New White Watson 853 10/325 Problem - What Is Going On!? (Page 11) (Top voted first)

Hello all, I am a longtime chronic pain sufferer. I have taken opiates for pain for over 10 years. I recently got a prescription filled (from a well known pharmacy chain in the U.S.) and I was given these new Watson 853 white (not yellow) hydro 10/325 pills. I wanted to ask the forum here if any of you have had the same experience with them as I have. I know there are some very smart people with advanced chemistry knowledge here that may have delved deeper into whats going on with these things. They are ineffective for me. I've taken hydrocodone 10/325 for 10+ years and have never ever had a problem with pills being ineffective but that is the case with these pills. I've had about every brand you can think of and never an issue. Ever. I thought nothing of the color change when I got the pills home from the pharmacy... I've had the yellow Watson 853's before and figured they just changed the coloring. I've seen people complain before about differences in brands before, but I've never experienced anything like that.... Mallies, Watson, Qualitst... all the same to me. I didn't start looking around for answers until I noticed these pills were not working well at all. Something is 100% wrong. Based on some initial research I do see that they have taken the yellow dye out but there are other reports from people with the same issues as I see. Obviously you just don't know how reputable some of these reports are... I've seen posts talk about pharmacists telling the patient that the pills now are structured to release hydrocodone slower (even though its an IR pill... what?)... that Actavis/Watson employees have claimed there could be "kinetic imbalances" in their formulation when upset customers have called them... etc. The only truth I know is that there is something amiss with these things. Any response would be appreciated from you guys.... experiences/info/links to other similar reports, etc. This is the most frustrating thing I have ever run into and it just doesn't make much sense to me at the moment with whats going on....and the implications this could have if these pills have been truly altered by the manufacturer in some way. I know it doesn't mean much to just say it on an internet forum, but I'm not the type to cry wolf over something like this. I realize it could be a bad batch I've received, but it looks initially like the problem is more widespread. TIA for any responses to this thread! I came here because I believe this site has people that have the intelligence/knowledge to get to the bottom of it. Again, any info at all in relation to this would be appreciated greatly.

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You have to watch what the CDC is doing. They have more to come...I was in the ER several weeks ago with a migraine. I was there 4 hours and only at the very end of those 4-5 hours did they even consider giving me pain med. They gave me benadryl??? And Compazine, and Zofran (for nausea) then blamed me and insinuated I was drug seeking. They wondered why I was still in pain.. hello.... computers were making the diagnostic treatment plan. And most Doc's are now being told pain meds are only for the people after surgery (and then only for 2 days) or very acute pain like after a car wreck....etc. Get used to it...the government is directing your health.

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He's not on Morphine. He's on Methadone. He takes what equals to 20mg per day. Not even close to the 120 you mentioned. What does this have to do with the fact that like everyone else who has written here, his mess that worked before seem to be weaker. That is not what the clinic explained to him. It said that it had to do with "POINTS". Not his being terminal.. I hope I've made myself clearer as I stated all of this before..

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the norco white 10/325 - bottom line, they dont work. Period. We are being taken for a ride. You can take 5 at the same time and nothing happens. Try it. I guarantee it.

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Folks b aware when u witch to oxycodone 10/325 marked A333 by actavis

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Dustyrose, I don't know what your husbands illness is and I'm not asking, but by law, the rules and guidelines that apply to chronic pain non terminal patients do Not apply to those that are terminal. How long have they given him to live ? If they haven't given an estimated time frame, then chances are he isn't officially terminal. Maybe the pain dr thought he was terminal and just found out that he hasn't been given an estimated time frame. That would explain the change. Do his medical records have anything about him being terminal ? If I understand you correctly, you said you had a copy of his records.

I don't know the Morphine Equivalent for Methadone and the other meds he was taking off the top of my head. But chances are it exceeded the 120 mg Morphine Equivalent Daily and that is why his dose was lowered.

You can't believe what people tell you, as you well know. Be sure and lock your and your husbands med up in a safe. Don't put it past these people that know you have pain meds to break in and steal them, if you're home or gone. A friend of mine's partner was murdered several months ago because the person wanted their pain meds. They were well aquainted with this person.

