Fentanyl Patches Killing People! (Page 7)
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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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Hello Julie, I am happy to hear that you found a great doctor that has helped manage your pain. I have been dealing with severe chronic pain for years and have tried just about every medication out there. some have worked, but as time goes on my body built up a dependency...so I went completely off of everything to start at the bottom again. Still, since I had to have a surgery where I had a rib and my scalene muscle in my neck removed as a result of being a passenger of a horrible car accident-after years of searching for someone with an answer and a cure for the the cause of my pain I finally found a thoracic surgeon and had the surgery. There were complications, I had a punctured lung from the surgery, severe nerve damage, as well as a hole and fluid build up in my shoulder as a result. It has now been a yr since the surgery, norm healing time is three months. I am in pain around the clock, can barely get 4 hrs of sleep every few days because the pain doesnt go away. I have just been switched from Opana Er which was working ok, it did seem to help but my new pain dr put me on the Fentanyl patch which seems to be working as well. My issue is my PM dr doesnt believe in breakthrough pain meds and sometimes I can get my pain managable if I lay still for days but after more than 2 hrs of any activity-even a shower my pec swells up like I am a body builder, my nerve pain is off the charts and I either faint, hyperventilate or my body just begins to shake because the pain is too much. I have built up a tolerance to pain throughout this hell., but I dont know what to do anymore. Truthfully I dont want to be on any medication, I want to get back to my life. I was 27 when I was injured, now I am 31 and am watching life pass me by. Julie I realize this is a long msg and since you wrote yours last yr I am unsure you will get it but I am taking a chance. I need a pain mngt dr that trusts me. Every appt I have with this man is like I am on trial and all he does is fire questions at me and accuse me of lying when it turns out to be a clerical error or something on the part of the staff. I dont have much control of my life right now which is frustrating enough, but my integrity is something just about the only thing that I can control and hold onto right now and the fact that the man that is prescribing me these meds doesnt seem to trust me, I am curious if the wonderful Doc that your prayers and God has blessed you with is anywhere near California??? I so badly need help from someone I trust and who trusts me. I am willing to go anywhere if there really is a pain dr out there who isnt sceptical of everyone. If you get this and wouldnt mind sharing even the vicinity of your dr I would be so grateful. I am praying every day but I am really having a hard time, I cant just watch my life pass me by anymore. Thank you for any advice. I truly hope that you and anyone who reads this finds relief from any pain that you may be experiencing. People who dont have chronic pain have no idea what it is like being trapped inside your own body. Take care! K

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if you abuse these narcotics yes they can kill you.

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I forgot to mention. That several years went by before I could find a doctor to help me thru my pain. Twenty four hours a day and 7 days a week I was in excrutiating pain. The only thing that kept me from killing myself was what it would do to my children and my faith in God. I prayed every day that God would either cure me or send me a doctor to help make the pain bearable. It took few years but now I'm glad God sent me the wonderful doctor. I don't know how much longer I could have hung it out. I am so sorry for your loss. It has to be so hard to lose a child. My children are my life, that is why I couldn't kill myself. I couldn't bear what it would have done to the. God be you.

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if these drugs were taken off the market, why should not they all be. I don't think that anyone should have a say so about a person's medication except that person and they physician. So many people in this world claim to know what someone else feels like. I don't think people should stick their noses into the business of others as to their pain, etc. I can understand why a person would rather be dead than live with horrible pain with the hope for a cure in the future. If people want to pry because they don't understand pain, than why not spend all that energy into this country spending taxpayers money for cures. what about second hand cigarette smoke. why not ban cigarettes? don't judge what you don't understand. if someone wants to smoke, i think it's their business and I am not a smoker and never have been.

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Jean,
Now that you have listed the types and amounts of medication he was prescribed I see things a little more clearly. Two boxes of fentanyl is a normal Rx for a one month dose, changing the patch every 3 days. The Oxycontin worries me. Did they give him 240 pills to take in a month? That Rx would have been an abusive amount ( not that he abused them) but if he took them around the clock I can see how he could overdose. Most pain management only want to give one long acting med (Fentanyl) and supplement with an IR (oxycodone) for breakthrough pain. 240 Oxycontin would supress anyone's respiratory center. I am so sorry that your pain management doctor would give your child this much deadly medication. But Fenanyl is an extremely useful medication used in a wide variety not just back pain. I do hope that one day you can find peace in your heart.

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My son was under the care of a pain management Physician in Calif. He was sent a prescription for 2 boxes of 100mg Fentanyl patches and 240 Oxycotin. MRI was neg. He took it around the clock as rx to him.He set his clock to take on time. If back pain is this bad what happens when you get cancer. Nothing will help. His experience with this medication was getting stronger and stronger every month. it went from 25mcg to 100mcg in four months.

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I am so sorry for your loss. I use a 50mcg patch every 48 hours and if it were not for this medication I would not be able to stand up. This medication has been a life saver for thousands of people who would have long since committed suicide due to severe pain. I am not lucky enough to be able to take much of anything else due to severe drug allergies. I was a nurse for 30 years and didn't really understand pain until I became a chronic pain patient. Funny how my helping people all of my life put me in a position to hardly be able to take care of myself.
All drugs used for pain, even aspirin, are potentially abused. You know the old saying "if one is good, two must be better.". More people need to use the most minimal amount of medication to help alleviate the pain but not knock themselves out with it. If you are in a brain fog being on a medication than it is too strong for you. Always talk to your pain management physician about your medication, don't let some general practice doc start prescribing these strong drugs. They are not specialists and don't have the knowledge to be giving you these drugs.
I hope everyone is pain free and able to live your life not just attend it!

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I take fentynal trans D patches 100 mg. They work well I am supposed to change them every 3 days. But after 2.5 days I start feeling tired and have this type of yawn where I gasp for air 3-4 times before the yawn. So I change mine every 2.5 days instead of every 3 days. To stop this reaction. I told the consultant at the pain clinic about the reaction his answer to this was to send me for councilling. Taking these patches worries me and I am thinking of cutting a strip off the patches to decrease the dose slowly so I can get off them. My heads a mess. I need to get off them.

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I am not against Fentanyl for people who are terminal. It should be used in a hospital environment or under Hospice care. My son was a stickler for using his medicine exactly as it was prescribed. He was full of life, Just had a bad back. It eased his pain alright, It took it away forever.

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Very sorry to hear that you lost your son, from use of this medication.

As to the warnings, those used by the FDA are black box warnings, to alert people to serious risks.

While it can be dangerous, since it is so powerful and often abuse, it is also a boon to many people suffering chronic pain, for whom other medications have stopped working.

It is not just used for backaches, it is used for many, many other painful conditions as well.

Since it is available as the lollipop Actiq and the time released patches, it works wonders for the greater amount of people that are careful to use it properly.

My doctor had me try it once and while it did help my pain, it also proved to be far too strong for me. It made me very sick and I stopped using it.

https:/­/­rxchat.com/­wiki/­Fentanyl/­

Are there any questions or comments?

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