[slamina]

Hi all,
I will try and condense this but prepare yourself for a long post. My rhumatologist prescribed Oxycontin 40mg. 3x's daily for over a year's time. I was getting it paid for by the manufacturer. Beginning of 06' they changed policy to a maximim of 2 pills a day. I couldn't afford to buy the other 1 pill out of pocket so my Dr. prescribed Methadone. I will be out of Oxycontin in less than 1 week and am scared to death of what's going to happen.
I have had w/drawls from Oxycontin before and said I'd never go thru that again. It was pure hell!!!! But here I am again... at least I think so. This is where I'm confused. Can my Dr. just abruptly change me like that and expect me to begin the Methadone without any uncomfortable feelings? Will I go thru the Oxycontin w/drawls? Like the awful pain, sweating, cold, sick, sick, sick...? If I can or will, shouldn't my Dr. have weaned me off the Oxy first and then start the Methadone?
I'm thinking of taking a methadone tonight to see what they do. Will they counteract with the Oxycontin? Has anyone been in a similar situation and have any ideas of what I may go thru? I can't take the withdrawls with my chronic major depression and pain. I am scared to death. I am really scared and noone to talk to. Slamina

"If pain or the pain of addiction is painting your world, use the brightest colors you can. We are the brush. The wonderful people we meet are the colors."

[mslflboy]

First off, changing from Oxycontin to Methadone: you should not experience any withdrawal symptoms because they have the same mechanism of action. You won't feel the "euphoric" feeling as much as with Oxycontin but it is much better than trying to wean off of Oxycontin. The doctor prescribed Methadone because it is much more affective when tapering dosage. I am not sure if he prescribed this to you as an alternative to Oxycontin or as a means of tapering off of medication. I am in the same boat as you and I have been on multiple types of opiate-narcotics. Methadone is relatively strong in the class of opiates. But the desirable characteristic of methadone is that the withdrawal symptoms are less than something such as Oxycontin which is a really strong and a very addictive medication. Methadone does not affect "the euphoric part of your brain." Most times when people have withdrawals, the hardest part for the body to react to is the loss of euphoria. I have taken Methadone and personally think that it does produce euphoria, but medically it is used for both opiate prescription and heroin addictions. They are in the both class. Best thing to do is call your doctor and tell him you are afraid of the withdrawal and see if they will put you on a taper schedule. If you can't do that for whatever reason. I have found that Benadryl has helped with the cold/flu like symptoms. If you are physically able to exercise at the fastest pace you can physically do. This will allow your body to produce natural adrenaline which has a pain killer like action. Another good thing is to keep someone close to you that you trust if you start experiencing bad withdrawals such as depression or suicidal thoughts. Sometimes just verbalizing what you are feeling will help with the anxiety. I am not sure if you have access to it, but the main thing I thought helped was a benzodiazepam (Valium, Xanax, Klonopin, Ativan, etc). I do not think benzo's are pleasant for me, so I wasn't worried about addiction to these. I took a couple Xanax p4-6 hours if I felt anxious. I also took that or some sleeping pills to keep my sleep schedule regular. It is hard but opiate pain killers are nasty to get off of and only mask your problem not fix them. I am about to experience the same thing as you and have done it before due to chronic back pain. Let me know if you have anymore questions, I am pretty educated on the issue as I am studying medicine. But I definitely suggest taking the methadone as prescribed and get off the Oxycontin ASAP. The methadone will be much better (better of the evils) and then try and decrease your dosage as your doctor directs you. Hope this helps atleast a little.

quote:Originally posted by slamina

Hi all,
I will try and condense this but prepare yourself for a long post. My rhumatologist prescribed Oxycontin 40mg. 3x's daily for over a year's time. I was getting it paid for by the manufacturer. Beginning of 06' they changed policy to a maximim of 2 pills a day. I couldn't afford to buy the other 1 pill out of pocket so my Dr. prescribed Methadone. I will be out of Oxycontin in less than 1 week and am scared to death of what's going to happen.
I have had w/drawls from Oxycontin before and said I'd never go thru that again. It was pure hell!!!! But here I am again... at least I think so. This is where I'm confused. Can my Dr. just abruptly change me like that and expect me to begin the Methadone without any uncomfortable feelings? Will I go thru the Oxycontin w/drawls? Like the awful pain, sweating, cold, sick, sick, sick...? If I can or will, shouldn't my Dr. have weaned me off the Oxy first and then start the Methadone?
I'm thinking of taking a methadone tonight to see what they do. Will they counteract with the Oxycontin? Has anyone been in a similar situation and have any ideas of what I may go thru? I can't take the withdrawls with my chronic major depression and pain. I am scared to death. I am really scared and noone to talk to. Slamina

"If pain or the pain of addiction is painting your world, use the brightest colors you can. We are the brush. The wonderful people we meet are the colors."