Fentanyl Patch Withdrawal Symptoms And Duration (Page 6)

i have post surgical lower back pain. was in 50 mcg patch and had side effects and so decided to wean off. i finished with the 12 mcg patch a week ago and am still suffering from periodic nausea, irritability, daily joint and muscle pain, but the worst is the consistent restless legs. it is driving me crazy. my doctor says that is not withdrawal. is he right? i don't think so. if it is withdrawal, what can i do about it and how long will it last? i am going crazy.

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I did use the Marijuana remedy last night because nothing had worked and this was advised by a physician early in his treatment (for several uses nausea, appetite, anxiety, & pain) only not permissible in our state"yet". He only used a very tiny amount and it did help. We finally fell asleep around 6:20am and slept in until 10:30. We were both late for our busy days. It took about an hour to get out of bed and motivated but we (he) did it. Let me add that these symptoms only seem (so far) to occur in the night. I never thought of pictures or videos and I have put a call in to the doctor.

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Yes, nights are the worst because we are tired and need sleep. I notice that the diarrhea is only in mornings. I am happy you got sleep finally. Take more early tonight.

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I am trying so hard to focus on 'Health' rather than "pain"!!!! Maybe we will find some answers to both by focusing on learning what we can do, what we cannot do??.....and having the wisdom to know the difference. (No, I am not alcoholic nor drug addict...I do love AAA's Prayer though)

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BEST WAY TO WITHDRAW!!!
I think the best way to withdraw easily from Fentanyl patches is to get the Mylan brand as they are like scotch tape and can be cut down little by little over time. I was on 100 MCG patches and just cut a hair line off each week or so and it took me a year to get off. I think it is just in my head, but I took Gabapentin and then took off the last thread of strip with no problem. But I really think it was just the psychological affect of having something to replace it with. After a week of no relief from the pain with the Gabapentin, I got off it too.
I want to note that I rarely have felt much relief from any prescription pain medicine and I feel it is not worth the withdrawals, the potential damage of long term affects, etc.

I am so much better off without all these things.

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I use Lyrica. For me it is a withdrawal symptom.

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I hope by now you gotten help. I was on Mylan for over 12 years. I have heard that others feel the Mylan are not as potent. But I would much rather have the Mylan that I can cut down slowly. Just so you know, the withdrawals from Fentanyl cold turkey last between 5 and 7 days. It is like the worst flu ever. Body aches, pain, sweats, etc. I wish you well and I wish you happiness.

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I just ran into the same problem here over the Christmas and New Years holiday only I have pin pointed the problem which is one of my Dr's staff members. Regardless this kind of thing scares me and I would be interested in a program of sorts or perhaps laws that would protect patients like us. In my state I feel like some treat me like a drug addict when clearly that is NOT the issue. Something needs to change. Im in if you need help to spread the word.

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Thank you and we are doing much better. However he is still taking hydrocodone.

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We did get better with time. Thanks for all the replies and help.

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Definitely spreading the word however it doesn't seem to make a difference.

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I absolutely feel restless leg syndrome (RLS) symptoms are from Fentanyl withdrawal!

I was on 50mcg for over ten years when my doctor told me he would no longer make med check appts for Fentanyl with me. • I had 30 days to locate, get a 1st appt, & establish a relationship with a new pain mgmt doctor.

I could not get a new doctor (had to move to another state) in time and I ran out of patches sending me into Fentanyl withdrawal ••without any medical supervision within hours.

I experienced physical shock of freezing, heavily uncontrolled full body shaking with violent teeth clattering the first 24 hours. As the shock wore off, the RLS symptoms began and almost drove me mad.

I made it throughout by taking my neurontin and percocet scripts at maximum strength around the clock. This seemed to help me with the pain and burning neuropathy I suffer from. But, the only thing that helped with the horrible torturing tickling/buzzing pain like hitting your funny bone hard was to keep my legs in movement constantly.

I literally walked/marched in place for hours at a time until I had to lay down but only so if I could swing my legs back and forth until the RLS got so bad again I would have to get back up and do the march walking again.

This went on for a week but then slowly day by day the RLS started to lighten up some.

I went back on Fentanyl for almost another year and the RLS stopped. I recently went into a coma for a week during which time the hospital did not give me Fentanyl. Since I was fortunate enough to be in a coma during the Fentanyl withdrawal period, I elected not to go back on any •••Fentanyl type medicine when I came too.

