Oxycodone's Deathly Issue
(Newest replies first)

I've been using Oxycodone for five years for pain management. I read about all the deaths that were associated with this drug which were being attributed to intentional over medications by patients in order to get high. I discovered by pure accident that there appears to be a major flaw in this pill's ability to consistently breakdown in the human system like it is intended to do, especially in the time release tablet. As the pill fails to breakdown and release it's medication, they begin to build up dangerous levels within the upper gastrointestinal track. They eventually do release into your system, but not when you planned for it, and sometimes many stored pills open at one time and dump into your system all at once. It could look like an intentional overdose to those who don't know about this issue. Has anyone else noticed that sometimes they feel like they never even took their pain pill? Or has anyone else noticed that every once in a while they seem to get super loaded for no known cause every once in a while? I discovered this issue when I went in for a colon test and after six hours of cleaning out my whole system, I began to notice at the very end that about fifteen oxycodone pills, fully intact, began to pass through my system from the upper gastrointestinal tract. The actual test showed that there were still five more left in my upper gastrointestinal tract. Nothing else in my whole system but those pills stuck inside me. I tried to inform the manufacture, but they did not want to hear what I had discovered. Meanwhile, they continue to blame all deaths related to Oxycodone to addicts who purposely took too many pills to get high. User's beware. I like to hear from anyone else who have noticed some of the oddities I've mentioned about this drug, especially if they have a reason to believe they too had a pill build up.

REPLY

REPORT

I think u should have kept that either to yourself. Not to be mean. But opiate addicts are gonna go crazy over the info.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

How is that possible if you have a bowel movement every day?

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Just in case someone else finds this years old discussion... tolerance means a lot with opioids. I've worked down from 30 mg MS Contin 2x/day, up to 75 mg immediate release MS per day so a total of 105 mg morphine possible as the highest morphine equivalent. I'm now to 10 mg ER, 15 mg IR

I wouldn't take the levels of dkludid I took after surgery

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

I noticed that sometimes I don't feel as much and other times too much.i am on immediate release.been on them for almost three years.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Who made the pills that you took?

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Thank you for this valuable information.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

I thought the title was more in reference with "current events". With so many of us drastically having our oxy's cut way back by law and desperate to get our prescription's filled. I am concerned with not only death, but suicide rates increasing. I have never in 5 decades remotely felt like doing myself in and still don 't. But as a person who has gone from 390mg (120ir) oxy's to 210-220 mgs in an desperate attempt to prepare for the worse I am very worried. Apparently by 2PM I will know what my pharmacy can fill for me. I will be down to 60mg until the end of the month and then who knows. I have early WD problems, watery eyes, yawning, muscle cramps, inability to sleep and the big one PAIN, nerve pain, blazing flames of pain! So I am waiting to see if I will be able to get my medication. If I should not be able to get them, I am being ask by family and friends"What will you do?" The only answer I have ever been given is suboxone which takes care of WD's, but does nothing for pain. Or head to hospital to check in for the WD's. My husband has talked with pharmacy and Dr. and admits he has no clue, surely they have a plan for people being forced off medication!?! All I could say was "SURPRISE!" I have made my way through the PDS, NSID kill my stomach, patches did not release evenly. Tramadol worked at one time. I'm anxious and very confused.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

This happened to me as well. I wound up in the emergency room and was put into ICU for a week because of OxyContin! I have diabetes and I also have diabetic gastroparesis which may or may not have been a factor but there were undigested OxyContin pills inside me which could have killed me. I never took too many at once or took them to feel high. My pain clinic doctor was one who loved the money more than the patient and she would prescribe anything one asked her for. I have chronic back pain so she had me on two OxyContin per day and six oxycodone per day; a total of about 240 mg per day. No one should ever take this much oxy unless they're expected to die in a couple days IMHO! I almost lost my life because of my not knowing and having a greedy doctor. I think it should be a law that all pharmacists must discuss this with every patient taking OxyContin. I had no idea that OxyContin was a time released drug. My doctor didn't tell me nor did my pharmacist. I had an MRI and presented it to my pain clinic doctor who just wrote the scripts and sent me on my way. I was in such pain I just wanted to be in bed. My fault for not asking more questions too. I also think there are lots of folks in chronic pain who are denied this medication because of all the fools out there who abuse it. Always Ask Questions and be careful with Any opiates!

