Geesh - I thought I was dying. It was only drug withdrawl.

[Atlas Mugged]

I woke up feeling a bit strange and anxious. A couple of hours into the day, I was about to fucking freak out - crawling skin, cold sweats, couldn't get comfortable.

It finally hit me that I hadn't changed my Duragesic patch on time and it had been over a day or so. I put a new one on and calmed down within about 45 minutes.

Now, am I going to have to go through this shit after I have a much-needed operation and I can finally get off this crap??? I've never done hard core medication and I'm not happy about it, but it sure beats the unbearable pain. I just don't know how they wean patients off the meds, and it's beginning to scare me.

[KurtNYC]

1. That IS disturbing

Back surgery?

Good luck and a speedy recovery.

[jeff30997]

2. Duragesic patch is a pain killer I presume.(I'm such a genius)...

That stuff and a lot of prescription drugs are pretty dangerous.I'm taking Paxil and a doctor once told me that if I stop taking that crap suddenly, without slowly reducing the dosage and so on,I could DIE ! Damn ! And Pot is illegal ! Go figure.

[Dirty Hippie]

3. This info may help

My son was on the patch (fentinol (sp?)) for pain control. By the end of the 72 hours he would be very ill (puking, shaking etc.). It was not the meds that made him sick but the withdrawal.

He obviously metabolized the drug faster than most people. After several episodes, when we recognized the pattern, we convinced his doctor to allow him to change the patch every 60 hours and his withdrawal symptoms got much better.

DO NOT fail to change that patch. Get someone else to help you remember.

When you come off the patches you must do so slowly decreasing the dosage over time.

Fentinol is a very powerful drug.

I'm not in the medical profession but I've provided care for my severely injured son for the last 1.5 years.

Oh yea, the doctors did not believe he was sick from withdrawal. Apparently the literature on the drug plays down this possibility. But the docs were wrong. It took a bit of convincing (and record keeping) on my part.

Good luck. The patches work. But DON'T forget to change!

[Dirty Hippie]

4. One more thing

he did finally get of the patch but it took several months. We would decrease the dosage each month until he was down to 25 micro grams and then he was able to handle the withdrawal. He still experienced several days of withdrawal.

[Atlas Mugged]

5. Holy crap!!!

Thank you for your excellent input. I've been on this stuff since last April. I keep a small calendar next to my computer (and drug supply) and make a note of when I put a patch on. The big mistake was that I marked the calendar - but forgot to put the patch on. And, yes, I was nauseous during the withdrawal, too.

I won't know for possibly three more months about surgery. My neuro-surgeon (who has been written up as the best in the Western part of New York state) is afraid to touch me at this time. I have four herniated discs in my neck. Well, severely herniated, actually. I was hit by a school bus who made an illegal turn as I was driving 55 mph. I'm lucky to be alive, of course, and if I hadn't done an evasive maneuver at the last second, I could easily have been decapitated. As it was, I busted out the side window with my head and was unconscious for a while - which accounts for the injuries to the neck. Oh, and a torn rotator cuff and 4 broken ribs to round things out.

The delay for surgery is because my doctor wants to use a combination of fusion and disc replacement. Since disc replacement is so new in this country, and he was trained in it only last month, he wants more experience before operating on me.

Of course, I'm in a messy lawsuit. The bus driver (there were no children on board - just some friends of hers along for the ride) admitted fault at the scene of the accident. And I've never had so much as a parking ticket in all my years of driving. Still - I'm expecting to get screwed, especially since I was in excellent health before this.

The depression from all of this has been unreal, of course. I'm grateful to have a wonderful family and friends to see me through this mess.

[Redstone]

6. One other note about fentanyl (Duragesic)...

Pay VERY close attention to the warning about not tearing the patch or touching the gel inside it.

That can make you stop breathing. This stuff is the Big Guns of painkillers, and must be treated with utmost respect.

Redstone

[warrens]

7. There are lots of ways of countering withdrawal

When the time comes to cut them off, they can taper your dose off, then give you one of several meds that block the symptoms of withdrawal. For now, just make sure you take the pain meds on time and don't worry about withdrawal. There are lots of ways of making it a LOT less uncomfortable than what you just experienced.

And good luck. I really feel for you.