[vaportrailsd]

I just started the 50mcg/hr duragesic. The doctor just called me back and said to overlap putting on the new patch and taking off the old one by 2-4 hours.

Just curious if anyone has experience with this? does 2-4 hour overlap sound right?

[RRSimon]

I have been on the patch for about 2 years now or more. When I first started taking it everything was good as far as pain control, the next month I experienced a difference when changing my patch which was that I notice that my pain was returning after changing the patch and applying a new one so my doctor advised me to do the same thing. Also when that didn't work effectively, the doctor tested the rate of the medication going into my system with in the time period of every 3rd day, it turned out that my body was absorbing the medication at a faster rate and the doctor said that this sometimes occurs with about 6 percent of patients and so he now prescribes me one 50 mcg/h patch to be applied every other day and since then I have had no experience with pain returning in-between the changing of the patches. I hope this answers your question and I feel that what you are doing by overlapping when you change your patch is perfectly safe and a wise decision by your physician.

[Rustie]

Originally Posted by vaportrailsd

I just started the 50mcg/hr duragesic. The doctor just called me back and said to overlap putting on the new patch and taking off the old one by 2-4 hours.

Just curious if anyone has experience with this? does 2-4 hour overlap sound right?

You should call your prescriber. This is a very dangerous drug when it comes to getting hooked. Not a road I would travel down again.

[mom2my3boys]

Originally Posted by Rustie

You should call your prescriber. This is a very dangerous drug when it comes to getting hooked. Not a road I would travel down again.

Obviously the OP is in contact with his/her prescribing doc
I also was told I could overlap my patches by 2-4 hours though it seemed to me it took about 8-10 hours for the new one to kick in. Also I was to change mine every other day rather than every 3 days. Not an uncommon thing, it even saisd this in the packaging info about some users may need to change more frequently.