Re: Oxycontin alternative to treat severe chronic back pain- any suggestions or ideas?

Dear kts,

If it's price issue, LC nailed it with the methadone. That stuff is as
cheap as dirt. You won't find a medication that's much cheaper,
certainly among the pain medicines. The only reason you may want to
avoid it is if you have cardiac issues. It's rare but it can cause
problems with the heart, and the latest thinking is when moving a
patient from another drug to methadone is to do it slowly, dropping an
oxycontin tablet and adding first one then a second methadone tab.
That's about the strength equivalance, 20 mgs of methadone for 80mgs
of oxycontin, or so I am told, but YMMV. It may help to do it that way
as the "feeling" between the two is somewhat different. Not better or
worse, just different.
It's really hard, when you have found something that works pretty
good, to find a replacement. Be sure you are doing this due to costs
and not any "external pressure". Check with Perdue about their patient
assistance program. You can do it on the net. And if you are worried
cause everyone is telling you that your dose is high, ignore them. Did
you know they originally made a 160mg tablet, but were forced by
"external pressure" to withdraw it from the shelves? It was obvious
the drug maker fully expected such a one tablet dose to be required by
enough people to make it. Going to an 80mg highest single tablet dose
distorted the perception of what a high dose might be, by 50%, not
just on OxyC, but every similar drug on the market. So don't let dose
size affect your decison making on what you use for pain.
There are a handful of other medications that are slow release like
OxyContin, but if price is the issue, methadone is without question,
going to be you best choice. My daily dosing is in your general
vicinity and the only problem with methadone is while it is cheap as
dirt, and a months supply will be about 10 bucks, even without
insurance, the largest single dose tablet used for pain is 10mgs. They
used to make a 40mg biscuit, but that's only for rehab and
maintainence clinics, as of the 1st of '08. So you will have about 800
pills to keep track of every month. Don't be suprised when they hand
you a grocery bag full of pills. It's the DEA's version of a better
idea. Good thing they don't control the nukes, huh? So you may want
to get your pharmacy in the loop too so they know to have enough on
hand when you change, if you change.

Best of luck and painfree days--og



On Jun 30, 3:44 am, kts <kippe...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello, This is my first post. Six years ago I had a fall at work and
ended up with two failed fusion surgeries. My doctor rx'd me oxycontin
and at this point I have to take 160 mg three times per day, that's
6-80 mg per day. Does anyone have any suggestions for alternatives
that would provide me the same pain management as the oxycontin but
would cost much less. I would appreciate any suggestions you could
offer. Thanks, kts

.

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