Arachnoiditis :: Opana ER And Severe Side Effects

I was on Oxycontin for 9 years without so much as a hiccup for a side effect. Best pain killer I have ever taken. Not only did it eliminate my nagging back pain from degenerative arthritis, but it also cured my refractory depression. For those of you who aren't familiar with the word refractory it means you do not respond to any type of medication for depression. Those were the best nine years of my life. Then the health company's prescription plan made it impossible for me to continue by throwing up road blocks such as Pre Auth's, that became harder and harder. Formulary changes that they made up as they went along. I would jump one hurtle and they would throw up another. Finally I was running out of meds real fast and they couldn't care less if I was going to crash and go through severe withdrawal. My Family Dr saved me at the last minute by giving me just enough Methadone to keep me comfortable.

I was taking 180 mg of Oxycontin daily for the last six years with a total of taking the drug for nine years. I was so ****** at the Insurance company. So I was off of Oxy for 6 weeks. Then I had switched pain clinics and they had filed an appeal on my behalf for 40mg oxycontin 3x a day. A slight reduction in dose as I had been taking 60mg 3x a day. To my utter surprise the appeal went through and I was back on Oxy's. Now I had to wean myself off of methadone. I worked my way down to 1/2 tablet of 10mg (5mg) a day. Finally I thought I was ready and Oct 1 was my first day without Methadone. It was a horrible withdrawal that lasted a month to get it completely out of my body.

At this point I believe I had set a Guinness book world record for going through withdrawal 3 times in under 3 months. Worst three months of my life. Next month my PM DR wants to bring me back up to full strength at 60mg 3x a day of oxycontin. So off to the pharmacy I go and you know it, they want another freakin Pre Auth. So because it was a Friday and the Pain clinic shuts down at 12:00 noon, I am now without Oxy's for the weekend. So here comes the withdrawal again. The Pre Auth for 60 mg was rejected. Monday morning I was back at the clinic to pick up a script of 40mg Oxycontin which I still had a good Pre Auth. They continued the fight filing an appeal. Meanwhile I called the Insurance company only to find out now they had some new formulary rule that said you have to try at least 3 out of 4 pain relievers they listed. One I never even heard of. The hand writing was on the wall. They simply didn't want to write Oxycontin any more because of the cost. My one prescription of 90 60'smg cost $1460 if you paid out of pocket with no insurance.

So the next time I saw my PM DR I gave up and said forget it, I am tired of beating my head against the wall with the insurance company. So I switched to Opana ER 30mg. Here's the crazy part. This prescription costs over $700. They have a generic called Oxymorphone which is a tier one drug and is a fraction of the cost. The insurance would not let me get the generic and insisted on name brand Opana ER.

I have been on Opana ER 30 2x a day with up to four 10mg fast acting Oxymorphones for break through pain for eight days. By the way conversion is 2 to 1 with Opana ER being the stronger of the two. One 30 Opana ER is equal to a 60mg Oxycontin.

My opinion of Opana ER is it absolutely sucks, it is the worst pain med I have ever taken. It is causing me shortness of breath and extremely severe anxiety. Just the anxiety on a scale of 1-10 is an 8.5. I can't sleep right at night, and with the anxiety I am ready to rip somebodies head off. I am afraid someone is going to set me off and I am not going to be able to stop my aggression. I did speed when I was young and this pill reminds me of the speed, certainly does not act like a pain killer. I know it works for others, but I am not so lucky. I finally hit my wall when the back pain returned at about a 6. That was the deal breaker. So I have put in a call to go back on Monday to pick up a different script for anything but Opana ER.

I was so Happy and pain free for nine years. Why did the insurance company have to take away the best Med I have ever taken and completely destroy my life? It really Blows.