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Pain meds situation

Hi I was just looking for everyone's personal opinion regarding my history of pain and narcotic meds. My pain is from DDD, arthritis in my back L4-L5, S1, sciatica left leg and also severe arthritis in my knees and I had to retire early as a Firefighter of 22 years. 10 years ago started on Tylenol 3 and slowly went to Percocet, OxyContin then to morphine MS Contin and statex to dilauded and hydro morphing ER to back to oxycodone and now on fentanyl 37 mcg. My question is should I continue with the fentanyl if I'm getting relief at about a 6 out of 10 with this dose or ask my pain management doctor for breakthrough meds or to raise the patch to 50 mcg? Thank you
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8271277 tn?1397395007
Well - you know what they say about opinions....   My opinion is that the more densely you bathe your pain receptors with opiate, the more your body responds by building up more pain receptors - and building up a tolerance. So if your pain does fluctuate a little bit, it would be better to lay a base of the fentanyl, and then have something like some hydromorphone to use for breakthrough pain.
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Avatar universal
You could ask your doc to raise your ER meds for smoother pain control or to be able to change your patches to q48 instead of.q72'

Good luck,
EMT JENN
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1747349 tn?1332683680
You should definitely talk to your doctor before initiating any changes. Talk to him/her and see what they say, they are the one who knows you and your situation best. Good luck and God bless.
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