My Dad is experiencing significant pain and we are trying to get that under control. He has been using Hydrocodone - 15 cc's every 4 hours but he is finding his pain getting worse. His Dr. prescribed Roxiset on Sunday and my Dad tried it, but it did nothing for his pain. Does anyone have any experiences with pain meds that they can share with me. This is all WELL beyond us, we have never taken anything more than the occasional Tylenol before

Hydrocodone (AKA Vicodin) is a medium strength pain reliever. Great stuff if you stub your toe, have a bad headache or something. Roxicet (AKA Percocet) is basically the same stuff only a little stronger (both have acetomeniophen (AKA Tylenol) in them as well).

Here's a link to the NCCN guidelines for adult cancer pain. You may want to print this out and let the doctors know that you demand adequate pain relief.

http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/PDF/pain.pdf

Pain management is a BASIC PATIENT RIGHT -DEMAND it!

You have to make sure he's not playing this down for some kind of pride issue. Pain is rated from 0-10 with 10 being the worst (it's all explained in the NCCN guidance document -see Pain A 1 of 2). He should given a questionnaire every time he's in to find out what his pain thresholds are. He will also need additional meds for "breakthrough pain".

Taking potent narcotics will also have other issues such as constipation (see Pain D, 1 of 2), etc. These will need to be managed as well. Make sure he sees a nutritionist weekly and also that someone manages his medications.

Personally they gave me Fentaynl patches for "long term" pain and morphine sulphate for "breakthrough pain".

Hi Jillian,

They gave me liquid morphine. It is important to keep the pain under control. The morphine helped, but I still had considerable pain. I also had Oxycontin and hydrocordon. I stopped the hydrocordone because I thought it was not effective. the morphine I took when needed.

Make sure you use perscription stool softeners or there can be problems with heavy pain meds.

Good luck.

Steve Daib

Remember that the "fast acting (short term)" painkillers, i.e. Morphine Sulfate still takes 1/2 hour for complete effectiveness if taken orally. It is the fastest acting. Injections are immediate.

Fentanyl patches take 24 hours before they reach their maximum effectiveness. They are a 72 hour, time release patch.

If you are medicating through a PEG tube ALWAYS get clearance from the doctor first. Crushing up time release pills can cause an overdose for example.

To control the pain we have been using a fentynal patch. The patch comes in different dosages from 25 microgram per hour to 500-1000 microgram per hour. The patch goes on directly on the skin and requires changing every three days. For breakthrough pain we use liquid morphine in 20 mg/ml strength.

We are also under the care of a pain management team at our cancer treatment center and we have monthly appointments with the team consisting of a pain management doctor and and RN.

Please consult with your treatment center about seeing a pain management team as their help and input can alleviate a lot of pain and suffering.

They also make a 12 mcg Fentynal patch now; this is good for moving off of a stronger dose. Barry was on 25 mcg for a couple of months during & post-treatment , then went to 12 mcg for two weeks, then off everything.

Gail