Fentanyl Patches Killing People! (Page 4) (Top voted first)

I would like to know WHY the FDA has not taken the Fentanyl Patch off the market? This drug is being handed out like candy. Anyone who is not terminal or under Hospice care or in a hospital invironment should not be using this drug. Why would a person be prescribed a medication that is 80 times stronger than morphine for a backache. I do not believe patients know how powerful this medication is. The warning should be labled in RED. When are you FDA going to realize This medication is killing while relieving pain! I know because it killed my son.

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Re: sc3dacity (# 113)

I totally agree with you, I have been on 100 micrograms of Fentenal patch every 72 hours and percocet 10 mg every 6 hours for 9 years now and I have lost my wonderful pm doctor and the doctor who took over for him is switching EVERYONE'S meds! He's just put me on Opana ER 10mg twice a day and 2 mg diluad every 6 hours for breakthrough pain. My other doctor tried this once after having me to a swab test and I was in so much pain and sick to. That he put me back on Fentenal patch.

Now I was just switched and my insurance would not authorize it so this doctor ( I don't like but try finding one) thanks to the DEA?? So this doctor actually appealed it. Took me an extra week to get it. Thank God I still had patches left or I would have been sick! Its still the same result too.

I go back in less than 2 weeks and hopefully he will have mercy on me, or at least up my dosage of the new medication. But the Fentenal patch has gotten a bad rap! People should not take it unless they are oxy tolerate. And most people who have overdosed have gotten it from the streets which are bootleg from China or Mexico.

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Because it helps a lot of people just to be able to function and get out of bed and have some sort of life.

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I have been on fentanyl for over twenty years. I have a method of making sure I only use one patch ever 48 hours. As this is how it is prescribed to me because every 72 hours I was still at borderline pain. It was prescribed to me because they didn’t want to see me in pain every 5 hours with other pain drugs. Sorry you lost your son but you can’t take your anger out on the drug that works for others. Every month I open up my packs and sit down and I label the outside by day of the week that need to be changed. Example: mon, wed, fri, sun, tues, thurs, sat etc. This prevents me from taking any earlier. I sit down at 7pm daily and on the day I need to change my patch I take off the old one and place the new one on the opposite side I took the old one off.

I’ve never drank while on this medication because I have a strong desire to live. I’m against recreation users as they are the reason why pain patients get so much flack and we lose our rights to certain drugs that have helped me live a longer life. There have been many suicides due to this drug being taken from patients as they can’t tolerate the pain. My pain was so severe I got no sleep and didn’t want to live. If they took this drug away I’m sure I would be one of those. I don’t think they’d be any deaths if people took the drug like I do.

I’m also on hydrocodone which I take at night because after standing and living where I can function again. I get pain down my spine but not like it was before. At least now I’m not paralyzed from the neck down and can walk again. After cervical surgery and one of the best Nevro stimulators which had to be removed due to a staph infection. I am living life close to normal with having to lay down during the day. It’s up and down but I’ll take that over not being able to function. I had to speak out because it’s people like you that don’t understand not having to live in pain that have what works for me taken away. My family having to suffer your fate of not having me around. Because I have not forgotten the level of pain which made me not want to live. I get reminded if one of my patches fall off it takes five hours for it to work. I keep all my medications locked up and used patches taken to the police dept for disposal. I am able to live now from 42 to 63 and see three grandchildren. My life is priceless because of this drug.

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Re: Krazycatlady (# 120)

I should have stated as well that I do sympathize with the chronic pain patients who claim Fentanyl is the only medication available that eases their pain, I really do. However, I was once addicted to Lorcet, Percocets, Lortabs but haven't taken any Narcotic pain meds for over 10 years now and I know what it's like to do without, BUT ....THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU & I is...... I had no legitimate pain to complain about. I wanted them and abused them (40 Lorcets daily) simply because they made me feel great, gave me energy & I will always claim Lorcets improved my depression tremendously. That isn't something any professional is going to accept or believe but I'm not the only one who claims the same thing. It is sad when you are an honest person who is in chronic pain and who does currently have a pain management doctor but has to suffer with extreme anxiety in addition to their pain because they have to worry about losing their PM Doctor possibly for little or no reason at all. That is so unfair and quite frankly in my opinion and what I've seen so far with lots of PM Doctors is that they themselves seem to be mentally unstable somewhat, they are peculiar and they seem to move around a lot and are in my opinion very unprofessional, or can be. At least that's been my experience with some of them in the past. I do wish you well and understand and can relate somewhat to what you are going through.

