a couple things before handing out advice on your situation as I wouldn't ever want to tell you the wrong thing. I know you wouldn't want that either. Kindly bear with me and let me see what good information I can come up with that would benefit you. I do have one question at least that if you could answer it would help me immensely.

My question would be if you have ever discussed with your pain management dr regarding the use of methadone (vs the oxycontin) while still using the roxicodone for breakthrough pain? Methadone can be very effective in this type of situation and could be beneficial for you and safer than taking so much oxycontin. I'm not counting the pills either, I always look at the total dose of mgs per day.

I'll be watching for your reply regarding the methadone. It's just an alternative that could possibly be safer for you than such a large dose of oxycodone. God bless.

[IfItDoesTheTrick]

Hey, I haven't been monitoring this post, because I posted similar things on other galleries. When I posted them I was a new member and was not sure if people navigated away from certain threads and galleries and I wanted the most responses. I have found that you and others are in the featured drugs and conditions a lot.

I posted a similar response to someone who suggested methadone though. I had tried it but with many negative effects. It didn't really work on my back pain, but my leg pain it did. It didn't make any sense to me either. I have tried just about everything that is allowed in the US, but the only thing that has worked some what well is the oxycontin but only in high doses. I did like the fentynl patches and the pops that are used in conjunction with it for breakthrough pain, but I broke out in an allergic reaction to the patch and was not allowed to put it back on for fear of an anafalatic shock (spelling). I really like the actiq pops though and have tried to use those for breakthrough but doctor didn't like that much. I have switched to opana ir's for breakthrough recently, but havent had a good outcome, it doesn't really work well for me. Let me know if you have any other advice. get back to me either on this thread or the others.

Thanks a lot.