What Are The Best Medications To Take If Having Withdrawals From Oxycontin?

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I've been prescribed a large dose of OxyContin, 360 mgs. per day, + 180 mgs. of Roxycodone per day. Both have been upped over three years for several problems related to my bones, and now cancer. I get terrified that I'll lose them and if I do, will the Drs. replace them? If not, what would be prescribed to get me through the withdrawals? I have heard withdrawals are horrendous and can't imagine going through that on top of cancer and my other issues. I've asked and have been told to just NEVER lose or misplace them. The rules and regulations of the pain management clinic I go to state over and over that they do not replace lost or stolen medications and do not refill early. What does someone do if it does happen? I live in CT.

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1

If your meds are stolen call the cops and get a police report. Then see your GP. He may be able to speak to your pain doctor or clinic administrator. I never heard of anyone losing all their mess but any opiate will help until you can replace your lost oxys. Oxycodone, in any form is not such a wicked withdrawal. Lock them up.

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2

If a narcotic prescription is reported stolen or whatever in that category it will not be replaced. This sort of reports is constantly reported and most are just lies which hurt those that are telling the truth. When a person is put on a narcotic they are in a bucket with all that take this medication. Doctors are hard to convince and when you find one that trusts you do not f*** it up because you will loose.

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3

That happened to me in 2005, I had a horrible reaction, and had to detox. I don't recall if my dosage was as high as yours, but it was up there. I had to do it alone at home because of my terminal spinal condition, I could get no insurance.
I was desperate, could not get below 40mg without sweats and shakes. I called an orthopedic surgeon friend who did some research and came up with a high blood pressure med called Clonodin or Clonodin, or possibly Clonotin....It drys up the sweats. He gave me a prescription for the drug. I think 10mg tablets. 2 the first day, 1 1/2 the 2nd day, 1 the 3rd day, 1/2 the 4th, and done.
The first day 40mg, second 30mg, third20mg, fourth, 10mg, next 0mg...I was free.
I am doing this from a horrible event ten years ago, and have never touched morphine again.
I might be wrong about the days of dosage, writing from memory while recovering from sepsis earlier this month, but with the high blood pressure medicine, I was able to drop 10mg a day to freedom & it worked
Good luck. Get all the help you can.

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4

Might try some suboxin or subus...but better call the cops n report it...doc will help but not with oxy or perks...na huh i heard a patient call n say her got stolen..they gave her some methadone till time for scripts...but ever city different...

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5

Wait till refill date..that's the only option..you will not get a refill..even with a police report of theft..dont sell, don't give away..give them to someone else to dole out who won't be "losing" them..guard your meds with your life..without them one could very well wish they were dead..if you abuse and finish up your prescription in 15 days no amount of excuses will help you..if you need them in that amount then you need to be honest with the dr. and increase strength.. if you can't then you need a new pain Dr....

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6

Not always the case, I had my diludid and my xanax stolen from me about a year ago, I called the police, got a copy of the police report, took it to my Dr. he wrote me new scripts, the problem I had was at the pharmacy, they said it was to soon, so I showed them the police report as well and they filled them for me, but had to pay full price, my insurance wouldn't approve an early fill. And the time it took to get a copy of the police report and get back to the Dr. took a few days, pure hell. I keep them locked up now or take them with me if I have to go out for a while, I practically guard them with my life, I don't think the Dr. would do it again. I've been told I was lucky to get the Dr. to replace them. I've been seeing this Dr.for quite sometime and suppose I have a good repore with him. and never ask him for early fills in the past. I guess I was lucky to have a understanding Dr.

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7

I lose things all of the time, so this is a situation I've faced on more than one occasion. Also, I've relocated a number of times, and with serious delays trying to find pain doctors in the cities to which I've moved, I've learned to get creative once in a while...

Like some of the others mention, you do have options before you'd be stuck doing a cold-turkey detox. Here are the options I can think of, in terms of where you can go and what might help (btw, all lists are from most-preferred to least-preferred):

1) your doctor - if this is the first time this has happened, then he may write you a new prescription early (in their literature, they have to claim they would *never* do that, else everyone would suddenly be looking for a replacements for "stolen" pain medicine).