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It killed your son because he didn’t use the medication properly. I have been on fentanyl for over twenty years. Every month I write on the patches that day of the week that I need to change it. I was on 100 mcg before my surgery and was able to bring the dose down to 12mcg after but then I was having pain in a different location of my spine. You don’t understand chronic pain because you are not the one in pain I went months in pain and didn’t get any sleep and couldn’t function. We had to bring the dose up until it controlled my pain at 50 mcg. My pain is now controlled and I’m able to function now. I’m not drugged up like some people who lie about their pain. I’m not a person who ever like to take any medication and was not a drug abuser. I would not be alive today if it wasn’t for the medication. I had a good friend who was on Demerol injection at home. I called her doctor because she was forgetting when she last took her meds and was so drugged up . I got her over to my doctor and she was going to go to a rehab in a different state and I planned to travel with her unfortunately she died from her meds and I blame the doctor because he was not trained in pain meds which is a simple two year course. No doctor should be prescribing pain meds without that course and should be sending all pain patients to pain management doctors. I was lucky to have a good doctor who was an anesthesiologist. I’ve had a few doctors that I’ve actually fired for their lack of understanding and very negative personalities. You have to take your health in your hands. No one knows your body like yourself. Make sure your doctor is trained in pain if not find and get a Refurral to a pain management doctor. No doctor should be prescribing pain drugs unless they are pain management trained and our government should see this and stop reg doctors from prescribing long term pain drugs. That is my experience and personal opinion and I stand by it.

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This might surprise you, but the 'strength' of any medication is not really relevant! If it's 'powerful' on a wgt basis, you give LESS, and conversely, if it's on the 'weak side', you give more! So, we might reconstruct your comment to suggest that the amount of fentanyl administered in a patch form is too high!

So, the answer is to LOWER the concentration of fentanyl in a patch! It's true that the 'duration of a drug 'positive effects' might be shorter if 'fewer molecules' are given, but the answer to that is to decrease the 'time interval between doses'...

These are basic pharmacological concepts in the world of medicine...

tkjtkj, M.D. (Ret.)

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Re: Mel (# 126)

I’ve been on fentanyl for over twenty years now. All my doctors will tell you I function just as normal as a person not on any drugs. My adopting my grandson had really nothing to do with the meds I take other than I must keep them under double lock which I do. I went through the foster program for a year and then onto the adoption process and they came from one to twice a week. I’ve never taken my meds any other way than prescribed. I don’t know why anyone would think I’d be zoned out. I’m glad to say I function better now than before I was on the medications. I was in such tremendous pain before I was put on the meds I went months with barely any sleep. The pain kept me up. To the woman that had the question on the adoption . I went and had to be finger printed and a criminal back ground check by the FBI in order to adopt my grandson after my daughter who is bipolar abandon him. She sees him but he goes no where with her. People seem to have misconceptions about people on fentanyl. I also am on hydrocodone that I take in the evening. Every person that know me well and those that don’t don’t see me as a over drugged drug addict. If anyone you know is in this condition then you should call their doctor. I did to a very good friend of mine and told her doctor off and was going to have his license taken away because he ignored my calls and she died of an overdose. I was 7 days from having her go to another rehab through my doctor. Many people on these drugs don’t label them like I do. On my fentanyl I change every 48 hours and each patch is labeled by the day of the week. If I changed on Sunday my next change is Tuesday and then Thursday and so on for the whole month. This should be done with anyone that is on the medication.

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Li, sorry to hear this . i had a cage in 2000 and it was fine for 5 years and i developed scarring around the surgery site.. NOT GOOD.. more pain now than ever and need to live the rest of my days on these darn man made drugs or live in unbearable pain.. some people do not develop scar tissue. i developed major scaring around the surgery site pressing on nerves and there is nothing they can do other then go in and scrap out the scarring.. which additional surgery may end up developing more scar tissue rinse repeat.. need i say more.. leave well enough alone.. thanks to a head on collision in 1995.. no more help here.. just deal with it..

