My husband has been on Oyxcontin 20 mg twice a day for 2 months during his treatments. He has had no real breakthrough pain and has done really well on this. He has 1 more Chemo and 8 more radiation treatments to complete. Last week was the rough one as he had radiation burns and extreme fatigue. His burns have healed and he is feeling much better now. I know the weeks after radiation is done will be rough but I was wondering how to taper his pain meds so he can get off. I know a lot of you have experience with this.

hi
maybe oyxcontin 10mg twice daily with oxynorm as a standby for breakthough pain, hope this gives you some help
Sunshine... love and hugs
Helen

First of all, I would wait until he is actually in less pain. I am six weeks out from rad. and the mouth pain I have is still pretty bad. I am on oxydose a liquid form of oxycontin that you have to take every 3 hours). Although remembering to take it (and needing to wake up in the middle of sleep at night to take it before I get in serious pain) is kind of a hassle, what I like is I can go from none at all during the day (if I am drinking enough liquid to keep my mouth moist and not doing anything like teethbrusing that irritates my sore spots I can go a couple of hours after 3 hours is up sometimes without needing a new dose) to taking more at night when I tend to have breakthrough pain, as well as more sever drymouth whivh agravates the sore spots. In general I take 5 mg doses during the day and 10 mg doses when I'm sleeping. My doc said I can go up to 15 if I need it for pain at night and I seem to need it MORE lately, thbough I think this is just ebcause my body has adjusted to the oxy and so i need more to get the same effect now.

I haven't really noticed any withdrawal symptoms on days when I go up or down in amount so far. Anyway, my original point was meant to be that although I can see some of the sores in my mouth healing, I still have a couple of painful spots, espcially at night, and I don't think I'm ready to go off it entirely yet. So it may be you shouldn't yet worry about the tapering off. The worst mouuth pain I had was about 1-3 weeks after rad.

What do mean taper - are you nuts? The worst is yet to come. Come back and ask us in 2 months AFTER he's completed treatment. Besides tapering is medical advice and we do not offer that here (sorry Helen). It MUST be planned out by a doctor to avoid convulsions, seizures and other potentially dangerous complications.

I have to agree with Gary & Nellie that things are just gettin' fun & now is definitely not the time to be slimming down on pain meds! Maybe only take as needed, but not taper off. I do remember being sick of the opiates & all their side effects though! Patience! He's got a ways to go yet! Erik

I would agree with doing this under medical guidance. My ma had, and still has, a habit of changing the dosages of her meds on her own. I can't tell you how many times I have been to the ER over the past two years. Be very careful.