My last 12 mg patch came off Saturday. no mouth pain but overwheling fatigue and depression w some stomach pain.
is this withdrawl?

Hi Seda Bug,
I think it is. We've found that Gordon was on a 3 day cycle of one good day followed by 2 bad ones. Once I realized it was related to the patch, and that he was getting the whole Fentanyl load dumped into him the first day and nothing for the next two, I knew he was getting withdrawal symptoms for the two bad days.

Fatigue and depression I believe are symptoms, as are chills, and a vague feeling of having the flu. Gordon has had anxiety and panic attacks as well. We are going to the 12 mcg. patch tomorrow, then one more and he'll be off.

I understand withdrawal symptoms can last for a couple of weeks after the last dose. Then we get to work on the oxycodone.

Good luck and I hope it gets better soon for you soon.
Anne

Seda,

I went off the 25 mg patch when I thought i was doing ok. I did not tell my doctor I was going to do this.

I had a good day then two rough ones. It takes a day for your body to clear the drug from your fat. The patch delivers the fentynol to your fat over 18 hours and then it is your fat that delivers the drug to your body. If you have very little fat content, the patch does not work very well.

I told my doctor what I had done and said I had a few rough days. He let me know that he could have prescribed a mild sedative for a few days as withdrawal does occure for a few days but the symptoms from the 25mg level are not that bad (although uncomfortable. He said cold turkey was very acceptable at this dosage. He mentioned a few days of dicomfort and that was about it. I was OK by the end of the week.

Anxiety, body aches, diarrhea; rapid heartbeat, fever, runny nose or sneezing, chills, sweating, yawning, anorexia, nausea or vomiting,; nervousness, irritability, shivering or trembling, stomach cramps, insomnia, and weakness....I also had leg cramps and nervous leg syndrome coming off of it.

Of course I used oxycodone to curb the withdrawels of the fentanyl then came off the oxy. Coming off that was worse then the fentanyl for me.

is feeling like you have a fever a common side effect of fentanyl?

Hi Seda Bug,

My husband, too, is trying to stretch out times between patches. But when he starts to feel bad, he wants a new patch. How did you decide it was time to come off the fentanyl patch? Jim is 3 mos. post-tx. He is eating most any kind of solid food (in very small portions) with no pain. I've been encouraging him to wean off the patch but it's somewhat of a crutch - that is, after 3rd day when he feels a little bad, instead of trudging through the withdrawals, he wants me to replace the patch. He's down to 25 from a high of 75mcg. RO did not offer 12 mcg but did tell us she'd prescribe something if he needed help getting off the patch.

How do you know when to stop? Is it just personal preference? A certain elapsed time after treatment?

Thanks,
Debbie

Deb,

I think the determining factor with getting off Fentynol is pain.

I quit the patch when I no longer had pain all day. I relyed on the liquid hydracodone for meals only after the patches

If Jim does not need the patches for constant pain any longer, I would take the doctor up on the prescription to ease the withdrawl. It's not that bad at the 25 mg level

Coming off fentanyl can be very traumatic,especially if you have been using it for some time.The effects can make people very ill with sweating,cramps,shaking,headaches,hallucinations and all the associated symptoms of narcotic withdrawal.Trying to go longer with the same patch has the same effect as stopping altogether.You need to have another drug available to help with the last few days of withdrawl,and then he should be fine.

Kelly, I see your doc prescribed or was gonna prescribe a mild sedative to help with withdrawals. Jim is already taking Zoloft daily. He also takes Ativan at bedtime. Do you think he would still need assistance weaning off the patch?

Thanks for all the info.

I just spent day 3 in bed today it was hard chills. I was only on 12 mg but I tend to be very sensitive to pain meds.I guess since I have been on it since early March got up to 150 mg. I should have seen this coming.

Deb,

I think you should check with your doctor on this. I don't know what my doc would have prescribed as i told him after the fact that it was a bit tough on me. He said they have something to help so I'de check it out.