Yesterday I went to the pain clinic for my monthly drug test / talk with the pill pusher.

He wanted to try Oxycontin, and against my better judgment I agreed. I had played around with oxycontin when I was a teen, 20mg chewed. Back then I DIDN'T want to function.

Now, I am on 60mg oxycontin every 12 hours, with 10 mg hydrocodone for break through pain. I really just can't function, my question is will these initial side affects wear off?

He said methadone could be used if I don't react well to the oxycontin. I was doing just fine with my Oxycodone IR, the hydrocodone didn't work for shit. Fentanyl wasn't good to me but I was drug addicts best friend when I had them.

Dave

I gave it a run, but it didn't do anything for my pain. I had the same reaction as you, I couldn't function at all. Thinking things would get better, I continued taking it for a few months, but nothing changed, so I tapered myself off. I quickly discovered that I had a physical dependence and proceeded to go through some rather nasty withdrawals.

Dave . . . please be careful with the Oxycontin. It has been my personal experience as well as what I've seen with Andrew that the answer to your question is yes . . . the side affects do wear off, but so does the effectiveness of the drug, so more (higher dose) is required. I am 100% positive that Andrew was over-dosed in rehab because of this very thing. This happened not long after he was off the vent and he basically had to be put back on the vent for 48 hours which hindered his vent recovery. He lost like 3 days . . . cannot remember them to this day. It was bad. I was told that his C02 had climbed to high (which is common when someone is vent-weaning), and caused him to poison himself. What that weekend doc didn't realize was, I watched his C02 numbers from the very beginning and he was still in (his) normal range. Now, his normal range was higher than most people's . . . but, was still considered ok for him. I have no doubt it was the increases in Oxycontin that did this to him. Had he been home and this happened, I wouldn't have had a vent to put him on. Bad stuff.

My personal experience with Oxycontin is this. I had a bout with cancer about 6 years ago and was given Oxycontin after a surgery. I loved how it made me feel (too much) and it immediately became a very good friend of mine. I was basically non-functioning, non-caring, non-feeling, and even non-hygenic But, this feeling was short-lived . . . it (also) took more to get me to the "feeling good" stage . . . and honeslty, it wasn't all that effective on my pain . . . but I still loved it . . . it happened fast too; luckily, didn't "hook" me for too long before I realized it and stopped taking it. I believe it's side-affects are very dangerous to maintaining any kind of quality of life.

What I don't understand is . . . why did your pain doc switch meds if the Oxycodone (roxy) was working? Andrew takes roxy and has done well with it for the past year. One reason might be that the pharmacist told me last week that there is a national shortage on Oxycodone right now. Don't let them deny you the drug that works best for YOU . . . there is just a shortage, it's not all gone.

Joye

I have decided not to continue with the oxycontin. I have some Oxy IR and will be making an appointment asap with my pain clinic. If I understood why he keeps messing with my meds I might not be so pissed.