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BL The disease is terminal. There is no cure.. Period. Not even any real treatment either. They all know it's terminal..You look it up and any doctor WILL tell you, it is indeed terminal. The pain clinic he goes to is a joke. It doesn't matter to them or not. They are watching their asses.. Frankly they don't care.. Terminal or not.. If you are in the medical field, look up H.C, is its proper name or most people refer to it as H.D. I think you will get what I mean.

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And as far as the dosage he WAS ON it adds up to 30mg plus 25mgs. Not even close to the 120mg. By the way, mine and his are locked up in a safe.. I have had mine stolen and am not stupid..

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I have just received mine today and like all of you it did nothing for my pain! Last year I was taking the 10's and it helped me! I do not have chronic pain like most of you just bad luck! I was rear ended by a 18 wheeler doing 70 I was pulled off to the side of the highway at a dead stop! My pain is very real and all I want is to have my life back! I was on the 7's and had to take two of them to get relief. And today they put me on the 10 Watson 853 and it did nothing for me, NOTHING! I was begging the dr to get released back to work thinking they would have this pain under control with the 10's! Now I'm freaking out! Something has to give I will not make it!

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Have a Watson 853hydrocodone script and I have noticed a few times in the past 12 scripts that a good portion of the pills seemed to not be effective you gotta figure there's billions of these things made each year there's gonna be a few out there that didn't get measured correctly I'm figuring anyway machine not distributing correctly?

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I hear you Jack! We all are experiencing watered down narcotic analgesics in all the different active ingredients. It's not just hydrocodone... Seems there should be a legal suit against the pharmaceutical industry.

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Definitely know were you're coming from on the white watson 853 10/325; there are times when i take em and they wont knock the pain down or anything and other times i feel like as if i just took a perc 30, very few though. i can take 2 m357 and definitely tell they're working every time, though not the 853. though i honestly think the manufacturer gets cheap and you dont get all the hydrocodone in a pill like your supposed to. m357 isnt considered a generic pill and costs more but maybe for a reason they spit alot of those 853's out you gotta know alot of em arent getting all the hydrocodone in em when they get made, being made by the 1000s a minute something's gonna screw up and not allow a good wack of them to get dosed right.

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You need to ask your pharmacist to get the Qualitest brand. It is the only one that works because of the variation percentage in the opiate content as provided by the gov't. I use Express Scripts mail order pharmacy and they are able to get these for me. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to do anything. Good luck.

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To my knowledge Some mom and pop pharmacies have the authorization to mix and press their own medication. Maybe you have received a bad batch, or maybe they're trying to turn back the times and get people off this medicine. I totally understand what you're going through - I have completely gotten myself off of opiates because they were not effective anymore. The last ones that works really good for me were the Watson blue lortabs. Ever since then every pill after that has been non effective or I had to take double the dosage. I am clean and dealing with my pain on a day to day basis, maybe you should switch your pharmacy and see if that changes. The pharmacy is allowed to mix their own chemicals and press them into a pill form that means they're not doing it right, but you still paying the cost for the medicine, even with insurance for you.

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Im glad someone else notices these changes too. Im disabled and have been taking percocet for my pain and fiorecet for my migranes. Since i now have to take the generics (because every pharmacy have told me they dont carry name brand anymore) i have noticed a huge difference. I have talked to the pharmacist about this because my migrane medicine as i told him that now
I have to take one and a half where i never had to do that also some of the fillers they put in the generics make me sick because of my stomach problems and ulcer. The pharmasist told me that the fda has approved up to 30 percent less of the medicine in generics. Is this true? Ive called the manufacturer of the name brand medicines to find out what pharmacys do they ship to (because i cant believe no pharmacy in my city dont carry name brand) There way around that answer was; well it goes thru at list six distributors before it even gets to a pharmacy. That just dont makes since to me especially when your a big manufacturer. Seems like they would have to know medicine and quantities of the destinations of where it will end up know matter how many distributors you go through just for this reason as one example. Now it messes up my medicine because of this problem and of course the doctors wont change your quanity because they wont believe you because your just another person not the manufacturer then they think your just trying to get more medicine even when i have told them that i called the manufacturers and gave my doctor the numbers to call but im pretty sure they already know anyway then they treat you differently. I cant believe how many hoops you have to jump thru only to get no where.

