Hi,

I'm 10 days out of treatment. I'm probably experiencing the worst pain of the whole time right now, especially when I swallow. My MO gave me Duragesic patches, but I haven't used them because I didn't think I needed it. Now I have to do something. will the Duragesic help with this kind of pain?

Teamshrink

Team,

It did for me. Keep in mind it takes about 6 to 8 hours to get in your system. I started off with 25mcg and made my way up to 100mcg. I also used morphine sulfate for break through pain. I usually timed a dose of morphine for just about an hour before I ate. After the 2nd week post Tx I started to back down off the duragesic in 25mcg steps. I still take a little morphine for throat/neck/swallowing pain and I'm almost 2 months out of Tx

Please don't mess around with pain. Use the duragesic. I was up at 150mcg. Even there the pain was bad, I can't imagine what it would have been like without it.

I stopped taking all meds at the end of my 1st week because everything I took either made the nausea worse or didn't help it. Nausea was by far my worst enemy during the whole thing. Once I stopped all meds, the nausea went away and I haven't looked back. I did take an occassional extra strenght tynol for the throat pain but that didn't trigger any nausea.

As they say, everybody's different.

I am totally flabbergasted that you made it to 10 days post tx without it!!! My pain would have been a "10" without Duragesic! The manufacturer says 24 hours for full therapeutic effect.

Caution: Fentanyl is a very powerful synthetic opioid narcotic follow the doctors orders specifically and read all of the warnings and precautions carefully.

I'm constantly amazed when I read about the array of pain medications these days. My mainstay through 39 radiation treatments (17 years ago) was a liquid tylenol/codeine mixture. It sounds to me like the tradeoff was: more pain, zero nausea, zero constipation.

Cathy

I, too, am amazed at the plethora of pain medications offered today. It seems to be a trial and error thing. Since we can only speak from personal experience here, I will say that the fentanyl patch sent John into outer space[literally]. We had to get him off that within a week of when it was prescribed. He has only been able to tolerate Hydrocodone. Different strokes for different folks is the rule, I think. Many of us cannot tolerate certain drugs and the question is "What can we tolerate?" Trial and error is the name of the game.

I was never given fentanyl or duragesic, just liquid oxycodone. I might very well have reacted like John since even relatively mild stuff can really knock me out ( I was given liquid roxicet last summer after the esophagus surgery, and I needed it for the pain, but it made me incredibly sleepy and nauseated as well).

I think there is a lot of trial and error to it.

The trick to pain management is to get and stay 'ahead' of it. I always waited until I couldn't stand it any longer, and then took the paid meds - BAD PLAN!! When I took the meds regularly, I needed less overall.

Plus, pain is NOT good for you. It does NOT build character. It does NOT prove you are tough. Being in pain actually lengthens the healing time and inhibits some of the metabolism that gets hurt tissue repaired. When you are in pain, much of your energy is spent managing the discomforts - leaving less available energy for healing, for family, for anything... Pain is stupid!! Take your pain meds regularly and think of all the junkies who would LOVE to have your stash!! Tom J