How Much and What Kind of Pain Medication Do You Take???

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  • maglets
    maglets Member Posts: 2,576 Member
    #22
    coloCan said:

    If you can, try skipping a night every now and then, Mags,
    I take 1mg nightly also, sometime 1 1/2 and even 2 mg but every now and then I try to sleep with no pills just for the heck of it and it seems to work tho I don't/can't go more than two days.But even with the pill(s), I usually sleep no more than a few hours at a time, rearely up to five hours in a row.......Don't even think I dream any more....steve

    steve
    that is exactly what my GP asked me to do Steve....just skip one night a week.....you are a clever boy...I get anxious just thinking about it because I just suppose I won't sleep :)

    mags
  • msccolon
    msccolon Member Posts: 1,917 Member
    #23
    maglets said:

    thank you
    this is an excellent discussion....after my liver re-sections I would take percocet but only for a couple of days because i found it made me nauseous and it is constipating.

    For my five year battle I have been taking 1 mg of lorazapam at night and now my doc wants me off that....she says it is addicting and I am sure I am addicted but I just don't care. Some nights i break them if half and take .5mg of the drug and I have never had any desire to increase this. she recently started me on an antidepressant called trazadone as a repalcement but that drug made me light head, gave me severe stomach pain and I was awake most of the night.

    don't know what to do

    mags

    Ativan
    I was taking 1mg every night for sleeping as well, but started noticing I was building up a tolerance. I like how much it helps me when the anxiety starts creeping in and it just wasn't working anymore. Plus, I was noticing being tired during the day more so. I stopped taking Ativan and switched to melatonin. I don't fall asleep as quickly, but I'm getting good sleep and I'm not tired during the day. I'm even not taking the melatonin every night either. I still get up a time or two in the night, but I don't worry about it cause I have no daytime tiredness. I figure I'm getting what I need! I've contemplated getting a regular sleeping pill, but I'm going to see how this routine does for me for now.
    mary
  • dorookie
    dorookie Member Posts: 1,731 Member
    #24
    msccolon said:

    Ativan
    I was taking 1mg every night for sleeping as well, but started noticing I was building up a tolerance. I like how much it helps me when the anxiety starts creeping in and it just wasn't working anymore. Plus, I was noticing being tired during the day more so. I stopped taking Ativan and switched to melatonin. I don't fall asleep as quickly, but I'm getting good sleep and I'm not tired during the day. I'm even not taking the melatonin every night either. I still get up a time or two in the night, but I don't worry about it cause I have no daytime tiredness. I figure I'm getting what I need! I've contemplated getting a regular sleeping pill, but I'm going to see how this routine does for me for now.
    mary

    I agree
    the Melatonin really works for me too. Have lots of problems falling asleep, it takes about 20 minutes but it works and I usually sleep very well. However if I dont take enough of the pain pills, nothing can keep me asleep, I wake up in a sweet and body aches, its horrible and I am totally scared to death to stop all together.

    Today I didnt take any pills, and around noon I took half a .5 xanax that worked, and then tonight I took a long term oxycotin 10 mg, and that didnt seem to help, took a melatonin and no luck so now I just took half of a oxycodone and waiting for it to kick in so I can go to sleep. I am currently in Austin TX in a hotel, detailled up here to work at a different facility, and tomorrow the second in command of the Department of Homeland Security (number 2 guy under Obama) is visiting my facility in the morning and here I am not able to sleep....YIKES... Okay I am totally rambling..

    What was I talking about...LOL
  • dorookie
    dorookie Member Posts: 1,731 Member
    #25
    NBTXGIRL said:

    Pain Meds
    My house is a virtual pharmacy of pain meds, so much so that I lock them up. When I asked the onc. about addiction, he told me that was the last thing I needed to worry about with his condition. He explained there is absolutely no reason for him to be in pain at this point. So here is the list: Fentanyl patch 100mg every 72 hrs, Percocet 10/325mg as needed, Dilaudid 4mg as needed, Neurotin 100mg three times a day, Utram 50mg, twice a day.

    WOW
    Your list is just like mine. My partner takes Fentanyl patch 100mg every 72 hrs, dilaudid twice a day.

    I take Neurotin 300mg 3 times a day, and I am weaning off the oxycotin and oxycodone. I think we have some Ultram as well.

    My ONC said the samething to me about not worring about the addiction of the pain meds. But now I worry....But I am working at getting off of them all together..

    Beth
  • maglets
    maglets Member Posts: 2,576 Member
    #26
    msccolon said:

    Ativan
    I was taking 1mg every night for sleeping as well, but started noticing I was building up a tolerance. I like how much it helps me when the anxiety starts creeping in and it just wasn't working anymore. Plus, I was noticing being tired during the day more so. I stopped taking Ativan and switched to melatonin. I don't fall asleep as quickly, but I'm getting good sleep and I'm not tired during the day. I'm even not taking the melatonin every night either. I still get up a time or two in the night, but I don't worry about it cause I have no daytime tiredness. I figure I'm getting what I need! I've contemplated getting a regular sleeping pill, but I'm going to see how this routine does for me for now.
    mary

    me too
    I am tired during the day too....I don't think we can get melatonin legally in canada...like to give it a whirl

    mags
  • dorookie
    dorookie Member Posts: 1,731 Member
    #27
    maglets said:

    me too
    I am tired during the day too....I don't think we can get melatonin legally in canada...like to give it a whirl

    mags

    Melatonin
    I wonder if I could mail you some? Do you think I would go to jail for that?
  • maglets
    maglets Member Posts: 2,576 Member
    #28
    dorookie said:

