Another post got me to thinking about this. How often on average are taking BT meds? I guess I was under this impression that BT's should be used sparingly, as in not every day but it appears that my impression of that isn't quite correct.
Could you all give me a feel for the frequency they've been prescribed vs how often you might actually take them?
Right now I am finding I take extra meds or BT meds some 2 - 3 times a day, but my ms contin is a low dose only 30mg 3x's. Unfortunately I can't take them 3x's a day because when I do I do not sleep well at all which in turn causes this cycle of more pain.
Also does anyone know if it's ok to cut a LA med in half? I know we are not supposed to crush them, but I"m wondering if it would be ok at night to cut the ms in half and try to see if I can sleep a little better instead of taking a whole one
I am not 100% sure about this, but I think that while it is ok to split short-acting pain meds, you should always take meds with a time-release system like MS Contin, Avinza, Oxycontin, etc whole. If you split one, you would get all the medication at once rather than over a period of time which wouldn't give you long-acting relief and would also give you too high a dose all at once. Maybe you could ask your doctor to write you for (twice your usual amount of) 15 mg ms contin instead of the 30 mg, then you could take only half your usual dose before bed?
When I first went on oxycontin my doctor gave me oxy IR as bt meds to use 2-3 times per day. Now that I am taking the oxycontin more times per day, he said I won't need bt meds more than 1-2 times per day, and so far at least he's been right. I think if you are needing bt meds more than 2-3 times per day, that is a sign that the dose of your long-acting meds needs to be adjusted. I hope you get your meds worked out to give you satisfactory relief soon, and hopefully your doctor will know what to do if you need some adjustments.
the problem with taking most bt meds daily is that when you have added pain then the bt wont help much as your body has become accustomed to them as part of your routine.if you take all the bt meds daily then your base med is too low.
if you are thinking of breaking the ms you are setting yourself up for added pain as your tolerance will go up due to the larger dose by ruining the time release.besides its dangerous
why dont you ask the dr for something to help you sleep?there are some meds that are safe for long term use.i take ambien,which although is not reccomended for long term use,i find works quite well.ive been on it for about 9 months.
no matter how bad the pain is it still knocks me out for atleast 4 hours.used to last 6 hrs but im getting tolerant to it.
I've only split the ms one time just to see what would happen, nothing major did. I know that crushing it is a no no for sure.
I take high doses of an antidepressant to sleep in addition to allergy pills, I fall asleep, I just can't stay asleep, I wake up like every 30 minutes in a huge fog, it's terrible.
If it's been 4 hours since I took my ms contin, chances are I'll sleep really well for the next 8-10 hours, but if I take it within 1 hour of going to bed forget it.
It takes a good 4 or 5 hours before I actually fall into a deep sleep after taking MSC. Once' I'm asleep I sleep for a good solid 6-8 hours after tossing and turning for a good 2-4 hours prior. So I'm ok with the MSC twice daily, doesn't help the pain as much as I need it, but obviously I'm having problems with taking it 3 times daily like I need it. And now I"m taking more BT because the pain is so bad when I get up in the morning from not having anything in my system for well over 12 hours. Make sense?
Ambien and similiar products don't work for me at all, they get me into an initial sleep stage but they don't ensure deep sleep at all which is what I truly need.
Far as BT my thought as always been as well to take them infrequently and that like you said taking them every day will end making them less effect over time when severe pain sets in. like mentioned above, I think my problem at this point is I can't take the MSC 3x daily if I plan on sleeping so I end up taking it twice 8 hours apart and then nothing until the next morning leaving a huge gap of unmedicated time.
I don't see my doctor for about 3 more weeks so I may have to bite the bullet this week and just start taking the MSC again 3'x daily and hope that after a few weeks pass my body will have adjusted and I can sleep OK and not need to use BT meds as much either.
My LA med is 25mu Duragesic with 7.5/500 Percocet for BT twice a day. I try not to use my second BT pill unless I absolutely have to because if I take that second pill what do I do if four hours later I'm in more pain than I was when I took it? I also know that there are days when two aren't nearly enough so I try to have at least a few BT doses in reserve (extreme temperature changes, heavy rain, too much physical activity, etc.). I take 600mg doses of ibuprofen in order to not run short of my BT meds but that quickly adds up to 3600 to 4200 or more per day and that's not good either. There are plenty of days that I take both BT pills and still use over 4000mg of ibuprofen just to get through the day without screaming. I had my PM follow up last Thursday and the doc didn't give me the chance to discuss problems with the pain meds so I'm stuck for another month with this ibuprofen regimen.
Not sure what to say about your LA problems, I know I had serious physical fatigue issues when on 40mg of oxycontin twice a day so I had to request a med change, that's when they started me on the patches. I ended up missing three weeks of work within less than two months and was very close to losing my job. My PA also recommended Zanaflex for muscle spasms and to help with sleep issues, it's been wonderful! I take a very low dose of 4mg around 9:00pm or so and within 30 minutes I'm off to bed. The doc said he could go as high as 32mg if needed but he'd start low. You might ask about it if what you're currently taking for sleep isn't helping. I haven't noticed any hold over effects in the mornings to speak of so I'm happy with it.
Breaking LA meds in half really scares me. I know you said that you'd tried it with no ill effects but any time you try that you're pushing the odds for something bad to happen. What worked fine last night could very easily be dangerous tonight, make sense? Please be careful with that, okay? I recommend the previous suggestion of asking the doc to write a portion of your LA script for a 1/2 strength dose at bedtime, I know it's more expensive each time they add a different bottle to your refill but it's safer.
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