Fentanyl Withdrawal Symptoms (Page 54)
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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Omg, I'm a bit scared and pray you guys are out of your minds! Hi Et, hope you are right! My first thought was yours. Residual pain or like you said "something else". I hope your right. If not? Then we are going to need a lot more than brownies. I'll break out the cake pans!

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I have been off the patch for 15 months and still have withdrawal symptoms daily. Remember fentynal has an accumulative effect on the pain receptors in the brain. YES this sucks, I know!

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Hi Vicky
Im glad ur off the patch but 5 months and still having withdrawals sound kinda long. Perhaps its something else. I've read a lot of folks and their withdrawal time frame and if it is the patch u broke the record.
I hate to say this but u should check with your doctor or pain mgmt specialist. I said hate to say that because I don't trust anyone anymore.
I with u well and I'll keep u on my prayers.

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You may want to try a PEMF (pulsed electro magnetic field) mat for pain. I want to try one tho they are a little more than I can afford right now. I've heard on Dr. Oz that they work real well. You can go to his website for information on them. I am determined to stay narcotic free and find alternative medicine to treat my pain. Good Luck.

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I am over 5 months off narcotics and still have withdrawl symptoms that wake me up every two hours at night and I can not digest food properly causing me to spend my mornings in the bathroom. I keep wondering how long this can last, I never thought it would still be causing me problems. I went off too fast and on a high dose because I couldn't stand the withdrawls every time they took me down. I was on 100mg every 48 hours for about 7 years. Its worth it even with what I am going through, the fentanyl was worse. I honestly believe after a while you are just feeding your bodys dependance and it is not working well at all for the pain. Hang in there. The pain is worse for a couple of months then you begin to feel clear minded and your pain should ease off. I am repelled by the thought of fentanyl now and it will be a cold day in h--- before I ever let another drug run my life like that one did.

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Etienne, My doctor advised me not to drink this also. He also told me to limit my intake of tea because tea causes kidney stones. I have drank tea all my life and I did have a kidney stone but when I backed off tea it went away. I have very high anxiety problems and I find comfort by writing here and in a journal. It releases the stress and it makes me aware of all the different walks of life that this drug has effected. I also find comfort in being with a very understanding family that I nearly lost when things were spiraling out of control. They have been there for me when all my friends kicked me to the curb. I will always have respect for my family.They have seen the things that I have gone through and stayed with me even through the things that I did to them. Most of all I thank God for another day for there have been alot of days that I just didn't think I was going to make it. He must have seen something in me worth saving...same with all the ones that are sharing and the ones that are reading this. GOD Loves You when you don't even love yourself........Taking one day at a time....Love ya'll

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My doctor told me not to drink cranberry juice because it coagulates the blood and I've had blood clots. I guess it's not for everyone.

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Etienne and Shannon and all, I do hope you all have a better days in the coming weeks. I can relate to all of your pains and you, Etienne, are so right. I hate to see just how these kids are going to cope with life when they grow up, with no schooling. I hate to say this about my oldest daughter but she lets these kids get away with so much that they will never be able to function in this world. She just won't discipline them. I hate it for them....living one day at a time.....love all

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