Its been almost a month off patches and still taking a small amount of percocet daily but don't seem to have any RLS symptoms unless I lay down in a certain position. Then it feels like light RLS so I just change position.

I do keep experiencing intermiten chill flashes which make me shake but not sure if connected.

• It is almost completely impossible to to get a Fentanyl prescription with a brand new doctor without your previous doctor providing you with a "Pain Treatment History Referral Letter" which my former doctor failed to do.

•• Fentanyl withdrawal should absolutely be medically supervised preferably in a hospital.

••• You are dependent on withdrawal or Fentanyl replacement meds just a much I feel as being stuck on Fentanyl patches so keep or change doctors that listen to you to avoid falling thru the constant overly prescrbbed med trap with their inevitable side effects, which so often than not, leads to needing additional unnecessary medication just to control any side effects you now may have not from the first drug. Which in the long run is not needed after ailment heals BUT you can't tell because now your in the vicious prescription drug dependency cycle!

Good luck!!!

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The restless legs are definately major withdrawl symptom from going off fentynal. My doc gave me 4/10mg methodone for 4 to 5 days ea time I went down a dose of fentynal. This made the withdrawls go away completely. And by only taking 3 or 4 methodone for 4 or 5 days, I had no with! Rawl from that. I did dose the methodone so I took 5 the first day, four the second three the 3 & 4 days 2 the next two days and one the last day.It was a miracle. I also tried benzos, like 8 mg/ 3 x a day for 2 days, then 6 mg/3 x a day, then 4 mg/3 x a day then 3mg 3 x a day then 2mg 3 x a day then 1 mg 3 x a day the 1 mg 2x a day for 3 days then 1 mg a day for'a month.This w pepto, a sleeping pill at night, immodium and tylenol and naproxen 2 x a day really lightened up things to tolerable. Of couse did nothing but sleep, soak in hot bath and lay in bed for a week......

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Thank you, thank you!!!
You all have been such a help. My dr. had her office up and close so my new dr. won't write for my old 75 fentenyal patches. I have gone from that to 50 for a month now 37 and next month 25. My pain hasn't been bad but hot flashes are terrible and inablity to sleep a bear. I thank the Lord only have restless legs occassionaly. My I take an anit-depression med but sometimes feel terrified about going back to the terrible pain that caused me to try serious try to take my life a goodly number of times.
Interesting is that my pain hasn't increased with the reduction. I always had a 3 or 4 on the pain scale while on the 75mg. Please those of you that put in a good word for me and I will do the same for all of you. A fellow sufferer one day at a time

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Oh Lord, how wd scares me. I've experienced it already, in periods of maybe a full day and it was terrible. I am currently on 50mcg fent and 10mg percocet 4x per day for breakthrough pain. I have 'lost' a patch a few times in the heat of summer (before I discovered tegaderm covers-lifesaving Lil suckers) and more recently have had instances of my insurance deciding they're spending too much money on me and havingto have my doc fight with them to cover my meds (I've never tried filling early or anything that would cause problems in that sense, they just don't like my monthly bill). The fear of what I went through with that, should my insurance ever just decide to cut me off (which I've heard horror stories of) has made treatment hell for me. I'm a business professional and was once across the country on business-I went to my doc before the trip, got my scripts, told her my travel plans, she assured me there should be no problem filling there when they were due in a week since she has lots of 'snowbirds' that go to Florida from these northern winter's and they have no problems. I even called the pharmacy near the hotel I reside in while I'm down there, 'no problem'. WRONG. I was then a thousand miles from home, on my last patch of course (since you must be abusing pain meds if you fill them before the day you need them, if it's heart or another maintenance med then you fill them the week you need them to be proactive-in case something happens, you have time to deal with a situation involving meds that can affect your life so tragically, right-unless it's a pain med. Then your an abuser, why do you need to fill early? The patch you have on is still good until tomorrow......Then when you come back tomorrow they tell you they're out and won't come in for 4 days. That's why legitimate people want their scripts before the day they need them).

