My friend has asked me for my help in weening off of oxycodone. This is due to her current Doc retiring and the new Doc will only do 1/4 of what she's been getting and wants to take her down even further!!! Granted the amounts were a bit high - but over 8 years as a CPP it happened. So she's currently on 18 30mg Oxycodone a day and wants to eventually switch to Sub for another 6 months. She only has 3 weeks max before he leaves and she takes them around the clock - 3 every 3 hours roughly. Do any of you have a suggestestion on how she should ween down? I suggested just taking out 1 each day, but she didn't like that idea!
The same thing happened to my mom, her new doctor cut her down half of what she was originally prescribed when her other doctor retired. Tell your friend to go find a new doctor and bring her old prescription bottle, and PROOF that she took those meds for that long, and tell the doctor that the old physician retired. My mom did this and the new doctor kept her on her same original doses. Just tell her to bring proof that she has been on these meds for as long as she has been, It WILL work. My mom was on 125mcg Fentanyl per hour, 120 40mg Opana's, and 240 30mg oxycodone instant release. She haswas breast cancer. Anyways Her original doc retired, and the new doc took her down to 50mcg Fentanyl, 60 40mg Opana's, and only 60 30mgI oxy instant release!! She startred feeling ALOT MORE PAIN within the first day. SOO.. she found a NEW DOCTOR, She brought her old prescription doses, and proof from her insurance that she has been on those meds for 5 years. And YES, the doctor kept her on ALL her original doses. Made my mom super happy. The only other thing is tapering her down like you mentioned.. If u use this idea, I suggest buying some pills to assist in tapering her down. Because her old prescribed dose was quite alot, it could be dangerous to give her only one pillba day. Buy some pillsI that ar extended releases, or better yet FENTANYL PATCHES, that way she always has a certain amount of opiates getting in her system, from there start giving her a little less every few days, until her body has adjusted to the dramatically lower dose. I would try getting a new doctor, but that's up to her. Send me a PM if you want some more info on the best way to taper someone off opiates
Find another Pain Management physician who will keep her at that dose. I have heard of MUCH higher doses in PM. She just needs to interview a few docs before finding one that she will like to work with. Hell, I can think of 5 or 6 PM clinics within 10 miles of my apartment.
