Tag: Fentanyl

Ripping the Patches Off

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Sheesh, Fentanyl patches eh? Will be a lot better than pills right? Less side effects they say? You’ll have less problems?
Try pulling the other one. 
Two days into the patch and I ripped the damn thing off.

I have not fell as ill as I did Sunday morning for a long time. Stomach pains, cramps, swollen joints (mainly ankles), dizziness, hot and cold flushes. flu like symptoms and a few more as well…
They may have got the dosage completely wrong, which could have caused problems, but I don’t care. The idea is for me to be off any narcotic based drugs within 2-3 months and I want to manage the pain some other method. I’ve always been against narcotic based drugs and was unsure about moving to patches.
Now the main reason for the patches was because there were some side effects with the pills due to complications with my gut, but trust me, compared to the side effects I experienced with the patches, they were nothing.
I think I’ll take the lesser of two evils and stick with the pills for the time being and gradually ramp them down.

Narcotic based pills DO NOT reduced pain, they MASK pain, Anyone that tells you differently is either a drug company or a pusher.

Starting on Fentanyl Patches

Oxycodone

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Ever since moving back from the US I have always resisted narcotic based medications.
After my last operation, I’d been placed on Oxycontin and Oxynorm, but I have been having a bucket load of complications with those.
So today I started on Fentanyl Patches and we’ll see what happens.
Personally, I don’t want to be on any any narcotic based stuff, but my new pain guru is insisting that it’s the right thing to do.
I’ll see what happens with the patches, as perhaps, it was the oral medication causing the complications and bypassing my stomach might actually mean that they work.

I’ll post a bit of history on why I’m switching in the near future.

The only thing with the patches is that my daughter thinks I secretly started smoking again and that these are the anti-smoking ones. She’s the main reason why I could never start smoking again, I could never face the disappointment she’d have if she ever found out.

It apparently takes about 24hours for the first patch to start working, so I’ve quit the slow/timed release (Oxycontin) and I’m just taking the quick release (OxyNorm) as and when I need them.  It’s 2.40am at the moment so I can safely say it hasn’t kicked in as of yet. But I’m not getting withdrawal symptoms, so it must be starting to work in some fashion.
Each patch stays on for 3 days apparently, and I can already see a possible reaction to the adhesive.  Nothing is ever simple in  life is it.
Anyway, time for a hot cocoa and an attempt to get back to sleep. I’ll update in a few days when I should know if these patches are any good.