Question about a med I was prescribed

M

Megss

New member
I am 1 week post op 2 level fusion, and I have not been able to control my pain very well at all. It has been so bad at times that I wanted to call an arabulance. I have called my clinic several times and once was told to take 800 mg ibuprofen 3x daily for 3 days, once I was told to just ice and make sure I wear my brace, and today I was told to go to the ER because there was nothing he could call in that would be any stronger than vicodin.

So I went. The doctors and nurses were awesome there. They did the regular exam and found that my left leg was weaker and had less feeling in it than the right. (The left leg is the one affected by the nerve damage). They drew blood to check my levels since my hemaglobin and potassium were too low in the hospital, and they gave me an IV of pain meRAB. The doctor called my spine clinic to discuss a plan of action with them, and concluded that I should add Oxycontin into my mix of meRAB. For the first week, I am to take 2 pills twice daily, and for the second week I am to take 1 pill twice daily. I took this medication after my first fusion 10 months ago, but I couldn't tell if it helped because I was on a bunch of other stuff as well: oxycodone, valium, and gabapentin. I am praying that this will work.

My question to all of you is: Did it help? If so did it help a lot? I need A LOT of help here. Did it help right away or does it need to build up in your system first?

Thanks!
 
Megss, From what I understand, you are asking if Oxycontin helps relieve pain? If that's your ?, I would say yes, it does a great job of relieving pain for me. Does it relieve all my pain? No. A good day is to have it reduced to a level4 or 5. I would also say that once you first start on Oxycontin, it does take about three days for it to kind of build up in your system like you said. I believe they call it BPL; blood plasma level. I hope I have that right; maybe others more experenced with pain meRAB can chime in. From what I understand, Oxycontin is normally prescribed for chronic pain, not acute pain as in surgical pain. However, I remeraber when I was in Aquatic Therapy and someone else in the pool with me had double knee replacements @ the same time(very rarely done). This man was put on Oxycontin right after that surgery. So, I'm not sure if it's something new that's being done, or perhaps the docs feel that even after your recovery, you most likely will need to be on a LA pain med anyways? .....Janiee......P.S. How many levels did you have fused the last time?
 
Hey-

I had 2 levels fused this time. The first fusion was 1 level (L5-S1). This time they had to re-do my first fusion, and they let me keep the old hardware! It's amazing how big it is and how much is in there. My first fusion failed BADLY. The screws were so loose it was actually a miracle they hadn't popped out. They also had to clean up a ton of scar tissue and remove the L4-L5 disc, replace with donor bone, and fuse.

I took the oxycontin and did notice an improvement, but not as much as I would like so I hope you are right about it needing to build up in your system for a few days. Even with the Oxycontin I am still to take Oxycodone -3 every 4-6 hours, Valium- 1 every 6 hours, and 3 300 mg tabs of gabapentin 3 times a day, so 2700 mg of it total each day.

After my first fusion I was on the exact same meRAB, even the oxycontin, only everything accept the valium was in a slightly smaller dose. I guess I need the higher doses because I had 2 levels done this time, I was told by a nurse that your 2nd fusion is usually more painful, and because of the mess they found inside when they cut me open.

I cannot believe that guy did both knees at the same time! Thats crazy!!!
 
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