narcotic taper update

[melodyl]

Terry,

I'm happy to see your name here. You have been so helpful to everyone at Ispine....especially with pain management/medication issues. I posted at the other site several weeks ago about the difficulty I was having tapering off of fentanyl and oxycodone. I finally saw a pain management specialist yesterday and thought I would share the information. Before the visit, I had managed to stop using fentanyl completely....but to minimize the withdrawal symptoms, I had increased the daily amount of oxycodone and added in clonidine. My current daily amount of IR oxycodone is 60 mgs in 5mg. divided doses. The PM suggested I convert half of that amount to the longer acting oxycontin. He thinks I should take 3 (10 mg) doses of oxycontin a day while I decrease the IR by 5 mgs a week. When I get down to only taking oxycontin, I would switch back to the IR for the last part of the taper. Does this sound like a reasonable plan?

Has anyone heard how Justin is doing? I hope to hear good news soon!

Thanks!

Melody

[Gilbert P]

Hi Melody

Welcome to sps

Justin is doing great and is still recovering nicely I am sure he will post when he feels up to it.

All the best

Gilbert P

[treefrog]

Welcome to SPS Melody.

You can find Justin's progress posts in the thread under Surgical Outcomes.
http://spinepatientsociety.org/forum...hread.php?t=25

Glad that you've seen a PM, to help you with the med taper. I hope the plan works well for you.

[Terry Newton]

Melody:

Your plan sounds more than reasonable. The catapres will help to mitigate any withdrawal symptoms you may experience. It is designed for dealing with blood pressure but works great for withdrawal symptoms in opiate tapers.

Hang in there and don't be afraid to cut a pill in half if you need to to stop any symptoms you may be having.

Terry Newton

[Justin]

Hey Melody,

How is your taper going? I've been thinking about you lately. I hope you are doing well. Tapering down off of narcotics is no fun at all.

Hang in there!