I have tried Methadone recently and it works well for my nerve pain. Norco also helps, but the Methadone knocks the pain out for up to 12 to 24 hours at a time depending how bad it is. That is with 10 MG's of Methadone once a day! I can't say how well it works long term with regards to tolerance because I haven't been taking it that long. I have never taken Oxy or Fentanyl, so I can't commont on those two. My pain is in my entire right leg from foot to butt area. It is from nerve damage. The Methadone sometimes makes the pain go away enough that I can actually do physical work. I just have to remember to take it easy because I'm still handicapped. I hope this helps you some. Hugs!

I meant to say comment!

Oh, I forgot to say that the methadone does not give you a high, but it did cause me to become drowsy. It is kind of like being drugged up where if I don't move around I start to nod off a bit. That usually goes away after you get used to the Methadone though! You'd have to try it to see how well it works for you in your situation. Good luck if you do try it. Hugs!

Norco is a short acting med with hydrocodone as the acting ingredient. It has a halflife of about 2.5 hours which is why dosing is normally 1 every 4-6 hours. This would not be a good drug to try and control Long Term chronic pain. You would be going through so many peaks and valleys you'd never get ahead of the pain. It's normally used as a Break Thru med. The other meds in this same class and same medication would be Lortab, Vicoden,etc.

Oxycodone is the short acting med, pretty much the strongest short acting med used for Break Thru pain, it's basically Percocet with no Tylenol. It works really well as a Break Thru med as long as you don't take it all day everyday and get used to it....once you do that, it's not going to do much for your Break Thru pain.

Oxycontin is the Long Term medication. It's one of the top 3 that are prescribed outside of a hospital setting. It used to work really well, until the FDA messed around with it and put a new plastic like coating on it, to try and keep addicts from being able to crush and snort it. Within 2 weeks of the change I had to change meds, as did many of the CP'ers I knew back then. As a Long Term med it's usually dosed every 12 hours.

Fentanyl is the last resort you want to try for pain management, esp. if you are a fairly new Chronic Pain patient. Fentanyl Patches are the Strongest Medication you can get outside of a hospital, so if you use this and hit a plateau, or it stops working for you....you have no where left to go but down. Fentanyl should always be your last choice after you've tried all the other meds and they either not worked or stop working.

Methadone is one of the newer meds used to control Chronic Pain. It works especially well on back and neck issues. It has a crazy long halflife, up to 21 hours for some people. It works quite well for some people but for some it doesn't. Methadone is also a drug used in rehab to stop drug addiction so not all Pain Docs. prescribe it and not all pharmacies keep it in stock. You need to talk to your Dr. and pharmacy to make sure they prescribe and have this med in stock.

The one thing to try and remember is to always make sure your Long Term Chronic Pain med, if you have one, is different than your Break Thru med. It they're both the same, then all your doing is increasing your main Pain Med. plan. Your brain works differently with different kinds of meds.

Also, if you have severe daily Chronic Pain, you really need to be on a Long Acting pain med. Those are normally dosed on 12 hour dosing so that your BPL (blood plasma levels) remain the same as far as the med goes in your system. With short acting meds they wear down before it's time to take a new one and your constantly chasing the pain, trying to get ahead of it.

Adding other modalities to your med usually helps quite a bit; i.e. light exercise like small walks or pool therapy, heat and ice, massage, acupuncture, biofeedback, herbs, minerals, homeopathic meds., physical therapy, etc. Anything you can add that works with your meds to control your pain is good.

I would be happy to share my experiences. And I can share family members as well. I was on the Fentynl Patch but let people convince me to stop it because it's synthetic heroine. I have been on the 10 mg Norco Tabs at 8 per day. I am going to ask Dr. V on the 7th to please put me back on the patch and take me off the pills. What I find they do to me is to cause mood swings because they wear off between 3-4 hours and then I can't take another dose until 5-6 hours later. So I not only struggle with the pain, but the up and down of the pill. When I was on the patch, it was time released and I didn't have to even think about it until it was time to change the patch in 3 days. I would put the change date on the calendar so I wouldn't forget. I tried Methadone as well but it's given every 12 hours or twice a day, and I didn't have good luck with that either. I won't go near Oxycontin or that type of pain pill. I want to be able to function which I was always able to do with the Fentynl Patch. The 25 mcg was never strong enough and the 75 mcg was too strong but I had good luck with the 50 mcg. I also don't like getting so much Acetaminophen every day. I know Dr. V hates the pills for the reasons I mentioned so I don't see any problem getting back on the patch. Let us know what you end up doing. I hope this helps. Hugs

@grammybear:

I don't know who told you that Fentanyl is the same as Synthetic Heroin but it's not. If you research the 2, they have completely different chemical makeups, different compound chains and the formulas for creating each has not 1 compound in common.

I think what your person got confused on was Morphine and Heroin. They share similar chemical makeups, and multiple common compounds. Their compound chain is also very similar.

I hope that your Dr. will put you back on the patch so you can get the pain relief you need.

You didn't ask about Morphine, but I want to add that. I took MS Continue and Norco for breakthrough pain for several years. The MS Continue worked very well on the pain. But for me the side effects of being drowsy and not being able to think clearly never diminished. I only.took 15 mg every 12 hours of the MSContin. I rarely needed Norco for breakthrough pain.