I have been taking oxycodone 5mg/325mg (percocet) on and off since july. I take anywhere from 2-4 pills a day. All my doctor's have been prescribing this medication to me while I have had a lot of back pain. Recently I decided to switch doctor's because I had a problem with the one beforehand (nothing to do with medication). This new doctor that I have prescribes me 40 each time which only lasts me about about 10-17 days. This isn't enough and I feel like he thinks I'm addicted to them since they only last for so long. I have also gotten them for my pain management doctor that gave me epidurals but I feel its unethical to ask him since I'm getting them from another doctor. I'm in a dilemma here. Should I ask the pain management doctor and the neurosurgeon since he doesn't prescribe me enough? I'm in pain and these are the only things that help. I've tried 800 mg Ibeuprofin and advil but they don't help at all. Should I ask for a larger mg of percocet? I feel that I can get off these any time I want but I'm in pain? Any advice would be useful
Hi Pj! I think you can ask any of these other doctors if they can assist you in better pain control, but you must must must inform them that the other doctor has prescribed, and bring your prescription bottle with you to show them. If one of them agrees to help, you must then contact the original doctors office and let them know that the new doctor is now prescribing for your pain. In this way you can pick the doctor most willing to provide you with relief without the appearance of 'doctor shopping'. I would make appointments with the other doctors and bring your bottle and see what happens, worst case would be they will say they would not prescribe more than the doctor you have now, and you can stay with him and be no worse off than you were. You can also ask for a referral to a pain management clinic, but there is no guarantee that the PM doctor will start out with opiate therapy, You would probably be offered other modalitys first. Best of luck, I hope you find the relief we all seek and deserve. Your Friend, Fabby
HI PJB, Why don't you explain to your new doc that you used to see a PM doc and or surgeon for this problem and would like to go back. Get a referral and do it the right way. You have the name of the doc you want to see that would treat your pain.
Epiduarls are one method that have a max number given per year. But if your looking for some alternatve therapies you have to look into different docs and even call and ask what methods they use. Does he does trigger point injections,nerve blocks, accupuncture, chiro adjustments. use tens units. implant and manage pumps and SCS devices.
THere is more to PM than finding a doc willing to prescribe. Percocet is an easy answer, but if you haven't tried anything else, it makes it tough to justify that it's your only option. Maybe you just left a lot of info about your back out, but GP''s aren't trained under the phylosophy of prescribing opiates indefinitely for pain management of chronic conditions. I would be surprised if this doc doesn't put an end to the percs, some Gp's won't even prescribe clas 11 meds, so why not get a referal for PM.
I think many people read posts and it may appear that we were in pain so we saw a PM doc and he gave us long acting pain killers. The part that's left out was the 3 failed surgeries,the diagnostics, the years of PT, the years of non opiate methods of PM. Dozens of trials of alternative meds like antiseizure and antidepressant, the psych crap you may end up going through and psychs that teach the relaxation methods.
THere isn't a short cut in PM, THey need to do diagnostics and documant the problem if it hasn't already. and if it hasn't a surgeon should be doing it. But simply changing GP's again to find one willing to give more percocet to a patient they just met is a long shot and could easily be considered doc shopping.
Well I've seen my PM doc for 5 epidurals, a discogram, and a nucleoplasty. All have never worked. He prescribed me oxycodone while he did these procedures because he saw how large the herniations were (Herniated discs L4-5, L3-4, L5-S1). After I had the nucleoplasty I went to a spine specialist and he did a laminectomy discectomy that wasn't too successful. I went to a neurosurgeon and he gave me a script to get ESI's. Well I did that and I also asked the neurosurgeon for oxycodone since this is the only med that works. Believe me I've tried everything-oxycontin, vicodin, lorcet, celebrex, 800 Ibeuprofen, and ultram. You name it I've probably tried it. So in the meantime one doc prescribes me 40 5/325 oxycodone's and the other 60 5 /325. That's only for about 35 days. This stuff gets expensive when you have to get the needed amount for a month. Now because I thought it was immoral to go to both doc's to get medicine so I decided to ask the neurosurgeon for more or a longer lasting oxycodone. Believe me I've been through everything and have had 3 back surgeries and I'm only 25. Sports can really take a toll on a persons back.
Some doctors are not too good at math it would seem. If the prescription says take 1 tablet every 6 hours, that would be 4 tablets per day. Most prescriptions are for 30 days. 4x30 is 120, right? Not 40. Speak with the prescribing doctor about his/her expectations. How is the rx written? If it's written take x every y hours, well, ask the doctor to do the math. In a nice way, of course.
If your doctor is not willing to work with you, go back to the PM doc. Also, think about a long-acting pure opiate (oxycontin, kadian, avinza, and others), instead of a tylenol-laden combo prep (like Vicodin, Percocet). Watch out for your liver. I would not want to take more than 2000 mg of apap on a daily basis. Less if you have liver problems.
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