Morphine Sulfate - Generic For Avinza (Page 2)
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I was in an auto accident 8/21/96 and ever since then I have been dealing with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD). For the last 11 yrs I have been on Avinza 270 mg (2 120mg, 1 30mg once a day) by King Pharmaceutical and now my ins company is insisting that a generic is made and sold in the US by Acatavis Elizabeth. I cannot see anything current that it has been released. There is a legal suit between King and Acatavis because it states a generic cannot be released until 11/2017. Generics do not work for me and right now I'm fighting it, but would like to know if it is true about Avinza being made and sold in the US by Actavis. Please let me know if you're able to, I would surely appreciate it. Thank you!

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Hi There,
I'm wondering if you've found any other info on Avinza. I was on 60mgs for 5 years and it was absolutely the best medication for my pain. I had zero side effects and remained on the same dosage year after year. This year when Avinza was no longer being manufactured, I began the generic that was available at that time, Morphine Solphate and it does not manage my pain near as well as Avinza and I've experienced side effects. It has been terrible trying to find another medication that worked even close to Avinza. I would love to hear that they actually were able to produce a REAL generic or better yet, that Avinza has been put back on the market.

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Beyonce, I couldn't agree with you more. When it comes down to it, we are the one's at home and in pain. As nasty and as mean as some people are, they go home and forget about us. We have to be proactive or we will get lost in the shuffle. Look at it like this, what would have happened if you would have accepted what she told you and either went the 1.5 weeks without taking any meds, or making what meds you had stretch out the extra 1.5 weeks? The Doctor may have assumed that since you made it with a smaller dose, or without taking any at all, that either your prescribed dose was too high, or that you didn't need it at all. Thankfully there was someone in the office that you could count on.

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Hi Lorraine,

I can relate to the issue with the receptionist/medical assistant at your Dr's office. The clinic I attended for 8-9 years had a receptionist who wasn't responsible for writing scripts or writing on the scripts but she could make life miserable for a girl nonetheless. She'd try and schedule my next appt 1 week or 2 weeks AFTER my meds would run out. It was crazy! The first time she did it to me I didn't realize it until I was down to a weeks worth of meds & checked the appt date to find it was a week and a half AFTER I'd run out of meds. When I called the office to straighten it out she told me they were completely booked up and I needed to just "make it work". I was crying when I hung up with her. This called for some kind of action! I knew my doctor wouldn't want me to run out of medicine! SO, I hand wrote my problem on a note, placed it in a sealed envelope and wrote the particular nurses name I knew would help on the outside. PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL I wrote across the bottom. I physically drove to the office & asked someone coming out if "C" was there today, the answer was "yes". Then I waited outside till I saw a familiar face (of a fellow patient) going in for an appt, stopped her and asked if she had any problem giving the letter to "C" for me. She kindly took the letter and promised to give it to her as soon as she got to the exam room wing. Fifteen minutes later my cell phone rang. It was "C" who'd gotten the note obviously. She couldn't stop laughing at my description of their receptionist as the "Appointment Nazi". EVERYONE at that clinic had dealt with the receptionist from hell. On the note I wrote that I had my medication with me for a pill count to prove I wasn't just bull****ing. I offered to come inside and let her count my pills which she declined and told me to come in the following Monday morning for my script. Moral of the story; If someone other than the Dr herself is ****ing you around, go into stealth mode by contacting a higher up!

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Hi Lorraine, what you describe that your Dr.'s office is doing with regards to dating the prescription's is legal, at least in Pa. Not only is it legal in Pa, it is common practice. Every Dr. I have seen for the narcotic's has their nurses count out the days to see when I should be due for a refill, and then date the Rx accordingly. This can be extremely frustrating when dealing with the weekends and holidays. The best way I have figured out to handle this is to talk to your Dr. at your next appointment and explain to him/her the problems you are having getting your meds because of the way the scripts are being dated. Every one of my Docs has listened, understood and put a note in the chart regarding weekends and holidays. Also, you may want to try scheduling your appointment's about a week before you are due for a refill, and at least all of my Doc's (after explaining the problem's I was having with refills), wrote the new script 4-6 days before my due date so I had at least a small grace period in case there was a problem at the pharmacy with either insurance approval, or the pharmacy needing to order the meds. The next time you call the Dr.'s Office for refills, they will count the days from the last Rx that was wrote. If the Doc gave you the grace period, you should have the same grace period going forward because the Nurses count from the last Rx. I know people who have had the pharmacist call their Doc to explain why the pharmacy needs the grace period for the med in question. I don't know if any of this will help you or not, but it's worth a shot if you haven't tried it already. Isn't it amazing how many people post on this site about Avinza and how well it worked for them?