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I was placed on fentanyl patches my being told it was a pain patch.I had no clue how potent it was.I have been on the same 50mcg for 4 years now.I take no other pain med I just wish someone had warned me.I want off them soon.

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Hi sorry to hear that, but can you tell me how it is killing people, I have had spinal fusion between L5 & S1 and I am on 150mg every three days and oxynorm for the breakthrough pain.
Many thanks Dean

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OK. I understand this now. The Dr. is 100 % at fault. It is not the Fentanyl. It scares me when I hear that this medication should be taken. I have severe RSD and knew I would not be able to take the pain much longer. I did not want to leave my children and my husband. Knowing I was taking away my physical and mental pain and forcing them to feel emotional pain was the only thing that kept me hanging on. My husband had also started understanding, its also hard to c someone you love screaming in agony day after day. This Fentanyl. literally saved my life. It saved my family. Although its getting hard again (pain level) I am trying to take oral fentanyl. for break through pain instead of dilaudid. This med. is not ever supposed to be used on anyone that hasn't been on constant forms of narcotics. Bold letters right on the box. and then to add other med. on top of that...for a child with a back ache. What the hell? Something is really wrong with that Dr. The pharmacist also should have picked up on this. This level of incompetence is absolutely criminal. I hope he /she is not allowed to go near young patients ever again. He shouldn't be allowed to go anywhere near children ever. He should be in prison!

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Hi Verwon, maybe you can help me. Where do you live? Most of us (rsd patients) have been struggling to find a doctor that will prescribe Actiq with our patches. I know from trying it in the ER it works. Its so frustrating knowing there is something that can help me and my family life a better life but I cant it. I live in NY.

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Hello,

I have been taking Fentanyl now for chronic pain after a bad accident. After many surgeries I was left with terrible pain, that left my life unlived. I first started with 50mcg patch, and while it was working, I requested that the dose be lowered to 25mcg. Now, along with deep breathing and meditation (I learned while in physical rehabilitation) I have a somewhat normal life - all considered. Although I don't have the great career I had before, I am a functioning member of society. It's not the life I had envisioned, but it's the best life that I can live under the circumstances. I visit my treating specialist every 2-3 months, and followed closely. I even get regular blood test to monitor effects this has on my system...

This said, I have to add that the Fentanyl patch was a last resort after trying other meds and techniques. I was really against it, and even today, I often skip it for a few weeks to really see if it's working.... I never have any withdrawal effects, but always benefit from taking it.

I don't think it should be a first choice for treatment, but in my case the last resort treatment with Fentanyl patch worked. I change it every 3 days.

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Hello I been on all types of opiates an mgs over an over but I'll be straight up honest its getting hard for us the ppl that really need the meds to atleast get through the day, unlike the ppl that get it just to sell for income those are the ones that's making our life a living hell. But no pain meds is good at all they don't cure you, they just mask the pain and brain and I'm not addicted on it but I am dependant on it to get through my days. But when abused you run out an get so sick they say you feel like your dieing but your not. That's not true cause I heard of ppl that have died when in withdrawal. Its not something you just take for years an just stop go on living an you say oh I'm fine. Not 1 person I no on opiates have a normal life as over time unless taken right an even when taken right its still a nightmare for me cause I been on a lot for years legally by PM and I have run short a time or 2 and I just wish I was never put on anything as I noticed my life change over years. But if you don't need it my words to anyone is don't unless that's the only options. Thanks, hope this helps at least 1 person. its a dragon on your back an most ppl are chasing it after days to years on opiates an getting off it I found its a hard to do type deal as I tried to stop an not long I had to get back on it due to all my health problems from spine pinching nerves. I'm 38 and at age 30 UVA said I had a spine of an 80 year old, so I can only imagine now. Hope this helps. Thanks, Ken

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Evidently, Oxy and Fentanyl are the only two drugs approved for chronic pain........I cannot take either, and face a difficult situation......There is no logical reason these drugs are handed out. In my case, I am terminal, so it doesn't matter much. Fentanyl has some dreadful side effects once a person has a bad reaction to the drug as I did a while back, I ended up in hospital and nearly died. I was always careful to use it exactly as prescribed, but once it turns on you, it is a scary drug.......I agree it is dangerous and there ought to be better alternatives.
I think every patient has to be his own best advocate, research any and all drugs offered him/her, and make an informed decision. Nobody should blindly follow a doctor's lead, they see too many patients a day to be given that total responsibility. It is up to us to watch out for our own best interests, nobody else can or will do it.
Good luck to you, you make some very good points.

