Fentanyl Withdrawal Symptoms (Page 31)

I'm trying to wean myself off the Fentanyl patch. I went from 75 micro-gms to 50 now I'm on 25. Having a problem and not sure it is related to the decrease in the med. It's been 20 days on the 25 micro-gm and I'm going crazy. I need to keep rocking, moving in any way b/c my body is very restless. Is this a symptom of withdrawal and what do I do? I cannot take it any more.

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My husbands horrible pain mngmnt. doctor didn't give him enough patches to get him to his next appt. Now my husband is having withdrawal. The dr. Wont do anything for him-when it was his error. His next appt. Is 2 wks. Away! How can I help him? I am so worried about him. I also wish I could find a way to report this a**hole dr, who doesn't care about putting his patients in danger! Help! Any otc meds that might help?

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Hello everyone....Well, it has been three days that the teens have been home for the spring break and I can't wait till school starts back. Shame on me for thirty minutes, but they are driving me crazy. I just hate that my nerves are shot after coming off them patches. But, it beats what I was going through when I was on them. I had to go through life with being scared of what I was going to do and not realizing just what I had done until after the fact. That is scary....When you wake up every day and face the things that you have done the night before, face the hurtful things you said and the hurtful things that were said to you, then it's time to come out of the fog. And I was in a deep fog. My mind is clear and my family,friends and doctors(not the pain doctors, mind you) sure are happy. I hope everyone that is going through this is doing good and out of so much pain. Keep up the good work and say a prayer for me. I pray for all who is out there that is in pain and hurting and my friends that are on this site. Take good care of yourself. God, who am I kidding, I'm hurting and I want to have something to kill the pain. But I'm going to try my best to fight, fight, fight....living one day at a time....

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Hi all
Nuttynanny. I wish I could say something positive about the kids. Just think of them as fyntenal. Too much will kill u don't let them get the best of you. I know it's easy for me to say cause I don't know them but keep smiling and hang in there.
Shannon, god bless u and if u need me to help make that cake I'm thinking of a 5 tier layer cake. I got dibs on the biggest piece.

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Lol @ Et, we will each have our very own! :@ an Nanny is picking everyone up. Lord knows Cali has enough for the cake. Just not sure if we have enough frosting, so bring your own!
Prayers for all of you! Sleep well

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worriedwife: I would not go back to that doctor whatso ever. I would try to find a doctor that would help because the pain from the withdrawals is way worse than the pain that he had before. I also would report him to the Medical Board inthe state you live in. I don't know of any otc meds that would help him but if he had a regular doctor that would write him some Zanaflex and Clonazepam it would help get the rest that he is going to need. I'm sorry that he is going through this and I feel for you having to watch as he is in pain. I will keep you in my prayers. Living one day at a time.....P.S. Make sure that he keeps fluids in him and try to get him to eat, that helps.

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I really want to thank everyone for this forum. My doctor put me on this patch even though she KNOWS I don't need 24-hr pain relief. I have neuropathy and for reasons that allude all the experts when I am at complete rest, as in sleeping, the pain decreases dramatically...thus I just don't take anything at night. So anyway, she just pops this at me and I've trusted her so I said, "Sure, let's give it a shot".

Well, I have to admit I was thoroughly impressed at the effectiveness of this medicine. But I had never heard of it before so had no idea where it landed in the strength category nor anything about side effects, etc. I stumbled on this forum and started reading - and got just about deathly terrified. I'm only 50 yrs old so the thought of having to live with this drug the rest of my life was not an option. Secondly, and probably more importantly, the next major procedure she wants to try (and is pretty convinced it'll work) is a neurostimulator in my spine to stop the pain signals from traveling to/from my brain. My thought process went something like this: I learned on this forum the longer you're on this patch the harder the withdrawl is. It seems from some of these testimonials that NOTHING can stop the horrible symptoms altogether - not even titrating down from 75 (where she started me) to 50 then 25 ... no matter what I'm going to suffer the longer I'm on it.

