cs, I came in late and haven't read the whole thread (wowzers, you guys are great), so I will only add my personal experience.

I took oxycontin for a year, before and after my hip replacement a year ago. I started at 5 mg and was at about 10 mg/day for my daughter's wedding in May of last year. I was grinding bone on bone inside the hip and wearing down the femur. There almost wasn't enough left of the pelvic socket to attach the prosthesis. So we're talking serious osteoarthritis pain here, like "real" people have. I believe the PDdystonias I have in my left foot compromised the position of all the joint in that leg and accellerated the degenerative process. When I went in for surgery in October I think I was on 40 mg/day of the long-acting oxy and 5-20 prn of the little boosters.

All the oxy did was take the edge off. I learned a lot from spiritual sources that helped me. I became a Reiki practitioner so i could practice its calming and somewhat pain-relieving effects on myself. I prayed in desperation but also at regular times to help keep myself stress-free as possible. I see no reason why someone couldn't meditate or do yoga to good effect. A spiritual resource I have states that when you are in pain, your enemies are fear, loneliness, anger, guilt, grief, and helplessness. If a person got stalled on any of those, that person could consult DocJohn's excellent indexed blog articles, their pastor, or a wise and good-listener friend.

Not having the support you need makes it harder. My marriage of then-27 years went over some its roughest ground yet, but we both learned from the experience. Messages from people on this board--especially from one who understood the kind of pain I was experiencing and even said "no reply necessary"--were worth solid gold; a couple and an individual from the old MGH board sent two lovely vases of flowers to the hospital (thanks, people!).

In April it was time to go off the oxy. I had incomplete control of my, shall we say, disposition. My spouse found me unpleasant. I spent two weeks with Paula, who ignored the crap and laughed with me when I could (a thousand blessings be upon her). I had lowered my dose of Sinemet; now I had to increase it slightly again. I tried to keep it high enough to avoid the twitching legs that kept me awake and low enough to avoid dyskinesia while I was healing (it takes a year for a hip). By the end of the month I was down to 5-10 mg/day in crumbs, and off completely by the second week in May. By August I was on good terms with everyone again.

Everyone has to find their own tapering-off schedule. A pharmacist told me that another pharmacist he knew who was in BIG trouble with narcotics checked into a rehab hospital and was kept nearly anesthetized when he went off cold-turkey. That person was addicted. Officially, I was habituated--since I never got pleasure from it and other pschological stuff. I fought hard to keep the "addict" label out of my medical records because for me it wasn't true.

I learned more, but that's life, and you've been reading long enough (if you have). Whatever course you take, for you and all readers who find this useful, I wish you the best.

Jaye