Taking Methadone With Cold Medication

What cold meds can you take if you're on Methadone? Are there any potential drug interactions?

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I have been on methadone for over 25 years now (213 mg) for a chronic pain condition stemming from a motorcycle accident that nearly killed me. The Above mentioned motorcycle accident accident I would take far too long to describe every single injury but I can give you the “cliff notes” that incident truly drastically changed my entire future plans/what my career aspirations were planned, however because I was in the hospital for over 4 months and (I was in the burn unit with 3rd degree burns on my entire right leg from my waist too my lower calf. On my left leg the road rash/3rd and 4th degree burns thankfully was no where as bad as my right leg but it still required “De-Braiding") which mean in a simplistic way, taking a very sharp scalpel and or with other scraping cutting tools.

Each session required me to go through excruciating pain daily as a De-braiding my legs by literally taking a scalpel to shave-off all of the dead skin and also getting some of above mentioned procedures which were extremely difficult and very very painful too do it… Unfortunately for me it basically included them to do it continually (daily and even sometimes twice a day). They kept scraping the top layers every single day with razors or whatever to get the gravel out of my legs and skin graphs and I mean it was just a nightmare. I needed 214 stitches and staples too put in my scalp, forehead and the right side of my head. I broke 32 different bones. That’s enough for you to understand how serious this accident was, AND IT WASN'T EVEN MY FAULT!! I was turning left and the older woman said he didn’t see me. Luckily my Harley Davidson literally just fell over with hardly any damage. On the other hand I was dragged over 68 feet underneath her car before some witnesses that say the entire thing had to literally jump in front of her car to get her to stop dragging me further down the gravel/pavement. I have literally had to deal with chronic pain ever since that fateful day sadly that changed my life forever…

I’ve lived with this for over 35 years now.. At first I was placed into a medical induced coma for the first 10 days, very very slowly and pain was a HUGE ISSUE FOR ME. The doctors had put me on just about every single kind of schedule 2 narcotic you could imagine for the first few years. However I found out quickly that I couldn’t do any housework. I was so groggy and impaired that I couldn’t cook my husband dinner because I could’ve burned the house down!! I definitely couldn’t drive because I was impaired from all of the Dilaudid and Fentanyl lollipops (I promise to god the drug company actually makes lollipops in different strengths), OxyContin, Soma, Valium and Valium and sleeping pills, Temazepam along with a myriad of a few other ones that I was prescribed but can’t recall right now, and I spoke with my pain management doctor and he told me that he thought that the best medication for me to 1) be able to function just like a normal person and that it wouldn’t wouldn’t make my mind all fuzzy would be methadone and the methadone would take care of all of my chronic pain issues; and I wouldn’t have that groggy impaired feeling, and pain.

Methadone has allowed me to be a relatively normal woman who has I suppose due to the first 3/4 years has made me have an extremely very very high tolerance to any pain medication whatsoever. I had a total left hip replacement exactly 21 days ago today and I remained in the hospital for 7 nights & 8 days... In the hospital I was being given 8 mg of Dilaudid (Orally every 3 hours like clockwork) 24/7 along with a myriad of different other medications which included both anabiotics and muscle relaxants and a few others that I can’t really think of right now, but right now I have a total of eight different medications needed for my body to heal properly, INCLUDING AN ANTIBIOTIC WHICH IM STILL TAKING. I have to take the Robaxin (which is supposed to be helping the actual muscle spasms yet I don’t notice or feel anything different regarding the muscle spasms, but my surgeon wants me to take it so I suppose that I will. He’s my surgeon and he’s a specialist in “Major Joint replacement” cases which are deemed too hard or too difficult for another doctor to agree to take my case and operate on me, and I’m pleased with the surgery I received so far and over the last 3 decades and I’ve take every single type of new medication including antibiotic pills. But honestly I don’t know if the Robaxin is actually a muscle relaxer that’s helping me and my surgical pain which is absolutely common and it’s actually 110% different than what they’ve prescribed for me especially during the first two weeks home. Yesterday I was 3 weeks and 20 days post-operatively. I was still given 8 mg of Dilaudid every three hours for my first 2 weeks at home and yesterday (Wednesday) when I went to see my surgeon/pain management doctor they dropped me down to 4 mg four times a day.

I am doing physical therapy exercises at least three times a day that my home health care physical therapist and an registered nurse and my physical therapist have taught me the way to do sit exercises in an effort to strengthen the muscles that were all you know cut through or spread apart whatever so I am using a walker which is foreign to me. I’m 53 years old right now and I feel like a Gimp!! I’m sorry I don’t know if that actually answered your question, but yes you can take antibiotics when you take methadone as I have done it at least 50 times over the last 25 years, so I wouldn’t be too concerned, and if you are all you have to do is tell your doctor, "hey I’m taking this methadone and I’m afraid it could interact with the antibiotics". Also you could go to the pharmacy where you pick it up and ask the pharmacist. They give you these papers when you get a prescription that describe everything on it including side effects and various bad/good things to do, yada yada yada…
Good luck with your infection.

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Hello, Airhead! How are you doing?

What cold medication do you usually prefer?

There is a risk of interactions, but it depends on the ingredients on the cold medication. Unfortunately, there are far too many on the market for me to check each one against Methadone, but if you have a specific one in mind, I'll gladly check for you.

The FDA warns that Methadone carries the risk of being habit forming, and may cause side effects, such as nausea, dizziness, dry mouth, headache, and constipation.

Ref: Methadone Information

One of the most important warnings I can give in a general sense is to try and avoid cold remedies that may cause sedation, such as Nyquil. Combining them with an opiate could result in you becoming dangerously sedated, which could be fatal.

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