    Melatonin
    I wonder if I could mail you some? Do you think I would go to jail for that?

    jail
    Dearest Beth....we can't have you going off to jail for a little melatonin but so brave of you to offer....teheheh

    I'll pick some up when we go to New York for the opera in May

    hugs mags
  • NBTXGIRL
    NBTXGIRL Member Posts: 31
    #29
    dorookie said:

    WOW
    Your list is just like mine. My partner takes Fentanyl patch 100mg every 72 hrs, dilaudid twice a day.

    I take Neurotin 300mg 3 times a day, and I am weaning off the oxycotin and oxycodone. I think we have some Ultram as well.

    My ONC said the samething to me about not worring about the addiction of the pain meds. But now I worry....But I am working at getting off of them all together..

    Beth

    Just Grateful
    I know Beth, I am just grateful that Daddy's onc. is very proactive when it comes to pain control (mets to bones). He does not believe in his patients being in pain. Especially, when Daddy is just doing pallative care. We know there is nothing we (onc.) can do anymore to cure the cancer, but we can control the quality of his life and not allow him to be in pain. The really scary thing is, Daddy does not get loopy or fuzzy while on them and at one point he decided to stop taking them for a couple of months and had no withdraw effects. This is one strong willed man. The hosp. dr. hinted at three month survival when diagnosed over nine months ago. Daddy is not finished on this earth, so he is hanging in there as much as possible.

    I hope your weening goes as well as our does, but I agree with your onc., don't be in pain if you don't have to. I wish for this day to be good for you. Kim
  • HollyID
    HollyID Member Posts: 946 Member
    #30
    johnsfo said:

    addiction and dependence
    I take very large doses of pain meds because the sacral pain is severe and chronic. My doctors have pointed out a useful distinction between addiction and physical dependence. Taking narcotics regularly will cause physical dependence. That is, you will develop a tolerance to the drugs and need to increase the doses to maintain the same pain relieving effect, and you will experience withdrawal symptoms if you stop taking them suddenly.

    That is not addiction. Addiction includes all of the above but also refers to psychological dependence on the narcotic "high." If you're taking the drugs appropriately for pain, you probably do not experience any opioid euphoria. I don't; the only good feeling I get from them is pain relief. So addiction, a word laden with social stigmas, is unlikely to happen when taking any dose of narcotics for legitimate pain relief.

    One doc compared taking narcotics for pain to taking insulin for diabetes. Once you start, you will become dependent and you can't stop without help from your docs. Taken for appropriate reasons, they improve the quality of your life.

    John

    John, very well said.
    John, very well said.

    Addiction vs. cancer. Hmmmmmmmm....

    When my dad was on his death bed, I found out my mother was not giving my dad his full dose of methadone. I wasn't sure if he couldn't swallow it or what, so when I asked my mom about it, she said she didn't want him to become addicted to it. Really, my dad was NOT going to recover from this. He was hours from death and I could tell he was hurting because of his movements and the sounds he was making. I gave him a full dose and was happy that it helped. Then, I didn't want to lecture my mother, but told her dad was not going to become addicted to his meds. He won't have enough time to be addicted.

    I just wanted him out of pain or at least as pain free as possible.

    addiction and cancer.... it's a hard line, but when it warrants pain relief... don't be afraid of taking something.
  • Shayenne
    Shayenne Member Posts: 2,342
    #31
    NBTXGIRL said:

    Just Grateful
    I know Beth, I am just grateful that Daddy's onc. is very proactive when it comes to pain control (mets to bones). He does not believe in his patients being in pain. Especially, when Daddy is just doing pallative care. We know there is nothing we (onc.) can do anymore to cure the cancer, but we can control the quality of his life and not allow him to be in pain. The really scary thing is, Daddy does not get loopy or fuzzy while on them and at one point he decided to stop taking them for a couple of months and had no withdraw effects. This is one strong willed man. The hosp. dr. hinted at three month survival when diagnosed over nine months ago. Daddy is not finished on this earth, so he is hanging in there as much as possible.

    I hope your weening goes as well as our does, but I agree with your onc., don't be in pain if you don't have to. I wish for this day to be good for you. Kim

    The
    Last thing I'm worried about is addiction as well, I just take the meds to help me through the pain, especially during chemo, when my onc said the pain I will feel may be the chemo killing the tumors, and could be everywhere! I am on Oxycontin (80mg) and Oxycodone (15mg fast-release) and even though I'm supposed to take 3 oxy's a day, I only take one, since I'm not in that much pain where I feel I need all that in my system, and the oxycodone really do help, I have had this pain in my shoulder, pretty much around the shoulder blade area for a few weeks now, and it does help that pain, the onc thinks I pinched a nerve, but we'll see if anything else shows up on my scans I just took yesterday, I'll know next week. But, take the pills when you need them, I agree with everything JohnSF0 said, he said everything so well.

    Hugsss!
    ~Donna

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