My husband just weaned down from the 50 mg patch to 25. He's experiencing increased nausea now and wondering if there is any "withdrawal" reaction from lowering the dose of this drug.

Also - just as an FYI to others: When he lowered the dose, he realized he was having stiffness in his neck that was being "masked" by the pain med. He had no idea he was 'stiff' and was therefore not doing his exercises. He's now doing them with new fervor. Others may want to "ease down" from the drug every now and then to "check in with their bodies" - I think this drug is wonderful but it does mask somatic symptoms that may be important to know about.

As an FYI to others: Couldn't find much on the web about this, so I asked the surgeon at our visit this week. She said, "it's just like withdrawing from heroin" - anticipate 1-3 days of potential nausea, vomiting, anxiety, sweating, etc....

I suspect some don't experience this - but it's normal if you do.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 100X more potent then heroin so a medically supervised tapering off is a necessity. Even with that there will be about 3 days of "mild" withdrawal symptoms at the end. My tapering off took over a month. I was nauseated from practially everything so I couldn't tell whether the Fentanyl tapering was the culprit.

The constipation that narcotics causes can be a source of the nausea as well.

Follow the doctors orders to the letter and DO NOT cut the patch in half. They have a 15 mcg patch as well.