2) ER - if you can't reach your doctor or he won't help, the ER is the next place you want to try (both the ER and your doc will put a lot of weight on whether or not your medicine has been stolen before and/or you've come to them looking for pain medicine before your scheduled appt in the past). And if they aren't willing to give you more pain medicine, they may give you something to prevent the withdrawal symptoms (suboxone, methadone, tramadol, clonidine + immodium, etc)

3) Detox doctor or Methadone clinic - if you've tried all of the above options and you're not having any luck, then go to a methadone clinic and pretend to be a drug addict (you'd have to go daily until your prescription was refilled, but it's better than the alternative of doing nothing, I promise you), or you can go to a detox doctor for a prescription of suboxone or similar.

I think the key, btw, is to be way more careful than I was, and never lose your medicine - consider investing in one of those James Bond style metal briefcases that are handcuffed to you.

Best of luck!

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8

Tim, if your doctor had made a change to the script, the insurance would have covered it. I.explain. if your usual script was oxycontin 80mg 2x/day (or in your case, dilaudid) to oxycontin 40mg 4x/day, they would have covered it. The insurance company won't cover the SAME SCRIPT twice, but will honor a different script, if it's written a different way.

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9

For everyone in severe and intense chronic pain, here is a heads up. There's a pharmaceutical company, WEX, that is doing trials on cancer pain (my pain- CRPS- is set to begin Trials in late 2017) using Puffer fish (Blowfish) toxin or TTX. While it is very successful not everyone has relief. It doesn't work on everyone but it works well on those it works on. Check WEX webpage for more info (wextech.ca/clinical_trials.asp). Please, pass this info on to all forums/people in pain that you know. The side effects seem almost nonexistent. I see no down side IF this medicine is legalized by the FDA. As usual, time will tell the tale on that. But so far, so good.

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10

Oh. my. god. I can't believe they're commercializing TTX (tetrodotoxin). Have you ever watched a television show where someone takes a medicine that mimics death (slows their heart rate to near zero, etc) - perhaps to escape from prison or fool the bad guys? Or maybe someone has been pronounced dead and then wakes up just as the ME is about to perform an autopsy and makes the first incision? Well, TTX is the stuff that makes that happen! Yet the pharmaceutical company behind it talks about how "safe" it is - sure, unless you find yourself on autopsy table a bit prematurely!

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11

Clonodine only comes in .1, .2, or .3mgs, NEVER in 1mg, let alone 10mgs.

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12

Loperamide is good. Also gabapentin. Subutex is great.

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13

Dear person. The medical and nursing professions look upon a cancer patient from a much different perspective than some one with chronic pain. These are two different camps. Had you not been a cancer patient they would have not kept you on such a massive dose for a chronic pain patient, but a not so unusual dose for a cancer patient. Guard your pills with your life, but theres no need to worry about getting them refilled if stolen and you have a police report.They say they wont but lets have common sense here. You go to the ER because of the cancer pain will they turn you away? No. If you were a chronic pain patient possibly. All these deaths are coming from people not used to the strong opioid and take a handful from your bottle. They die and blame chronic pain patients. So, yes these meds are highly sought after by even your closest people. It's a normal thing for humans to be curious and test so there's no blame regardless. This big hyped narcotic mess will be over soon and pretty much has already transitioned to these newer rules that will not do much for overdoses because it's not patients that take them wrong.

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14

You say Oxycontin is not such a wicked withdrawal? Maybe from a small dose over a short period, but for any sort of major long-term daily habit, there will be significant withdrawal effects. One point that many people fail to appreciate is that the worst aspects of opiate withdrawal are not physical, they are psychological, with symptoms that are in some ways like a sudden and severe bout of depression. But a depression which can be quickly cured by a good dose of your usual opiate drug. That's why so many people have a difficult time staying "clean" over an extended period of time.

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