So I told her flat out, I want off..period. She agreed (has no choice, legally) and put me back on percocet telling me to take it around the clock for 5 days. She was right - after only SIX WEEKS on that patch I had already developed an addiction to it. Wow...what a mess. The tiredness/fatigue was so awful I could barely function. Perc (as I nickname it) would ease the symptoms but not completely - oxycodone is nowhere near as strong as Fentanyl. My stomach was messed up, BIG time - I didn't want to eat at all and if I did eat I would be met with stomach aches and some nausea. Sleeplessness, restlessness, joint aches, etc...Wow .. all this for just six weeks of this thing?? I can't imagine if I had continued on it for another 2 months (the timeframe I'm looking at for the neurostimulator). If the neurostim is effective I would have been taken off Fentanyl (obviously) and my life would have likely been a living h*** for far longer than the 7 days I just went through...and the symptoms far worse.

So - I want to THANK YOU ALL for your very descriptive reports of what this drug does. I honestly would not have known.

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Hi Marc
Your words are all true. This forum had helped me tremendously. My pain management specialist wants to put the nerve stimulator in my lower spine as well. I had the trial done before and it worked. But I never turned on the machine. wherever they put the wires on my spine stopped my pain but I wad told they couldn't just keep the wires in. Im so tired of getting cut. I'm scared to death to have them put another piece of equipment in or on my spine. If it doesn't work then that's just another useless surgery.
If u get it done please let me know if it works for u.

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Marc, How are you doing? I stress so much about how evil this drug is and how it doesn't take but a little to make you have severe withdrawals when you come off. I applaud you for telling your doctor that you wanted off of this. I hate you are going through this and I hope you the best. I, myself, will do major research before I start to take anything that the doctors give that I don't know anything about. I don't want to ever go through withdrawals again. That was no fun...I also think that they orta make the doctors (Pain doctors that write freely) take the things that they write for a set amount of months just to see what people go through when they don't or can't get the drug anymore. They would be a little more sympathetic to our needs. Please, If anyone out there reads this that is starting to take Fentanyl patches, read up and think hard before you do this. Thank God the hard part is now over. Now I just have to learn to say no, no, no.....living one day at a time and Praying for all...

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mary my son was given these horrible patchers nobody gives adame how long did it take you to come off them and did you wean off them or stop alltogether a very worried mum thanks

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hi all,
I was taking 600mg of fentanyl lozenge 9 times a day for several months to ease the pain of neuralgia,(the breakthrough pain was really bad in the cold weather) but when the pain eased in the summer I found that I was addicted and needed to keep taking the drug in order to function normally.with all the side effects I felt that this drug was going to kill me eventually,so I started cutting the lollipops in half and over a long period reduced down to 200mg 12 times a day.I had been prescribed the drug by a pain specialist who did not tell me about how addictive it was or how bad the side effects were.I have had over 3 yrs of hell as most of you can imagine.In january I saw a drug specialist who changed the fentalyn to Zomorph starting at 50mg morning & night and I have reduced this by 10 per week to 10 morn & 20 at night. trouble is now that I want to reduce to 10 & 10 I am suffering leg irritation at nigh so maybe I need to do another week at 10 & 20?. I felt that I needed to write this post to see if anyone else had experience with the fentanyl lozenge and also to let people know my story. I will be just so,so glad to be free from this wretched drug. my kindest regards to you all

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I started the patch on 3/9/12 at 50, and within 5 days the dr had me on 75. I started acting like I was going to OD and took patch off. Felt better, then the following day I put a 50mcg patch back on. Needless to say I started acting the same 15 hrs after I put the patch back on. So, again I took the patch off, called me dr. I went to see my dr, and told him. He did not tell me to reduce the amount a little at a time. I was only on the patch from 3/9 to 3/26/12. I stopped cold turkey and feel I am loosing my mind and life. My husband even took me to the ER and they did nothing, just sent me home. I can not sleep, I get chills so bad my hair stands on end, then I start sweating severly, legs and arms are restless, head aches and getting weak feeling now and sticky sweaty palms. It has been 8 days since I took the patch off and I am not doing any better...how much longer or what else can I do? Please help....this is a feeling of I think I am dying!