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I have a good pharmacist I guess because they were willing to call around the area and see who had avinza left to fill my prescription.
We live in the North Atlanta area so that helps.
I am on day number 35 of the ms sulfate and it is not working at all. I am waiting for my doctor to call back because this sucks. Thanks

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Eric, I'm surprised you were able to get the Avinza this long. I was told back in January, 2015, King Pharm was no longer manufacturing Avinza, they even took the coupon off line, so I believed the pharmacist. Good luck with the generic brands, they didn't work for me. The Embeda works, not as well as the Avinza, but better then the generic brand. Between the dr's office and the pharmacy, I'm stilling having issues filling my scripts. I have a question, in my dr's office there is one person who is a secretary/medical assistant, who is now arguing with me about getting my scripts too early (one week to be exact). She is putting on my scripts "Fill date and then dates it." I tried to explain to her she cannot do that because of the way I have to take my meds and I would be out of them her way. I don't even know if it's legal for her to do that. Also, because of all the problems with my pharmacy and filling the Embeda and oxy-ir, they are telling me they can't have more then one month's worth in stock. I don't know the laws and if anyone can direct me or let me know if you're having the same problems, I would appreciate knowing. Every month now it's becoming more and more of a hassle to fill my scripts. It's enough I have to deal with 24/7 pain, now more stress. Sorry!! Good luck to all and keep me posted! God Bless.

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Hi guys! I'm replying to Lorraine's "message" because she has the most recent post. Avinza. From 2000-2014 I was prescribed Avinza for chronic pain (obviously). My tolerance for the medicine was HIGH. The first 10 years I took it, the Dr's office faxed my script to a particular pharmacy & the medicine was delivered to my door by their wonderful, sweet delivery man. I'm not sure what exactly happened but in 2013 the Dr's office could no longer fax in the script. The pharmacy was 23 miles from home so I tried to find a local pharmacy to fill the Avinza. NO ONE had any, could order it blah blah. One fine day I walked into a pharmacy in town hoping to fill my script and was told the usual. They didn't have any in stock and doubted they could get it. As I was leaving the Pharmacist stopped me & explained that Avinza is morphine. Plain and simple. Well, ER morphine but morphine just the same. He said he had "a ton" of that if I wanted he could make a quick call to the Dr and fill the morphine. OMG. Yes! Thank you! When I got home I Internet searched Avinza to be sure what I was told was true and yes it was and what a freaking relief! I never had any problem with the substitute thankfully. I know that can happen though. I'm wondering what's in (or left out) of the generic y'all are getting. I thought morphine is morphine is morphine. Or it should be that's for sure!

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Hi Lorraine, I am so happy to hear from you. It sounds like you are starting to get back on track after your horrible experience a few months ago. Is your pharmacy still having supply issues with the Embeda, or did you switch pharmacies? Did you Dr. increase your Embeda strength, or are you still on what you started with? Are you having any real bad side effects from the Embeda, or is it the normal side effects from narcotics? As I said, I am very happy to hear from you again. I know you were struggling for a couple of months and those times can be very hard and lonely to get through. It seems like you are headed in the right direction again and I sincerely hope and pray that you are able to continue in the right direction.