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Hi Ginny and Michael, I found you both by accident earlier and have been reading with vigour, nodding furiously in agreement and thinking to myself Thank God I stumbled onto this site! Iv been on 200mg OxyContin am and pm for last 7yrs also up to 4x10mg daily for breakthrough plus up to 4x30/500s as required daily. I swapped from Fentanyl patches 2x100mg every 72hrs hence the large dose. I got off the 4 quick release myself slowly as they floored me every time. I too have felt at times I had forgotten to medicate due to withdrawal feelings and can totally relate to everything that's been said, Ginny your words re:killing ones motivation felt like someone just hit me with a sledgehammer.....your so right! All this time Iv thought it was me, thankyou Lucy also, your comments.....could be me your talking about I.e., everyone knowing you as a sick person etc., I now know I have to get off these awful mind numbing, soul destroying drugs, I'm not going crazy as I previously thought, they don't dissolve properly since they changed the coating, the 120mgs don't last 12hrs ever and sometimes the 80mgs come out exactly as they went in, totally intact, definitely not as ghost tablets, I know because I have others that do come back out as ghosts or shells as I call them, still intact casing but missing the drug inside. I find that they come back out depending on eating habits and fluid intake, if I eat for eg., bananas, the Oxys simply don't dissolve in the correct time scale. Iv given up on Gabapentin, they cease to work in conjunction with Oxys after Oxy dose goes over 160mgs x2 daily. Iv been doing this regime so long now I'm not capable of taking my meds myself, such are the memory problems, I daren't drive due to blackouts and absences as Topher and Ginny described, Iv thought it was my illness progressing, never did I think the Oxys could be doing this, but then I haven't been thinking straight in 7yrs now Iv only just realised! One other side effect I suffer yet I haven't seen mentioned is the sweating, do or did any of you ever experience the sweats? Mine are so bad I dont go out anymore, such is the embarrassment, it literally runs out of me like a river, it stings my eyes while asleep, when I actually get sleep, which is never longer than 2hrs maximum at a time, yet I'm always exhausted.........thankyou Ginny, Michael and everyone else who posted on this thread, for helping me realise that I so need to get my life back and get off these wretched drugs, you all have given me hope tonight for the first time in a long while I'm looking forward to tomorrow and know I'm not alone, that in itself makes the difference, maybe il even succeed and walk again, I know now that Oxys have taken so much from me, instead of giving me pain relief like they did at the start, they stopped working long ago, my doctor should have warned me what long term side effects there were, instead he kept upping the dose until eventually I stopped caring and gave up on life. It's easier to let pain win sometimes.....not anymore though, tomorrow I'm claiming my life back! Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!!,

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

I was grateful to receive this information, because I thought I was being given some bogus pills. About 1/3 of my oxycodone don't seem to have any effect at all.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Hello All,
I'm hopeful that those of you who posted their intent on lowering or quitting their use of Oxy... have continued on with your decision and have made some real progress since you last posted. Let me know how things are going. Remember, even if you gave up on this attempt, it does not mean you can't try again and again and again until finally you succeed.
IMPORTANT QUESTION TO ALL:
Has anyone else heard the chatter on the internet (unconfirmed) that the manufactures of Oxycontin are going to take it off the market in the next month or two? Would like to know if this is true or what you might know about this rumor. Thanks.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Hi Lucy,
I am hoping that you won't mind responding to a few questions I have about your pain issues and related pain medication used for it. I ask because I'm curious how many others on Oxycontin have similar pain development issues. I'm wondering if your nerve related pain seemed to progressively become more frequent, intolerable and disabling once you started using Oxycontin? When your dosage was increased for pain, did you notice that after a few months the pain level and nerve related issues would increase as well? Also, have you been experiencing painful and debilitating spasms' in areas of your body which were not actually involved in any injury? If so, did it begin in your fingers and toes and after several years of Oxycontin use progressively move into other, larger areas of your body? Let me know if any of these issues apply to your health issues.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Lucy,
It's great to hear that you have decided to just do this! Do you know that percocet is the same drug as Oxycontin? The difference is it is not time released. I too used high doses of gabapentin for the steadily increasing nerve related pain over the years. After I stopped all use of Oxycontin, I discovered that a great majority of my nerve related issues and pain went away. I now believe that my steadily increasing pain and nerve issues were created by the Oxycontin. Following that, I was able to reduce my daily gabapintin intake of 600-mg. to only 200-mg. per day, and cut my Soma use for spasms' by 2/3 rds. Keep me informed of your progress and good luck.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Hi Ginny,
Thanks for your support. I decided to gp ahead and start weaning myself off the the oxyconton. I normally take 60mg in the am and 60 mg in the pm. On Saturday I decided to begin with 40 in the morning and leave the others as is for now. I plan on reducing by 20 mg at a time for one week each and continue on that path. So far, it's been going well. I look forward to the day that I never take another oxy. I am trying to rely on gabapentin and amatryptaline for the nerve damage pain. I still have percocets that I can use for breakthrough pain meds which are a much lower dosage than the oxycontins. I know that this will become more difficult but I have a wonderful support system in my family and I have warned them of the potential withdrawl symtoms so that they are prepared as well. I look forward to havin gmy life back, getting out and havimg fun, being able to work again, etc. I'll keep you posted of my progress.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