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This problem is occurring with other controlled drugs as well. Since manufacturers can legally put any where from 80% to 120% of the effective ingredient into into the Drug, then perhaps they are now making sure to put Only 80% of the Hydrocodone now, into the Vicodone pills. I was stopped taking generic Adderal for a couple of years. Recently, it was necessary to start it again. After 2 months, I had my Life back again! Month # 3 the Pharmacy gave me a different Brand (TEVA/Barr). I took one and later thought maybe I missed my mouth!? Took another...same thing...! For a solid month I suffered with all my symptoms of ADD, severe Depression, etc returning. I felt that the GREED of BIG PHARMA was playing with MY Life and I have been angry every since. Thanks to MedsChat, I was able to get an idea of Which Manufacturers to Avoid, & which ones & which Brand and Color of Pill might work Best. I even found out which Pharmacy carried them!? I went there and found the right Brand for me. I continue, as well as others, to occasionally warn people that some Manufacturers seem to have reduced the active ingredients. They should know that Patients are going to Notice right away. I'm a Chronic Pain Patient as well. I'm under medicated, with 3 Percocet daily be an MD. I'm afraid to go to a Pain Clinic nowadays because of all the Crap that U must go thru. I only need the 5mg to be raised to 10mg due to diagnosis of Severe Osteoporosis of Spine caused by Prednisone taken for autoimmune Disorder. Can't reduce Prednisone due to increased pain when I cut back. Prednisone makes bones worse. Vicious cycle. Also.. Fybromylagia, Arthritis, and Migraines. The CDC does not care. They allowed Chronic pain Sufferers only 3 weeks to write in their Story. I missed deadline. Only less than 2, 000 wrote in. So,they set guidelines for doctors to try NOT to prescribe pain pills to those patients with Chronic Pain!! They are only guidelines they are not the law but you know how doctors are. This will only make it harder for us to get our medications that we need to have quality of life. Did any of you know about the time Period To write in YOUR "Pain Story". They didn't advertise it well, nor give us much time. There are millions of chronic pain patients and only less than 2000 had a chance to write in. I think that's the way they wanted it. So what y'all need to do about your pills is to go to different manufactures until you find one that still works. Also we need to speak up to the CDC. You can write them, you can call them and tell them your story. however you can. Or We are going to lose the ability to even get anything at all for our pain. Thanks everyone and God Bless...

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I just suffer, been on 10/325s since 2004 but pharmacists don't carry anymore in my area, I search and search and no one has them. Since the crackdown and reclassification it seems to be pointless. Just taking about 50 tylenols a day, dying of liver failure is better than fighting with these i***** pharmacists over this BS...

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It's nice to know that i'm not the only one who feels that way. I'm also a 10 year user of 10/325 and find a big difference between this pharmacy chain and the other one.
I mentioned this to my doctor and
gave me Morphin Sulfate twice a day
and I use less Norco. He started me on 60 mg of me but since my chronic pain is getting worse he has upped to 100 mg. And I feel great. I get through the day and just fill in with 4 Norco's.
Ask your dr. For MS 100"s.
Good luck!

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I'm on the Butrans Patch too, been on everything nearly killed me and ruined my marriage. The butrans patch seems lesser of the evils for me personally. And your right, I'll tell my husband "man this patch sure don't seem to be working! We know when our pain is not being controlled!!!! It's all untrustworthy and this is the sad truth of the way of the Big Greedy Pharm Company's! I take the perk 10/325 too, if I didn't have those I'd be miserable, more than miserable, desperate, pain can take one's life if it becomes too much to take. I know, been at that point before. To address the perks, the white ones are weaker the oblong ones here. The round yellow ones are the real ones. Their is one Pharm way out of my that has the yellows. However, my next pain clinic app I'm asking for 20mg oxycodon no actemetaphine!

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Yes, I have to agree with the information and experiences people have given on the thread, I work on cars for a living and take Hydrocodone for back pain relief and I usually get the generic Lortab which is a M367 white oblong pill, they are 10 mgs and one pill relieves my pain most of the night after work and recently I got the watson 853 10 mgs and the other night I had to take 3 and a half before I noticed any relief at all

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Rose, the pharmacy won't exchange what they gave you. Just be sure in the future to check you r prescription before you leave the pharmacy to see iwhich ones they gave you. It is always best to tell the pharmacist what generics cause you problems Before the prescription is filled.

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