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Do not cut these patches. It can be very dangerous to do so. It can cause more of the medication to leak out onto your skin and overdose you.

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Hi Sue, just to set your mind at ease, I want you to know that very few drug companies make the fentanyl patches with the "resevoir" (gel) anymore. Most have changed to putting the meds in a sort of sticky matrix that cannot cause the release of more of the medication. In time, I'm hoping that they will also add naloxone to prevent abuse of any sort (as I've heard horror stories of the lengths people go to abuse them, which I will NOT discuss here, as I refuse to give anyone bad ideas!) I'm hoping that Naloxone will go over the counter & until then, be given to every patient on narcotic medications &/or be given a prescription for those who have family or friends that are drug abusers. Naloxone should be in every home, just in case! It's already saved millions of lives, why not make it easier to save more? I guess that rant is for another time & place, but I wanted to set your mind at ease that the fentanyl patches are being made very hard to abuse or mistakenly release too much medication.

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It is disturbing and scary. However...no offense to anyone but we owe it to ourselves to educate our minds before we start any new medication. How many mommies read the label on over the counter meds before giving it to the children.? Hopefully lots. But my point is for you to show yourself the same self love. Read before you take. We clearly have a blind trust in our doctors thinking that they would not give us anything that would cause us harm. Do we not realize the kick backs the doctors get from the Pharmaceutical companies? It's huge. From simple office supplies, to private banquets, automobiles, cash, vacations and whatever else the pharmaceuticals come up with to push their products. There have been many successful legal suits against the fentanyl patch makers because of wrongful deaths and personal injuries. I just read today that they paid out over 13.2 million for a death resulting from a recalled patch. The recalls occurred in 1994 and 2008. If it happened then it could still happen now. I believe the machine making the patches did not properly seal them and extra gel was released and absorbed cause a senseless fatality. Please feel free to anyone who wishes to express your concerns to the Alza Corp. who manufactures the patch and to Janssen pharmaceutical. By the way..both companies are owned by Johnson & Johnson. An individual like yourself will never stop the company from producing its fentanyl patch. No matter how dangerous it is. But an individual like yourself can educate others about the dangers of using it. If one person refuses it because of what you wrote, then you are like a super hero who possibly saved another person's life. Thank you for your post. It brought up some important issues.

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hello, im lexy & im honest enough to say im worried about being so blunt, ive been a victim of domestic violence with nerve damage and fibromyalgia in neck and back, my md referred me back on 150 micrograms of the fentanyl patch because i was on a hefty dose of methadone for chronic pain and im opiate tolerant. she referred me with a letter to a pain mgmt dr saying she's gotten off methadone, please put her on fentanyl, he did id change every 4 days instead 72 hrs,now at one dr visit from la to beverley hills i took a cab and lost my cab fare i was facing jail, that happened to me yrs ago. So I panicked. I asked a well to do looking woman if she wanted to buy a thousand dollar cell phone for 120$ cause i lost my cab fare. She called security. My pain dr wrote me a letter about embarrassing their staff and has put me through hell. Next week my md will give me another preauthorization for a pain mgmt dr that accepts my health ins. in the meantime i cant take it and less is more since ive been without.. i know you all gotta feel my pain, id never hurt myself, heck no. im in hell, why would i ever hurt myself and go there for eternity? I'm soooo sorry to be so bold but one more week for a new pain dr and preauthorization isnt doing it, talk to me pls. im on benefits very disabled, suffering.

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Have degenerative disk disease and sanosis, been in pain long time. I take 4 30mg roxys plus 2 10 mg hydrocodone per day. Doctor gave me .75 fintynal patch to try a couple weeks. They seem to really help with pain but are about impossible to stay stuck. I know not supposed to cover patch but for now I'm using a thin waterproof patch. Already wasted two patches so if I decide to get more I will order some coverings. My usual meds help ok but not perfectly, but after all I'm reading I'm not sure if I want to go down the patch road. Any insight would be helpful. Thx Chris

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