Hi, Gabbycakes and others:

I am not sure whether Duragesic is a barbiturate or not. All I know is that this medication is called a narcotic, an opioid, or an opiate. I do not know what the difference is between the three.

Like I said in my previous message, I did not have any horrible withdrawal symptoms when my anesthesiologist, by trickery, forced me to wean off of Duragesic. Well, this is not exactly true, if you consider I was in such intense pain after the fentanyl patch was taken away from me without my full and informed consent (at that time, I was on the 100 mcg dosage, not on the 125dosage, like today).

I have two main problems with Duragesic.

The first problem is that my fentanyl patches do not last the full 72 hours they are supposed to. They seem to last only about 48 hours. Result: on the third day of the patches, that is, between the 48th and the 72nd hours, I sometimes feel bad withdrawal symptoms, such as shaking, feeling weak and tired, runny eyes and nose... Very, very rarely, I feel so bad from withdrawal that I have the feeling insects are running under my skin. Is that called hallucinations or is that just what I said, feelings? I have no idea.

The second problem is that, everyday, I have to live in fear that my primary care doctor will decide to wean me off of Duragesic without my consent, especially because he is harassed by the insurance company. As you know, such companies do not care about their patients' well being, but only about the profits they can make. I just could not live a life worth being called a "life" if I had to feel intense chronic pain for the rest of my life. Sometimes, I think it would be better to be dead in those conditions, even if I am afraid of death.

There are times when I wish I did not have to use Duragesic so my severe chronic RSD pain could be very well controlled. I tried many, many, many medications from different categories but none of them worked or worked as well as Duragesic does. Even the morphine sustained or extended release does not work as well as Duragesic for me. The problem with capsules or tablets is that you have to remember to take them on time. This is extremely difficult for me because of my memory and concentration problems, which I have and had well before I started using Duragesic.

If I did not have Duragesic to control my severe chronic pain well enough, what would I do? What would become of me? I could not be effective at any job and I would someday become homeless. When you see what kind of life homeless people have, you just do not want to become one of them, especially if you have a lot of health conditions, as is the case with me.

If any of you knows of any medication that would be at least as strong as Duragesic for the control of severe or intense chronic pain, whether it is a narcotic or something else, feel free to share.

Thanks again for your help and information.

Priscilla