Hello all,

First a little background. I have been suffering from Migranes and Cluster headaches my whole life. In the last 2 years they have gotten unbearable and become very debilitating. They are very frequent, and I suffer from headaches almost daily. Some are mild and I do not take anything, some make me almost sucicidal. Cluster headaches can be unbearable. I also suffer from narcoplepsy, Insomnia and Severe Sleep Apnea. The narcoplepsy causes severe hallucinations. I ussually stay up half the night because of it. Never having a goodnights sleep is causing my pain to be much worse and much more frequent.

Anyways about 3 months ago I asked for percocet to deal with the pain. I find its a miracle drug and works wonders. It takes away the pain and allows me to get back to work. I take percocet from once every three days to every other day depending on the pain. ussually just once in a day. I have tried Imitrex, Axert, Inderal a bunch of drugs and none have worked, percocet is the only one thats helped me.

However there is one problem I have encountered, and that is tolerance. At first two percocet was extremely strong, but over the 3-4 months Ive taken them I have needed to increase it to 3 to get the same effect. Now 3 is still effective but not as much. I really would like to remedy this situation and perhaps get back down to two percocet, if that would be possible.

So I have two questions, I would be very appreciative if someone could help me out.

First... how long does it take for tolerance to drop back down again ? I am willing to take a break and deal with the pain if It would mean that I could get some relief again at some point. Also would it be possible to keep my tolerance down by spacing out my doses at longer intervals from each other ? If so what would the interval need to be ? Would four days apart be sufficient or would longer be needed ?

Secondly.. Does tolerance develop to opiods/opiates in general or does it develop to specific drugs ? For example would switching to vicodin for a while allow my percocet tolerance to decrease, and then I could switch back ? Im not sure if it works this way, as I tried three Tylenol 3's with 30mg of codiene and recieved very little analgesia or effects. I am pretty sure its because I am used to

Finally are there any long term solutions for helping to keep tolerance from forming, such as other drugs etc that will not cause other health problems ?

I am quite concerned about what I will do long term, as all my family members have migranes, and they have never disappeared. They however respond well to triptans, but I don't at all.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
William

Hi William ~

Welcome to NeuroTalk! I'm sorry you are having so much pain. Thankfully I rarely get headaches ~ I can't imagine going through what you are!

I don't really have any answers for you regarding tolerance. The only thing I can think of is maybe going to a long-acting drug ~ like Kadian, Avninza, MScontin, Oxycontin ~ and then taking the Percocets for break-through pain.

Hopefully someone will come along that can help you more.

I hope you stay around and get to know us better ~ and that we can get to know you better too!

hugs,
dadsgirl

Hi William,
I have a similar problem with percocet as you do. I was on vicodin for 2 months, and it became innefective. I am now taking 2-3 percocet every 4 hours for neck pain...my surgery is in 3 weeks. I also have a fentanyl patch, which may be appropriate for you. I have noticed that the percocet is not working as well as it did at first. One thing you should ask your doctor is if he will give you just oxycodone instead of percocet. it is the same...just without the added tylenol...which is hard on your liver.
hope this helps,
Dave

William,

Welcome to NeuroTalk

I have been a chronic pain patient for many years, and I have been taking meds for many years, and I deal with tolerance issues too.

For me, I have found that switching back and forth between 2 different medications helps a LOT. I have switched back and forth between Percocet (oxycodone) and Norco (hydrocodone) several times - usually every 6 months I switch meds.

Switching helps so much with my tolerance issues that I have been able to stay on the same dose of percocet and norco for years. When I start becoming tolerant to one, I talk to my doc and switch to the other, and we have been doing this for years, and I have not needed a dosage increase in a very long time.

Hope that helps.

Liz

Hi William:

I'm sorry to hear about your headaches. I would rather have any other pain than headache pain, it is debilitating for me and luckily something I do not have to deal with. I can understand your desperation to find a medication that helps.

We are all very different in our tolerance to pain meds. I have been taking Oxycodin for the last 10 years off and on in conjunction with Norco. I have never had a problem with tolerance. Occasionally I will take 2 Norco's, but most of the time 1 will do the trick. It doesn't sound like you take a lot of meds. since you are going 3 days after one pill. You might want to try the oxycodin since they are time released and ask your Doctor about a med. for breakthrough pain.

Hope this helps you some.

Talk about tolerance! Holy smokes I'm so far gone I'm afraid to even go to the point of relief which is all the way up to 14 10mg Percs at ONE TIME!

Been gone for awhile and need to make a comeback here to brief my support friends and bring all up to speed on the threads I wrote about and the 5 surgeries I had in the month of December alone too! Lol

Be careful w this stuff or you'll end up like me folks.