Quote:
Originally Posted by mrsD
One of the big risks of methadone is in patients requiring these high doses. Methadone leaves the pain receptors before it leaves the body...so accumulation occurs, over time. Doses overlap and eventually a prolongation QT event may happen. When pain relief stops because the receptors open again, but the drug is still in you exerting effects elsewhere, raising doses becomes problematic.
Also people do vary in how they metabolize this drug. It can be very dangerous in really high doses, therefore.
Also switching high dose methadone from high Oxy use, increases risk of cardiac events. Most methadone given in a stepwise fashion, allows the body and its metabolism to deal with it more safely. Jumping in to massive methadone dose, can kill you. We had another poster at our old board die the first night on high dose methadone, switched from Oxy! (It was several years ago). She was a spinal/ back pain patient.
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Thanks for all of the information. I never even thought about methadone. I didn't realize it was prescribed for pain- the only time I have ever heard about it is as a withdrawal option for heroin addicts.
For the record, I have never asked my doctor for any medicine, or suggested any one course of treatment, except to say once that I wished I could shoot lidocaine into my lower back and butt cheek to numb the whole area, which then prompted him to prescribe the lidoderm patches which only sometimes work. The rest of the time, we just discuss the amount of pain control I have, at what times of day, what tasks I need to accomplish, and how the pain affects my abilities to perform those tasks. I really don't have "tasks" except to get myself around the house to use the restroom, fix food once in awhile etc. and occasionally make a trip to Wally World for fresh supplies. The doc asked me once a couple of months ago realistically how far or long could I walk, and that answer is fairly simple. While medicated, I can "walk" (that is, hobble, with cane) for up to about 20 feet without breaking, or move around continuously, such as in taking a trip to a store without a little electric shopping buggy, for about 30 minutes. I can get in and out of the car, lean over a shopping cart to shuffle through the store, and the sit upright to ride back home for about an hour of total activity, and then although I've been "able" to do these things, I know 150% without a doubt that I will PAY for it later with higher pain levels and less effectiveness from the meds, less overall mobility and so I don't push it unless I just absolutely have to.
I always hear that being sedentary is just as bad for injuries as wrong movements, so I have asked if there were some kind of physical therapy or mild exercises I could do myself to keep the rest of my body from atrophy, and I'm told that it's just too tricky with back injuries because one minor movement could trigger an inflammation or worsen a herniation and nerve impingement. That's just F@*!kin' great. :-/
(Pardon my language. sometimes my fingers just get the best of me)
Anyway, I've been battling through without any Percocet since Monday, but still fear calling the doc for more. I've been filling out the charts again so I can at least show him where and when the pain peaks and hopefully figure out the best course of action.
Are there any other meds besides Morphine Sulfate ER and Oxycontin ER? My little old lady neighbor also has back problems and her docs have tried her on most meds that she reports haven't worked for her, but she now takes Nucynta. I looked into this, but it sounds quite similar to Neurontin and Lyrica, both of which I reacted poorly to, so it may be why my doc has never mentioned it...
We've discussed the possibility of an SCS/Pain pump, but since my case is WC, of course, they refuse to pay for anything except basic, well known and widely used pills.
Thanks all for your help, though- I'll take whatever I can get~!