I am now into my seventh month of detoxifying from Oxycontin, in addition to reducing five other pain medications by 75% each.
Hear is the good news:
I've only had two episodes which made me desire an Oxycontin High throughout all these months. Both incidents occurred while I was going through emotional pain, not physical pain. I immediately recognized that my use of pain pills over many, many years had created a broader use for them beyond pain.
This has forced me to re-evaluate my liberal minded, PILLS are HELPFUL policy.
I threw out my old way of thinking, and replaced it with a structured and semi-objective list of questions which have helped me evaluate, reduce and cut some medications completely off my long list. I now ask and respond to the following questions before I allow myself to take a pill for pain:

WHERE: Where is the origin of my pain right now?

WHEN: When did it start? When did I last take a pill for this? Does this pain have an hourly pattern? When does this pain surface the most? When did I last try alternative methods to reduce this pain? When did I start taking this pill, and for what? When did the dosage or amount of pills become so large?

WHY: Am I experiencing this pain? Why do I think I need, or want, a pain pill? Why don't I wait X more hours before I take a pill for this..

WHAT: What other methods and treatments can I use to reduce my pain other than taking a pill? What physical treatments and exercises can I do to help my body over this hump? What is my mental state of mind? What is my short and long term goal to reduce this pill or stop using it? What rules and regulations must I follow hourly and daily in order to reach my goals? What did I accomplish today towards achieving my goals? What are the negative effects of this drug on me?

These questions have led me down a new path which helped me stop Oxycontin overnight and reduce five other pain meds by 75% in less than three months. I'm still working on reducing, slashing and cutting pills from my daily life. Hope this helps someone, it sure has helped me.

HOW: How long should I attempt to reduce my pain before I feel I have a valid need for a pill. How is this pill going to change my behavior immediately, tomorrow and each day after. How does this pill effect my physical and mental abilities? How has this pill contributed to my counter productive behavior and state of mind? How can I view my pain and revaluate it's normalcy considering the circumstances and my bodies condition. or
unbearable, short term, long term, a body warning, avoidable, emotional state

