Hi Sammie,

I'm sorry to be chiming in late but I think I might be able to add something to what's already been said. My Aunt Rosemary had trouble with all of her doses of Fentanyl except for her starter doses of 25mg that quickly became 50mg. At the time that she began to need Fentanyl in earnest, a couple of months before she left us, her blood levels as well as her electrolyte levels had already started going off normal. Any more than 50 mg of Fentanyl made her do things like going from being very tired and sleepy to talking non-stop. Then there was the week when she was feeling well enough to watch TV with Uncle Bob in the living room, and Nickelodeon being her favorite channel, she thought she was inside the TV and in the sitcom. She began acting out the shows all over the living room. She would also get up from her naps and get herself washed and dressed and leave the house. Lucky for her, most of the time her neighbor caught her roaming the street. Geez, I haven't thought about this in a while....... Uncle Bob said she used to empty the refrigerator and have food all over the kitchen counters, floor, every cabinet open. It sometimes took him two hours to clean the kitchen. It was all wild and wacky behavior. At one point the hospice people thought that the cancer had spread to her brain since it had already spread up the left side of her face causing palsy. Her whole face was twisted from the strain on the nerves and muscles from the tumor. Eventually they found that she had a collection of patches on the headboard and when she felt she needed another, she'd just slap another one on. They took her off of everything (she was on other things too) and started over. They left her on Lorazepam, Roxicet and Dilaudid until the Fentanyl cleared her system. When she really needed it most, she went back on it for the last two months.

It can cause much the same weird symtoms as morphine in some people. Aunt Ro couldn't tolerate straight morphine at all, although she did tolerate Dilaudid. I hope this helped. It's possible that this drug is not for your husband and it certainly can take longer to clear his system than the textbooks say it should. Everyone is an individual.

Hugs,
Lisa


Niece to Aunt Ro- Dx: 4/03. SCC Stg 4 BOT with mets to fl of mth & crvcl lymph node. AdenoC 1 sal gland. Two add. reconstrc. surgeries for adhesions. Recurrence 7/06- Sub-Mand AdenoC. Mets to both lungs. Lost her battle 5/4/07.