As for me, after taking the Embeda for a couple of months, I stopped taking it in July. My main reason was it made me very tired and I had the I don't care about anything attitude while taking it. Also, I would have needed my dose increased for pain control, but I figured that would only make me even tired. When I stopped the Embeda, I went to MS Contin, 120 mg (2 ea 60 mg tabs) twice daily. Of course, I had to start with the generic, and the release from the pills was not smooth at all and they were not lasting twelve hours. After a couple of months of playing with the dosage and how often I take it, this is what I ended up with. I take the BRAND MS CONTIN 90 mg (1 ea 60 mg + 1 ea 30 mg), three times daily. With that, I feel I am as good or better than where I was at with the Avinza. Once again, the Brand name proves far superior to the generic and it amazes me how much of a difference there is between the brand and generic when you know what to look for as far as pain control. I feel like I wasted my whole summer getting my pain back under control (as good as it gets for me). The good thing is that I made it, and with any luck, I won't have to go through that mess again for a long time. As you know, the hardest part is finding what works for you and then being patient while you get the correct dose dialed in. Keep in touch when you feel up to it and thanks for checking in.

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Hi Yanni, how are you doing and are you still on the Embeda ER? Last month for some reason the odor of the Embeda was extremely strong. Every time I opened the bottle, the smell almost knocked me over. I also noticed that when I took my dose I became extremely sleepy. This month the odor isn't there like last month and I'm not sleepy at all. It seems to be working, still not like the Avinza, but I'm trying to adjust. Hope all is well with you and maybe some day they'll figure this out for us! Take care and talk to you soon!

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I have been taking Avinza 150mg for over 10 years (120mg + 30 mg capsules) for chronic spinal pain after cervical vertebrae crushed during Parathyroid surgery with C5 pressing on spinal cord for 9 mos before it was identified. My neurosurgeon told me following decompression surgery that the area where C 5 was pressing against the spinal cord had cause permanent damage to those fibers of the spinal cord. The Avinza has been fantastic for me and when I tried the generic in January of this year I experienced what has been described above by others and went back on the brand drug. It figures that they (whoever?) would find a way to screw this up. I got my last Rx and filled the 120 mg capsule of Avinza (and 30 mg generic /refused to take after 2 doses); I am as devastated as everyone else and wasting time like everyone else, because there is no good answer; it's Pfizer wanting another patent with Embeda and it's dollar bottom line is all that matters to them. The mechanism of time release as explained by the comments above is a problem with many other medications that generic manufacturers can not duplicate and why so much difficulty with "so-called" medical equivalency is never close !

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Hi Lorraine. Just checking in. I hope you are doing better. I am keeping you in my prayers. When you feel up to it, please let us know if you are doing better and if you got the Embeda supply issues resolved.

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Hi Becky. Just wanted to check in and see if you talked with your Dr yet about trying the Embeda? If so, did the Dr put you on the Embeda or are you trying something else? I hope your days are as pain free as possible.

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Hi Becky. It's very frustrating that the Avinza is no longer made. I hope that you find another med to help your pain. As far as the Embeda goes, I would ask for the same amount as you were taking of the Avinza. My Doc started me lower because he had no experience with Embeda. If I would have stayed on it, my dose would have needed increased. I believe that Lorraine started at a lower dose also, and she is trying to get her's increased. Don't be surprised if your Dr has never heard of Embeda. In one of my other posts, I explain how to find (on the internet) some info about Embeda that you might want to take to your Dr in case he or she has never heard of it. I took it to my Dr with me and I believe that it helped. I do want to caution you about supply issues with the Embeda. If you read Lorraine's posts and mine, you will see that we both had trouble getting the Embeda for our second month on it.I no longer take it and I don't know how Lorraine is making out. Good luck and please let us know how you make out. You will find a lot of support on this site if you need it.

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Thanks to all of you for informing on what I need to do since I can't get the brand Avinza. I will ask my doctor for embeda. I take 40mg of the Avinza. Should I ask for the same strength?

