I take pain meds. Every day. All day long. Without a big “wah-wah, poor me” explanation, just know that it is now a part of my life, and has been for years.
I went to my doctor for my usual refill visit, and I told him I was concerned about the effect the Tylenol in hydrocodone might be having on my liver. He’s a great doctor, very sympathetic, and he agreed that it was a valid concern. So we began to experiment with alternatives. The first was a patch that I unfortunately can’t recall the name of (Durogesic, maybe?). No good-it made me break out in a horrible rash, and offered no relief. So now he’s got me trying oxycontin. I had to answer a lot of questions concerning the possibilty of a family member stealing my medicine to sell on the street, where it can fetch $30-$40 PER PILL!!! When people hold up pharmacies at gunpoint, they don’t want money, they want oxycontin. No problems there, so off I went to fill the prescription. I couldn’t believe it was over $200 for 60 20mg and 30 10mg tablets. Thank Og he also included a prescription for Lortab, the script I was trying to replace, in case I had “breakthrough” pain. I have been using oxycontin for 3 weeks now, and I honestly can’t imagine why this shit is worth so much. Not only does it not relieve the pain, but it leaves me with jaws clenched and an embarrassing persperation situation. I can’t say a single positive thing about it.
Now I understand that the people who buy this on the street shoot or snort this stuff, to get the full effect instead of the timed release effect, and obviously this isn’t a method I’m inclined to try, but damn! Doesn’t this sort of reputation insinuate that this should be a pretty good painkiller? I’m almost out of this, and I can’t wait to get back to the office and tell him that I’m tired of trying the alternatives and get back to same old pain meds that have worked just fine over the years. We did a full blood workup before he started offering alternatives, and my liver is one of the few things in my body that work as well as ever, so I’m ready to return to my old reliable routine and stop the madness. I’ve stopped taking it at all, and I’m just trying to make the “breakthrough” meds last until my appointment.
Anyone else out there had this experience with this drug? Or does this actually work for someone? I understand that I don’t get the “high”, as I really take them for pain, not fun, which makes it less than recreational. I have one coworker that has a similar reaction, but other than that, I don’t know anyone else to compare notes with. What on earth could possibly be the attraction of this drug?
What is the attraction of this drug? For the opiate abuser, the effects of taking it are frequently described as being like “a hug from God”. At least at the start. Eventually it’s more like “a dutch rub from my weird Uncle Bill” but that’ s later in the course of the addiction.
Sounds like you’re not wired neurologically to be good at abusing opiates.
I have several people in my life that use pain medications like you do. All three of them swear off the oxycontin as vile and nasty. One says, ‘It makes you stupid.’ Another says it makes him lose time. It still hurts but you can’t remember that it used to hurt a few minutes ago, too. It seems your experience is not unusual.
I do know one former addict that had it prescribed. It set off a new cycle of addiction, one she has yet to shed fully. It’s prescription now instead of street, but it’s not gone. I just don’t know.
Isn’t oxytocin a hormone the body produces itself to bring on euphoric sensations? I head that when a person has an orgasm the brain releases certain chemicals to make the person have a euphoric sensation.
Oxycontin is a long-acting version of the opiate painkiller oxycodone. Oxytocin (pitocin)is a naturally produced hormone which helps the uterus contract, among other things. Completely different.
It can be addictive. My wife was on it (prescription) for several months, then decided it wasn’t working so well and she had her Dr. switch her onto something else. She experienced severe withdrawal, had to go back on the Oxycontin, and then had to slowly decrease the dosage. It was still a tough withdrawal.
From our experience, I wouldn’t recommend it unless there is no alternative.
More or less what QtM touched on – there seems to be a definate “Sweet Jeebus, YES!” reaction, or else a reaction like you metion in the OP with regard to opiates.
Very few people I have talked to ride the fence with their opinion and reaction to them.
The reason it goes for so much on the street is that the mechanism that makes it long-acting can be bypassed, often by crushing the pill and snorting it. This provides an incredible lot of opiate in a very small package.
I’m sorry it hasn’t worked for you. I have a lot of chronic pain patients, and I’ve had nothing but success with long-acting narcotics when I’ve used them (in very selective situations).
Dr. J
yeah, DoctorJ is right.
you won’t get a real high unless you snort it.
There are lots of opiate abusers who prefer Oxycontin to heroin simply because the quality control is better. The inflated price comes from the fact that a 80 mg. Oxycontin is equivlent to about 15 or 16 Percocets (not sure, someone help me out here) so 30 to 40 bucks isn’t really such a bad deal if you’re going to cut them up into quarters and just use a piece at a time. Percocets usually come in 5 mg. tablets and those go for about 5 bucks on the street.
