RFA today and addition of Oxy IR question

Good Evening RM,

First off, I hope your breakthrough medication provides you with some additional relief. I think it will but at 5mgs, I wouldn't expect a night and day difference. Regardless, you should get a little more relief and even a single drop on the pain scale can be like removing a knife from the back.

The IR formula lasts up to 6 hours, but depending on your metabolism and body process, relief sometimes only lasts for 4 hours so if your dosing says 1 tablet every 6 hours, keep in mind that some people can have increased pain between hours 4 and 6 due to the medication wearing off. I've heard some people claim it lasts 7 hours so it really depends on your metabolism.

Oxy IR is a great tool. Its slightly more potent milligram per milligram than morphine orally and is well absorbed and fairly quick acting. It might not be a bad thing that your doc decided to go with a second pain reliever because Oxy IR hits certain receptors called Kappa Opioid receptors in addition to the Mu Opioid that both hydroM and Oxy hit. Therefore there is some cross-tolerance but not total corss-tolerance. However, it should be noted that tolerance to oxy's pain relief abilities builds up quicker than weaker medications like codeine, but if its not used arround the clock, this should not be much of an issue since it takes round the clock dosing to typically increase tolerance to a short acting medication like oxy IR.

As far as interactions with other meds, I think you should do a consult with your local pharmacist, and possibly get the opinions of 2 or 3 different ones since you will be using multiple pain medications. My humble recommendation would be taking the Oxy IR atleast 1 hour apart from your HydroM dosing. This might help to keep the medication from hitting your system to hard. However 5mgs is a low dose and you should be just fine. Personally, I would not recommend mixing all 3 of your pain meds together. The Oxy is about 2 to 3 times stronger than tramadol, so for breakthrough pain, I would avoid the tramadol and focus on the IR and HM.

RM I am sorry that your dr would not consider increasing the Dilaudid. You know my prior PM dr had me on 2 mg for BT pain and after one script of it I accepted no more because it was like taking nothing. My current PM dr was shocked he offered such a low dose and she was not aware it even came in 2mg. My neighbor is an RN and we had talked about it not working and he said it was not surprising when you consider people are given 10mg all the time in shots of it. I imagine since it gives you some relief you are sensitive to it which is a good thing for you. I have 8mg now you know and if it is too much at times I can break it in half with my PM's drs approval. There are times when I need the full 8mg though. I do not have to take my BT meds every day, it just depends on how the day is going. I do hope the other medication will give you more relief I think you would be wise not to take it with the other meds until you know how you will react with it. Another good web site for medication is Drugs.com, they offer lots of info on meds too. Hope your RF works well this time too.

Take care.

Hello All,

Thank you so much for your info and kind words. Today has been HORRIBLE on the pain scale and when the PM office called to check on me, I mentioned that the script is written to be filled only on the 17th, so I can't even try the new med....they were less than understanding and told me they were sure it was because he wanted to keep me on the same med schedule. I KNOW he did not write the extra wording on the top in a different pen color. It was a woman's handwriting and certainly no Dr's handwriting. So I guess I have to suffer for a while longer. I still feel like somebody used ice picks with electric fence wire to do this RFA. My friend says she has no problems at all, so something has to be way different during the procedures. I sincerely hope nobody else hurts like this, but I have heard of some others having the same pain after the procedure.

Thanks for the info on the oxy. I "tried" to ask a pharmacist/or tech...not sure what she is, at the pharmacy where my husband has to get his reflux med. It's a long story, but he has to use that one for the rebate card to work and I can only use my personal pharmacy to get my meds. When I asked her what oxy IR was, she said oxycontin......that's NOT what Mayo says, so I think this lady needs a little more education. She acted like I was out drug searching or something and I told her I was just looking for info because it had been prescribe to me by PM and I am under pain contract so I don't get it there. What led to the question was asking about how much Tylonol I could safely take during a day and she says no more than 8 pills (ugggghhhh......excuse me, there are different doses of the med). I tried to explain that my Tylonol was 325, as part of my ultracet, and she freaked that I might be taking too much of the tramadol. I gave up!!!! I'll ask my own pharmacist as soon as I can get the chance and I'll just have to increase my regular meds slightly until I can get this pain under control. I have plenty left over from past prescriptions when I have taken less than the normal dose because I could handle the pain better that day. I NEVER want to be left in a situation where I can't get my meds refilled on time and have to do without. I NEVER want to go through any kind of withdrawal, so caution is the name of the game for me.

I would like to address all of you wonderful people individually, but I have to go now and won't be back (likely) until Sunday. I'm taking lots of movies and a warming blanket and everything under the sun to make a comfortable weekend. I'm really NOT up to going anywhere, but family duty calls and I'll just huddle up somewhere and rest while the others do their thing.

I wish you all a low pain weekend and again thank you for your kindess and support.

retiredmom, I'm so sorry to hear your not feeling well either, and fully understand what it is like. It's awful!....and then to keep hanging to what little hope we have just seems to make it worse.

I had to just shake my head when you asked the pharmacist tech about the OXY IR and the answer she gave you. It reminded me of a trick question I was asked several years ago while attending a local collage. Cant remember who asked it, student or teacher, but the question was..."what do they call a student studying to be a DR, who finishes at the bottom of their class with the lowest passing grade point?" The answer is a DR! ....and not a very good one at that. Some times I wished they would make professionals in the health profession wear their grade point average out where we can see them. That might simplify things!

I did take Oxy IR for a very short time, and I believe it was the 5mg. It did nothing for me at all, and I took the bottle back to the PM and tossed it to the receptionist. You should have seen the look on their faces! She said "No one brings back unused pain meds"

I hope your Dr gets this all straightened out, and not anytime too soon either. I feel bad for you.

SE

Dear RetiredMom,
I haven't been posting as much, but I have been reading a bit here every day.
I'm so sorry that you're having so much pain. Oxy IR is very effective for me, but I take a higher dose. That's really ashame that your PM office won't let you fill it until the 17th. That doesn't make sense to me at all.

Whenever I call my doctor, I ask for the doctor to call me back. If they ask what it is about, I tell them that I just really need to talk to the doctor or I'll tell them that I only want to discuss it with the doctor. They never seem to mind letting the doctor call me. I used to find that things would get lost in translation so doing it this way works best for me.

I hope that you're pain goes down and that you get rest.

Hugs,

Flower

Is RFA (radial frequency injections)? I get radial frequency injections but my PM gives me an iv with sedation so I don't feel anything. I was just wondering if that is the same injections that I get. They are painful.

Jazzie

I get radial frequency which is freezing the nerves. They sedate us and I never remember getting the injections. Hope you are feeling better. My injections only last for about 2 months and my insurance won't let me get another for 5 months.

Your are right about the procedures being unique to each one of us.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Jazzie