Wow! You certainly have your hanRAB full with three children. I thought I had it tough with a 2 and 4 yr old at home. I have no family in the area and my husband works long hours, so it's just me most of the time. I have been off of the OpanaER for about 6 weeks now and I have to say, now that I am off of it, I now realize it was helping....but just a tiny bit. I was still in a lot of pain and still could not do things like..sit through a movie, drive in a car for more than 20 minutes...stuff like that. Now I am just on vicodin, and my pain doctor has had to increase my dosage quite a bit. I just had an epidural injection and that has helped a bit. I am now back to being in the same pain I was in while on the OpanaER. But as I said, I am still in considerable pain and feel like my life is going on without me. It is so fustrating being in so much pain all day long. My condition is not going to improve either. I have DDD, stenosis, and permanent nerve damage from 2 large herniated discs. I am considering a spinal cord stimulator and have been told I am a great candidate for it.
Not everyone on the OpanaER has GI issues. I have battled IBS my whole life, and my GI doctor said that the OpanaER has been known to cause problems in people with GI issues. It has taken me six weeks to finally start feeling better in that dept. I am hoping to be able to find another Long Acting medication that will not upset my GI tract.
I also forgot to mention that I was experiencing some pretty bad withdrawal feelings every day and didn't even realize what it was until after I came off the OpanaER. I took mine every 12 hours. 10am and 10pm. Every night around 7pm I would start to feel horrible. Nothing physical, but mentally horrible. I cannot explain it, but I would just feel like PMS times 10,000. I remeraber watching our favorite tv shows with my husband and him asking me why I never laugh anymore. I felt sooooo aggitated and nothing could make me happy. I wanted to scream internally. I also had no desire in the bedroom area (sorry if TMI). It wasn't until I came off the OpanaER that I slowly started feeling better. I talked to my pain psychologist about this and he said I was showing classic signs of withdrawals. He said that medication does not last the full 12 hours..but closer to 8-10. And everyone metabolizes it differently. I am only sharing this with you because I NEVER want to feel that way again. I cannot believe I didn't make the connection to the medication,but I also think it's hard to recognize there is problem when you are experiencing it.
best of luck to you and I hope your pain is controlled soon.
