Opana?

[mmglobal]

I went to the pain doc Wednesday...

I wanted Oxy 5's because they are so effective for me. (Remember that in 2001 and 2002, I needed 20's for my low back pain. Apparently, the 5mg packaging that is available in Europe is not available here.

I did NOT want to go on OXY 10's because I didn't feel I needed that much medication. The doc suggested Opana 5's. I agreed.

When I went to pick up the prescription yesterday, I had the most bizzarre conversation with the pharmacist after I asked for a consult.

I asked what the narcotic equavalent is to hydrocodone.

She said, take 1 pill twice a day.

OK, what is the narcotic equivalent?

Take with food.

I can read the instructions on the bottle, what is the narcotic equivalent?

It's just like the other strong meds.

OK, what is the narcotic equivalent?

It's very strong.

What is the equivalent to hydrocodone.

It's stronger

OK, but is it 1.5 times stronger or 50 times stronger.

It's stronger

OK, but what is the narcotic equivalent.

Believe it or not, this continued until I said, "You don't know, that's OK, just say so."

She said she can look it up. I said I'd wait. She went to her computer and futzed around a bit... got out some papers.... futzed around a bit... went in back and got the package insert... nothing there.

She proceeded to go back to the "It's stronger than this, but weaker than that" routine. They were very busy and I hated to make the other people wait, but by that time, I'd been there about 45 minutes and was in a lot of pain, wanted to know and felt that the pharmacist should be able to tell me.

She continued hunting and finally told me that it is 5 to 1 times as strong as oxycodone.

"So, 5mg opana is equivalent to 25 to 50 mg of Oxycontin?"

Yes

So much for not wanting OXY 10's

I came home and googled narcotic equivalence calculator and came up with this:

Narcotic Equivalence Converter

I have no idea if this information is correct, but it comes up with the same thing the pharmacist says.

Who has experience with Opana? Please let me know and also compare to your experience with other meds.

The neck has really gotten bad and I'm now getting substantial numbness in places where I've never experienced it before. Entire left leg numb last night and much of my left upper body as well. I don't know where this is going, but I don't like it.

I love what I do, but wish it wasn't based on so much f'ing first hand experience!

all the best,

Mark

[chasswen]

mark i hate to say this. but it sounds as if you should get your ducks in a row and get dr. b to work his magic on you!!
i hope you are feeling better soon. you dont want to miss any play time with the little one.
chuck

[dshobbies]

To have to go through this once is awful enough, twice is ...

I'm so sorry Mark but I guess you had to get to this point to have no more doubts.

Wishing you better days, Dale

[treefrog]

Mark, I take Opana-ER. Hopefully you will have read the package insert, because it actually says to take it on an empty stomach. When I asked my doctor about this, she actually had not known that, and had been telling patients to take it with food.

I have no problem taking my morning dose on an empty stomach, I take it at 6:00 am, and I don't eat before 7 (in fact I'm usually not out of bed before then). For my evening dose, it becomes a little more of a pain in the A$$. I stop eating by 4:00 pm, take it at 6:00, and don't eat until after 7:00 pm.

Apparently, unlike most other pain meds, taking it with food will actually cause it to enter your system more quickly (the effect on most pain meds if taken with food is to reduce the effectiveness, Opana is just the opposite).

Anyway, it took quite a while to get the correct dosage for me. The 5mg did nothing for me. And I had heard on another spine forum, people saying it wasn't as bio-available, and for some people not effective at all. One guy really thought it was crap, but I had to say that it was working for me, once I got the dosage right. I take 20mg twice a day.

I hope it helps you Mark.

[treefrog]

Oh, also...did you get an Opana "coupon" card? Ask your doctor, that's who gave me mine. It saves me $25 on each prescription, up to 12 prescriptions.

Here's what it says on the card...you pay the first $20 of your Rx co-pay, the pharmacy will deduct up to $25 from any co-payment remaining balance. Oh wait, it says card must be activated by 12/31/08...I would still see if your doctor has a new edition of the card, it can really save some money.

When I first tried the Opana and it cost me $50, I decided I was going to tell my doc that I wanted to stick to percocet instead. That's when she gave me the card.

[treefrog]

Justin, what I had heard is that even though it is supposed to be stronger than Oxycontin, it isn't. And if your doctor just tried to use those charts to switch someone over, the person might actually need more than what it would indicate.

Frankly I don't care how it compares in dosage to other drugs, as long as the dose than I am taking controls my pain to a reasonable level.

Oh, and it scares me to think that I would be taking the equivalent of 80mg of Oxycontin (though I've never taken Oxycontin).

[Justin]

Mark,

This conversion table should help spell everything out for you:

Converting from other opioids to OPANA ER

Scroll down the page and you will see this:

OxyContin® to OPANA ER sample calculation

A healthcare professional with a patient on a total daily dose of 60 mg OxyContin could do the following calculation:

60 mg x 0.5 = 30 mg (approximate oxymorphone total daily dose)
Administer as 15 mg OPANA ER every 12 hours
Titrate as needed by 10 mg every 12 hours every 3-7 days

[steve55]

Sorry to hear that Mark, especially the part about the leg. I thought you had successfully conquered the Lumbar stuff , that sucks that it has come back, in adddiion to the new neck stuff.