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Hi Ellenyoure not alone. There are many of us o. This site that went through the same hell when we got of this patch. The withdrawals are brutal but there is light at the end of the tunnel. I went through cold sweats, anxiousness, my stomach was in knots, diarehea, headaches, I could t sleep, I couldnt eat, I had the shakes and that was just on a good day:) it gets better. You weren't on it that long so give it a good 4-6 weeks. Some folks on this site said they are still having withdrawals up to 6 months but it just depends on how much is in your system. Doesn't sound like you were on it that long. Be patient, it WILL get better. drink lots of fluids and take one day at a time. The doctors never tell us about the withdrawals.
The patch was my worse nightmare it helped me a few days then I started having all kinds of problems.
I'm so glad to hear you got off it.
I've been off since January and my side effects are gone.

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Thank you for your response. Give it 4 or 5 weeks? Are you kidding me? I will nt be able to handle that long doing this! I am going to the pain management doctor this morning. Cancer is one thing, but having to go through something like this on top of it is another. I am hoping the Dr. can help with my pain, these symptoms and do it without getting me hooked on another!

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You got to have patience. One thing I've learned through all of this is to find what works for you. Trial and error cause the doctors won't go over the withdrawals or side effects with you. They act as though side effects don't exist.
Hang in there. You're not Alone.

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I was on it for 8 1/2 weeks and also demanded to come off. I'm only 32 and did not need this strength of meds. After I told him how I felt he put me back on Norco in the same amounts as before Fentanyl. Needless to say, I have felt the withdrawals. It's been 7 days today and I'm still having diarrhea, chills, sweats, anxiety, and RLS. I an doing my best to now taper down the Norco, but its Hell. I send love, strength and compassion to all of you. My knee is hurting so much more than before Fentanyl and I want to go back to where I only took 3 Norco a day. That dream seems so far away now.

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Wow Jane
Your symptoms wereike mine. Welcome to the world of discomfort. I would love to give this drug to my doctors for two weeks then take them off it just to see how it feels. Maybe then they would be more self conscious before prescribing this or at lease talk to us about the side effects and let us decide.

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Neurotin did not work for me, it made me feel weird. Iam taking 20 ml a day of hydrocodone but dont like relying on a narcotic. I agree with you on the withdrawls. Go to doc and demand help getting off.

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Went to pain management Dr today. Put me on klonopin to help me through the withdrawls. Along with Lyrica. Once I get past the witdrawls of the fentanyl patch, then I have to start weaning from the Vicodin and must do it within 7 days. I go in for several nerve blocks next week for help with this pain. Just has me a little concerned, because where some of the nerves are it could easily puncture my lung....not what i need. It has been a week doing this and hopefully I will get past within a few more days...I hope!

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Hey all, I am now (I think) 12 weeks off of Fentanyl and I have been taking Suboxone and I still am having withdrawals. Funny, the doctor said that the Suboxone would help but I can't see the difference. I still hurt, I still can't sleep without Ambien and I still have alot of cramping in my legs. I didn't do this before the Fentanyl patches so why am I doing this now. That just goes to show you how strong that evil drug is. Ellen, TJane, Mikelodeon and Pip, I hope your days get better and you don't suffer so much and yes this is hell. I can't wait till this drug is completely out of my system. Ya'll listen to Etienne because she has been to hell and back and knows just how everything goes with the withdrawals. She has helped me alot. And I agree with her about giving the doctors a good 6 months of this drug and then take it away suddenly without any compassion, that's the way they did us. I wonder if I'm prolonging the withdrawals by taking the Suboxone? I am terrified of not having something to take when I first get up, that's when I hurt the worst. To tell you the truth, I'm terrified period. To go through this when I first got cancer, what am I going to go through when I really get sick. I'm scared.......Living one day at a time.....love to all. Pray for me, I pray for you, all of you.

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Nuttynanny
I'm hurt. I'm a he not a she. Etienne is French for Steven. I would cry but I might break something :)

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