Pain killers

janet45

My husband has had a recurrence of kidney cancer which has been diagnosed as stage 4 metastasized cancer. We were completely blind sided by this recurrence as we had been told 4 years ago that it was very unlikely to recur since the cancer was completely encapsulated in the kidney and the kidney was successfully removed. Paul was checked for kidney cancer every 6 months with CTS and shown clean. Last March he started with back pain and the rest is history.

Paul is very hesitant to use pain medications and is in a great deal of pain at different times. Right now, he is taking hydromorphone 4 mg every 8 hours. We also have a patch that he could use, but he has many misgivings on the patch since the warnings say could cause severe heart problems. So, here are my questions:

1. Has anybody used the patch for pain and if so, was it successful for you in controlling pain?

2. Is it difficult to wean off the patch when you no longer need it?

3. How do you stop taking hydromorphone?

Any help in the area of pain management would be greatly appreciated.

Janet

Janet