no ideas but hope the doctor helps you....

I'm not sure there's anything available that's stronger than fentanyl that they'd actually give you. Same for the percocet as far as being breakthrough med. Sure, they could go up on the dosages but, other than that or taking a medication holiday to get back a tolerance...I have no idea what they'd be willing to do...fentanyl is a serious opioid.

Sorry for not being much help but hope they figure it out.

~Michelle

How many Percocets are scheduled, or are they PRN? My brother-in-law (who is in a nursing home when he is not in the hospital for a long list of problems), is on fentanyl with 4 scheduled Percocets and two more PRN. That type of thing may be a possibility if you are just PRN with the percocets. Good luck!

I take three percs spread out over the day. I"m a rookie so I don't know what PRN means.

Hi redheaddiva,
I don't want anything stronger than fentanyl, I just think I've got a tolerance to it so I'm looking for something equal to it, at least for the time being.

The only other long active (round the clock meds) other than fentanyl-being the strongest I believe) is oxycontin ( a long acting percocet/oxycodone). You will definitely have to work with you Doc for a transition of these med so you don't have detox side effects from the fentanyl. BTW, PRN is the medical term for Take as Needed. I wish you the best. There is Opana however I bekieve that is a long acting dilaudid which is synthetic mophine. Sounds as though you may have built up a tolerance. Just curious, did they start you @ 100 mg strength fentanyl or gradually bump you up? Gentle hugs hon. xoxoLyn

A little trivia from Wikipedia: (BTW - - You need to know Latin to understand prescriptions.)

"Pro re nata is a Latin phrase meaning in the circumstances or as the circumstance arises.[1] It is commonly used in medicine to mean as needed or as the situation arises. It is generally abbreviated to p.r.n. in reference to dosage of prescribed medication that is not scheduled; instead, the decision of when to administer the drug is left to the nurse, caregiver or the patient's prerogative.[2] Such administration of medication is not meant to imply, and should never allow for, exceeding a given daily dosage."

Opana is not related to Dilaudid, although both are synthetic morphine. There is only one one long lasting Dilaudid and it is called Exalgo. There is a 12 hour version of Opana named Opana ER. Both versions of Opana are available in generic form. Exalgo is still a brand only and very expensive (starting at $12 per pill for the lowest dose and goes up fast from there). Since you are allergic to morphine, these meds are probably out.

If your prescription for your Percocets reads take one every XX hours, and that is how you take them, then that would be considered "scheduled," otherwise the Rx label will say "take as needed every 8 hours" and written on the Rx form as "PRN." (A set number of hours will always be stated to; 1) tell the pharamist how much to dispense, and 2) tell you how so you know when you can take another pill (8 hours in this example). The doctors do not want to confuse anyone by actually writing what we lay folks can understand, therefore, dosing instructions are written in Latin on Rx forms.

I think about the only option the doctor may have is to increase the number of Percocets to one every six hours plus one or two for breakthough pain like I described for my brother-in-law earlier. I do not think there are many options since with you already are taking the maximum amount of fentanyl and Percoet (which does not mean a whole lot). You may have to consider a pain pump. I hope your doctor has a better plan. Good luck.

I just reread my post and where I said "which does not mean a whole lot" I was referring to my opinion. I am no doctor, just have a lot of experience, unfortunately. Sorry if that sentence was confusing.