The inflated price also comes from middle-class or upper-crust drug users who have no problem abusing a prescription drug but want to avoid the social stigma that comes from using illegal narcotics. Lots of suburban kids who would gobble up Oxy without a thought would never consider buying a 20 bag of smack.
Plus there’s the fact that there’s not much Oxycontin on the street compared to other drugs. It can be very hard to find and the supply is always inconsistent.
I agree, oxycontin sucks. I took one pill and it did take care of my back pain, but only because I was too out of it to notice. The next day I took a second pill and it made me violently ill, I itched all over, and I can only call my judgement severely impaired. I drove, with my kids, to a specialty dog food store in a town 2 counties away. Why? I don’t know. Ask oxycontin.
Once there, I became so ill they had to call my doctor and my husband while I sat in a heap on the floor with a cold washcloth on my face.
The worst part of it is that I can no longer take Lortab. I had no problems with Lortab prior to taking oxycontin, but now it, too, makes me violently ill.
Back surgery is looking more and more like a good option for me. And the oxycontin was flushed down the toilet.
And believe me, I am grateful for this!
** Calliope **, I am so sorry to hear that oxycontin ruined Lortab for you. I am so relieved that Lortab still works for me - I have just been taking the “breakthrough” meds and giving up on the other stuff altogether. Maybe I’ll try other alternatives at a later date, but after spending about $500 on these two unsuccessful trial runs, I’m ready to just go back to old faithful for a while.
Thanks for all the validation, folks!
I can’t believe that your doctor hasn’t tried you out on plain hydrocodone; I know that CII prescriptions are a pain in the ass, but if you’ve already tried oxycontin, that’s apparently not a problem.
But you’re not the first person to get them confused, Incubus!
Is it possible that there’s a drug or foodstuff interaction that is compromising the effectiveness of the Oxycontin? Regardless, Singular1, you have every right to go ahead and call your doctor now and let him know that the pain med doesn’t work.
Best of luck…
singular1 I suppose a long term pain relief med like Ultram is too weak?
Be careful. Ultram is also addictive - I speak from experience. And the withdrawals SUCK. Luckily, I realized that I was addicted to it before I got myself into major trouble with it, but I realized when the first thing I was looking forward to in the morning was popping an Ultram, something was wrong (I’d been taking them for a horseback riding accident from last year). I finally tapered off of them, but they also act as opiates and they are very difficult to withdraw from.
Ava
singular1, I’m another one of those people who gets very little pain relief from most painkillers, and I have a good friend who’s exactly the same. I take Vicodin ES (hydrocodone) for my migraines when my first course of attack doesn’t work, and I take it occasionally for my herniated disk as well. The first time I got a script for it, about 5 years ago when I first had my back problems, several friends told me how great it was and how spacey it would make me, how it would “put me right out,” etc. It barely took the edge off, and I have real problems sleeping when I take it. It also only works for a couple of hours - I’ve taken as many as 6 on a bad migraine day. Absolutely no withdrawal when I stop, though. Hell, I can take a Vicodin at work when I have a bad migraine, and only someone who knows me very very well would notice a change in my behavior; the pain is a lot more disruptive than the side effects of the med.
When I’ve gone to the ER for my back or for a really bad migraine, even Demerol or Dilaudid aren’t that effective - I have no idea what they’ll give me next time I have to go.
I haven’t had Oxycontin, but I imagine it would be more of the same (and maybe worse if I got nasty side effects like you do.) I’m going to be working with my neuro to try and find a better pain reliever, but so far Vicodin is it. Percocet was no better, but it sure was a pain in the ass to get a script for it.
Is Lortab a version of hydrocodone?
Definately addictive but still indicated for longer term use than oxycontin.
In my experience - and apparently it’s fairly normal - opiates taken for pain produce no high whatsoever. It’s like the drug gets “used up” taking care of the pain, and there’s none left over for getting high. When I had knee surgery, I took a certain dosage for the first few days - no high. On day four, I took the same dosage and got stoned. On day five, I realized I had overmedicated on day four and stepped down the dosage by half - and realized that I was in much less pain than on day one. My interpretation of this was that as the pain levels decreased the “leftover” opiates made me loopy.
I know of no explanation of this effect, but it has worked for me in regulating my own pain when I’ve needed to.
mischievous