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Hi Lorraine, thanks for checking in. I had a feeling that things were not going well for you, and it sounds like I was right. No need to apologize for not responding. I completely understand what it feels like to be held prisoner to the pain. I also ran into supply issues with the Embeda and I think it's because of the cost and nobody wants to be stuck with it on their shelves. I think I told you already that the wholesaler's that my pharmacy uses don't want to keep it on hand. I also think that more people are realizing (and suffering) that Avinza is no longer an option, and this would make the Embeda have an increased demand. I really hope that you can get back on track soon. I'm not sure if you are taking the Embeda once a day or twice a day. It is labeled that it can be used every 12 hours or every 24 hours. I think you said you are taking 2 ea 100mg a day. You may want to consider taking 1 ea 100mg every 12 hours. I have spoke with a few people who were also tired taking the dose once daily. They also said that the pain control they felt from the Embeda was only lasting 12 to 14 hours. It seems that for some people the Embeda released the full amount in 12 hours. If your body is dissolving the Embeda every 12 hours, and you are taking it once a day, you are essentially taking 200 mg in 12 hours and it's supposed to last 24 hours. That might explain why you are so tired. I am hoping and praying for better days in the near future for you. When you feel up to it, please let us know how you are feeling and if you got the supply issue resolved.

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Hi Tina, how are you making out with the morphine sulfates? I did try and am on Embeda, which is also manufactured by King Pharmaceutical. This is my second month of being on it. The first month was a breeze, but because of a major screw up with my pharmacy I was not on it for 4 days and was given ms contin until the Embeda came in. Unfortunately, since this happened I'm having major issues with the Embeda, but I'm determined to stay on it and work through the side effects. It worked the first time around so I'm hoping my body adjusts to it again. I was on 270mg of the Avinza, but cannot get that with the Embeda. I'm on 200mg. It doesn't take away all of the pain, and a lot of days of worse then others, but I'm waiting to see what happens this fall/winter. If it gets worse then I'll request the doctor to up the Embeda to 260mg. That would be the closest to the Avinza without going over. My neurologist isn't too swift, so I had to tell him what to give me and even with the Avinza I had to take two 120mg and one 30mg to get to the 270. Good luck and please let me know how you make out!

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Hi Yanni, first and foremost thank you so much for your concern, I truly appreciate it. Things have been horrible. Ever since the pharmacy screwed up my medication and gave the doctor the incorrect info on what morphine I should take, I cannot seem to tolerate the Embeda. When they put me on the MS contin for 4 days, it totally messed me up. It wasn't the correct dosage and I had a horrible time. I started the Embeda immediately again, several weeks ago, and now I become extremely tired (comatose to be exact) for several hours; having the racing heart again, severe stomach pain, not to mention it's not working on the pain like in the beginning. I cannot believe how by not taking the Embeda for 4 days would make such drastic changes to my body. I'm still staying on it, I'm determined, and I'll have to wait and see this fall/winter if I will have to ask the doctor to up the dosage. I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you to let you know, it's not that I didn't want to, it's my body just shutting down. It sounds like things are going pretty well for you, thank God, and at least you have a pharmacist and pharmacy who cares. I have gotten so many different stories about why my meds didn't come in; it sounds like a cover up to me. My husband keeps checking with the pharmacy to make sure this doesn't happen again, but I'm very leary. One problem, I do not know the laws enough on getting my scripts. I do know it changes a lot, but I also know that the insurance company does not want to put out the money. Generics are not the same, I don't care what anyone says. Paying $3.00 for a narcotic vs. my co-pay of $50.00 is a big difference. Other then a lawyer there has to be an advocate out there to help people in our positions. I will keep you posted on what happens next. I'm basically taking it one hour to the next. Will be praying that things are going well with you too! Wishing you nothing but painless and healthy days! Sincerely......Lorraine

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Hi Lorraine. I am becoming very concerned about you because we have not heard from you. I am praying that you are doing okay and getting your meds straightened out. Please post when you are up to it. I hope you are doing better.

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Lorraine, we have not heard from youI am becoming concerned. I completely understand if you are not feeling well. I just wanted to check in and get an update on your Embeda situation. I hope that you have resolved the issue. I don't remember whether or not your Doc increased the Embeda? When you are up to it please give us an update.Thanks

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Hello Yanni & Lorraine- what you are going thru is awful! I have been on Avinza since 2003 (I think) started with 30mg daily, now taking 180mg daily ( 3 x 60mg caps) - I have been struggling with the generic for over a month. Good to know its not just me.

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