Dilaudid As A Oxycodone Replacement? (Page 5)
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Hi. I suffered a L1/L2 complete SCI injury some 4 years ago. After 6-7 weeks when the spinal shock wore off I noticed I had a burning pain in my lower groin area even though I can't really feel much below my hips, we thought maybe it was a UTI but all showed negative. It was diagnosed as chronic nerve pain and it never goes away, I get acute nerve pains in my legs on top of this chronic pain.

I have been taking 10mg Oxycodone four to five times per day and methadone 10mg once a day for the chronic pain + 800mg Gabapentin three times a day for the burning in my legs. The only way I have been able to keep my doses so low over the years is by being very hard on myself as to when to take the pain meds but as hard as I have tried I'm now going up to around 60mg total Oxycodone per day and 15mg Methadone.

I have a very good pain Dr and we always wanted to do a pain med rotation before levels of any one drug got too high so we have changed the Oxycodone over to 2mg Dilaudid tablets. I have been told to try anything from 2-4mg at a time, four times per day to replace my Oxycodone.

I have only just started to try the Dilaudid like 1day ago but even at 4mg it doesn't seem to work on my chronic nerve pain as well as my Oxycodone does, all it seems to do is make me sleepy and I can't have that. I work a professional demanding job where I can't be feeling out of it or tired. I was wondering if anyone here that has tried both maybe let me know if Dilaudid is normally a replacement for Oxycodone?

Should I be giving Dilaudid a few more days before throwing it off my list of pain meds? Or should it have worked straight away if it was going to work at all for me?

If it doesn't work I'll have to return to Oxycodone and hopefully find something that we can replace it with that won't have terrible side effects and also let me work normally. I guess we could increase the methodone to make the oxycodone last longer, I find the methadone great like that but that is not a real solution to replacing the Oxycodone so we can give my body a rest from that kind of opiode and hopefully reset the switch so after a short period on the replacement drug I can return to a lower dose of Oxycodone.

I would be greatfull for any advice.

Cheers.

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Honestly it sounds like you should just try to stay on the Oxy with having a demanding job...I've been on both as well and I've found I'm alot more alert on Oxy than Dilaudid and if the 10's aren't working for the pain....maybe ask for like 20 mg Oxycontin

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Different pain medications work differently for different people and different conditions. What may help you is not necessarily what will help another person.

In many cases, finding the medication that will effectively manage someones pain is a process of trial and error.

If anyone else has more experience, please post!

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I just made the switch my self and i have the same issue. it was suppossed to be a step but it isn't in fact feels like i took nothing at all. I will say this from experience! Methadone is not what it cracks up to be!!. It stays in your sytem up to 6 months and if you ever do get to the point where you can stop taking pain meds you will hate that you have to go off of the methodone with drawals will last alot longer with the methodone than with plain oxy codone. oxy is out of your system typically if your not on the larger side with in 10 days. and withdrawals lasted me about a month. I was on 400mg of oxycontin for 2 yrs and went of it gradulally over 3 months. You might try taking oxycodone for a week and then taking a day off and then back on.

Good luck

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Hi Bob, I asked about Opana before going on the Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) but my pain Dr said we don't get Oxymorphone (Opana) in AUS, I'm not sure why that is... So we tried Dilaudid and it doesn't seem to do much for my pain even at 4mg which is like taking 13mg of Oxycodone if you convert it strength wise. I think maybe the problem with oxymorphone and hydromorphone is it's low bio availability of around 35% vs 90% for Oxycodone when taken orally.

I have returned to taking 10mg Oxycodone 5 times a day. I just wonder if anyone here can tell me of a good oxycodone replacement for dealing with chronic nerve pain?

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Ask your doc for Opana. It comes in 10, 20, 30mg tablets. Ask for opana-er 40 mg for 12hr. pain control. I take them and my doctor did the same thing to me, so I feel you. Get better. I hope I helped you a little. later...

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