Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Off Oxycontin but pain is back strong......

I don't want to go back to the Oxycontin because the dose I was taking was huge. I'd rather take something at a low dose which will work as well as high dose oxy's....Any suggestions??

Ah, I was afraid of this. I was really hoping you popping back in was because you were doing really well! Looks like I was wrong.
Sorry to hear the pain is back. Biologics not working? I see orencia was just approved by Alberta. Only for RA though, not AS (of course)! Hopefully Ont is not too far behind covering it.
Mind if I ask what kind of pain it is? I know meds like amitriptyline, prednisone, celebrex, and naltrexone have helped alot of people - they're probably not as good as oxy (never taken that one, but am familiar with morphine), but they might allow you to cut down your dose of oxy - know what I mean?

I'm off oxy completely. I just don't want to start down that road again. My pain is my thoracic spine hips and lately my whole rib cage is a mess. What type of morphine are you familiar with??

Scotty - Sorry to read this. Had *exactly the same problem last July. The pain was *indescribable* (hope I never go through that again.)

OK. Medication. Was prescribed Pred plus Tramadol. The Pred sent me 'rocketing' then vomiting. The Tram sent me itching! Soooooo. I stopped both. Reverted to my trusty Celebrex 200 plus Remedeine which took the top off the pain. Took 4 months to come through it completely...phew. (Don't want to go there again!)

Don't suppose that has helped any at all, but know that am with you - full sympathies. Hope you can resolve.

Molly C (France)
Keeping on Keeping on (yep)

Ah Scotty, that pain sounds bad. I'm really sorry it's hitting you again.
I'm just on plain old morphine. I hate it. Makes me very sick.
The reason I asked, is because I was amazed at how well amitriptyline worked for my feet pain. Seems that ami works well on that kind of pain where the nerves just don't know when to shut up about the pain. It's not so much for inflammatory pain though.
Might be worth a try though. You never know, it could help. Prednisone can also get a flare under control quicky, but don't take it long term like me. Bad things happen.

Oh hon, I'm so sorry you're in such pain. I'm not so familiar with the opiates. My sweetie's been on both Percoset/Oxycodone and Hydra-Morphone (a synthetic morphine med), but had very severe side effects with both. Now he has to cope with Ty3s.

Wish I could help more, but if nothing else, you know you can lean on my shoulder if you need to.

Warm hugs,

I just got back from my gp appt. she started me on dilaudid. Which is hydromorphone. 2mg to start.

Hope it works good for you Scotty. X fingers X

Molly C

Oxycontin and Dilaudid are great pain relievers but also have severe side effects, as you know. Once I was in cedar Sinai hospital in L.a. And overdosed on Dilaudid, it was very scary to wake up with code blue team on top of me. I had had surgery and the pain was so severe that Dr. continued to up the dilaudid and the nurse found me not breathing, very scary. I have also taken it at home in 2 mg pills, it doesn't seem to work as well as a oxycontin but hopefully you'll have better results. I'm also working on getting off oxycontin, the Dr. has up the prednisone dose a little so I'm able to take less. Good luck to you and let us know how you are doing.

Scotty, another thing to be aware of is that these meds can create mental and mood changes. Please be on the lookout for this. It was really scary (terrifying, actually) in my sweetie and while I'm not saying it will happen to you, please be receptive if other people say something about it. Just in case, OK?

Warm hugs,