Sorry for the rant, but it's happened to me more than once, and I'm always treated like the a**hole. So, after the last incident, on my last patch, within a couple hours after I was due to change, it started. Sweating. A little at first, then wave after wave of drenching sweat followed by freezing and being a blanket. Sneezing so violently sometimes that I couldn't catch my breath. Nose dripping. Body aches worse than any flu ever. No energy. Explosive diarrhea. Skin so sensitive it's painful to the touch. RLS more like restless body, so bad that it felt like every molecule in my body was in a constant state of flux so violent that they were swelling inside me and my body would burst from the inside out at any moment. Eyes watering. Most terrible feelings I've everexperienced. All because someone else felt entitled to decide not to fill my perfectly legit medication. What power. I could lose my job, could lose everything, because I can't function like this. That's when I decided I need off. Though I shouldn't have to, though I have the right to be treated and live a full and pain-free (pain managed,I should say, it's never gone) life, I feel that the right to do that has been taken from me being able to faithfully rely on it without fail due to the negligence, mis-use of power and unfair labeling by our systems (government, insurance and even the pharmacist behind the counter that sneers at you when they see the meds your filling).

This has led me to the decision that I'm better off living with the pain. I've tried several times to drop from 50 to 25, and found that to even be far too intense to be able to function at work and home. I am on the Mylan brand, these are not the reservoir type, and I have successfully tapered in the past by cutting very small pieces at a time off of each patch, remaining at the same level for nearly a week before cutting a larger piece off and repeating the process. I first had to wean of from taking any of the percocet of course, as I figured once I got to a low enough dose of the fent, I'd stop wearing it and replace with an equal dosage of the percocet and then taper those from there. That's what my original plan was, then I was in a car accident and went back to my normal dosages quite quickly. So here I go again, and even doing it slowly like that, was uncomfortable, tired, diarrhea. But I did find that tramadol helps TREMENDOUSLY, especially with energy and the depression that sets in, I actually found that my mood was the best I can remember in a very long time. It would be wonderful to have that right now to assist and get this show on the road. I'm petrified and rambling now just thinking of the long road ahead. Best wishes to you all, May we all find strength (and God willing, FEEL strength) from each other.

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I got stuck at 25 dosage of fentanyl and was in constant agitation. Dr prescribed pramipexole for restless legs and I had to use marihuana to help me sleep. Finally after 3 months of no improvement I asked to be switched over to hydrocodone at same dosage as fentanyl. Life is easier BUT because I was so sick from withdrawal which took me a full year to get to 25 (got to 12 last Aug but so sick Dr increased fentanyl back to 25). I got to point where I couldn't tolerate fentanyl at all so hydrocodone took away withdrawal symptoms and I have morphine for breakthru pain which I have daily now due to weakness of my back muscles. If I walk too long, my back flares up; if I stay in pool too long my whole body flares like a furnace with pain. Now I have medical prescription for marihuana and it helps but makes me too sleepy yet for daytime usage.
I was interested in the methadone withdrawal assist. My pain clinic Dr recommended that method but my GP didn't like to use it. Doctors know too little about Fentanyl withdrawal.

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Hi to you all,
Still here and getting very very nervous about the next reduction from 37 to 25. The sweating is terrible andy suggetions? Still can't sleep most nights but the leg problems don't seem to bad. Had a day that I thought I was going to go nuts though. I agree that Drs can make you feel as though you are a drugie. I'm going to be 70 so I don't party !!!
You all know that my thouughts and prayers are coming your way.

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Thank you! I know how you feel these patches are great when they work but trying to come off of them is hell. I agree doctors need to do more research on this drug! If doctors had to go through the withdraws from these they would only give them to cancer patients that are going to die. The drug companies need to come up with a drug that reverses the withdraws from these. We asked for help from our doctors not to have them think we are druggies. I got a drug panel once through my doctor that was crazy! Good luck to you I too need to get off these was going to go to rehab but would have to wait 2 months. I might wait till the fall!

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I went for a year on fentanyl 100mcg while it was the dumbest thing ever I just went cold turkey after 7 days. It was the worse I have ever experienced in my life and will no longer take any thing stronger than Advil. my pain is still there but I am happy to be off of the patches. I now felt normal and did not experience restless legs

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I was also told by every medical professional except my pharmacist to NOT read things on the Internet. "Too much false information" they said. What did they know? They weren't the one going through withdrawals; I had more up-to-date info than them!!! I was very upset but said not a word...after all what was I going to do if I upset my doctor? GE and I have since had a much better relationship....I think he went to a seminar on chronic pain management. He is a truly nice man trying his best but still 'learning' the effects of this drug. Fentanyl was only used in dying patients for many years. I started using it in the early 2000's as nothing else worked. Here I am at 70 and 'nothing else works' .

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My problem with the withdrawal is not being able to sleep. The patches do not kill the pain, they just reduce it. Am trying to get off the stuff, but very hard to do. Take 50 mgs every three days, not being able to sleep is the big problem. Any help will be appreciated.

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