REPLY

Was this helpful? 1

I want to point out that a couple of people have posted their responses to my question asking if they too had seen full pills pass through them undigested, or experienced getting super loaded at odd times and other times never feeling the drugs effect in their system when it's taken. I did not hide the fact that I think this indicates a faulty slow release issue with this drug. Some have referred to these pill sightings as ghost pills, which indicates the pill has retained it's outer shell and shape, but the medication inside has been dispersed through osmosis. This is the limit of my understanding regarding what they were speaking about. I'm sure that their explanation is valid for some pills, but I think Oxycodine does have a release issue. I felt so certain about this issue that I told my husband if I die due to an Oxy. related overdose, I want you to have every inch of my stomach probed for unreleased pills still intact within my stomach. If my theory was proven correct under these circumstances, my family would have a legal case. However, it is important that readers remember this is an untested, unproven theory which is legally meaningless. In other words, please understand that I am not a scientist and my gut feeling may be the basis of absolutely nothing.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Topher,
Your statement about just falling without reason, or cause, really floored me. What finally got me to just quit the Oxycontin and substatianally reduce the dosages of all of my medications is because I had a long term desire to get off these mind numbing pills, and when I too began falling it lit a fire under me. Until I turned 57yr's. old, I had been a highly coordinated person and had never broke a bone in my body, nor fallen. However, last summer I suddenly began falling about three times a month. One time I was standing in a stationary position at a counter preparing food when I fell flat onto my back without even a foot movement. I felt like I had blacked out for a nano-second or something. My body and head hit the floor with tremendous force. Prior to my full body falls, I frequently had noticed times when things would just drop out of my hands as if my involuntary muscle reflex just stopped working. Later, my full body falls seemed similar in nature. These falls were bizarre because I never had any warning that I was about to go down or fall over. I was not tripping; I was just falling. I told my Doctor about it and expressed how concerned I was about falling for no obvious or logical reason. She didn't order any test or concern herself. I said to her, If I keep this up I'm going to break a bone. Less than a month later, and on my eighth fall in three months, I broke my elbow. While I was In the E.R. getting my elbow cast, they did a cat scan, or MRI, of my brain because I told them about the previous falls I had been experiencing. That Doctor was quite concerned, but fortunately they found nothing. I left with my arm in a cast, and I just knew it was the drugs that were causing my falls. Since I quit the Oxycontin, I haven't fallen even once or dropped anything either. There is no doubt in my mind that this drug, combined with others or alone, creates some form of mili- second black out resulting in a loss of body or muscle coordination. I won't even bother to get into discussing how it does a similar thing to the brain which leaves you wondering where you just went for a minute or more.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Hello, i have found that all of these posts have been most useful. The whole thing about the pills not breaking down the way that they are supposed to. i was at work several weeks ago and took my normal medication in the morning after breakfast and 3 hours later found myself collapsed and convulsing underneath a ladder at work. i was told that i just passed out and it was due to being overheated but i knew that it wasn't the case because of me physically convulsing. i never abuse the medication in any way, yet there i was on the concrete with no idea what just happened to me after falling off a ladder. i have been using medication for the past year and a half and have been just taking hydrocodone in moderation according to pain, but recently was perscribed oxycodone. maybe that was the culperate, since i have multiple stomache issues and the possibility of multiple pills releasing at once is likely according to your diagnosis. all i know is since i read this thread last week i have stopped taking everything. Thank you, all of you.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Hi Lucy,
I'm glad that my posting have been able to find the person I was hoping they would reach. I thought of detoxing for over a year, yet I couldn't find any online information other than clinics and essentially treatments for heroin detoxing. I refused to go down that road and that is why I ended up doing it by myself at home. Thankfully I have a very supportive spouse who has been very patient and helpful through out all of this. I hope you have someone as well, but it can be done alone as well. There is a manner in which you and I can obtain each-others private emails if you decide that you would like to personally communicate with me while you take on this challenge. I would be more than happy to offer you any form of support via emails if you think it may be helpful to you. If so, just post a message that you want to make our emailing private and I will submit a request to the moderator to provide you with my email address. Once you have it you can email me and we can talk in private. Again, Good Luck. You Can Do This!

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

Thanks Ginny, I appreciate any info coming from someone that has already been throught this. I look forward to getting my life back. I have always been a 'go getter' and I want to be that person again. Mentally, I still have those tendancies, am always there for other people and have the mental motivation to follow my dreams but physically, I feel like I'm being held back. \Everything seems to revolve around the oxy. I am familiar with every friend's and family's spare rooms, as I almost always end up having to go and lay down half way through a get together. It's things like that which I find so depressing. Everyone knows me as a sick person. Although I will still have health issues such as kidney failure and neuropothy, diabetes, etc. I know that I should be able to live a relatively normal life, once I get off of the oxy that is. I plan on doing this very soon, so I will let you know how things are going and I will likely go through some pretty bad anxiety, but I have been through many difficult situations in the past and I always get through them with a positive attitude and renewed strength. Thanks for your support and info.

REPLY

Was this helpful? 0

I have been taking oxycodone 30 milligram for about 10 years. I have neuropathy in one leg due to nerve damage,(3 back s...

11 REPLIES

Hello I’ve been taking oxycodone 30 for about 10 years and I went to walmart pharmacy for almost 8 years they star...

1 REPLY

Hello this is the first time I have ever posted in a forum but I do not know where else to turn. So I have been taking O...

5 REPLIES

i have been having trouble getting a good dr who will write oxycodone 30 mg. my back has been broken before and i was go...

1631 REPLIES

I need a doctor that will prescribe oxycodone 30mg in New Jersey. My doctor recently took me off of 30mg oxycodone becau...

249 REPLIES

How effective are the A51 blue oxycodone pills? Does it work like the mbox 30's V's Or A215??? ## Hello, Chris! ...

145 REPLIES

Hello, First, let me start by saying that I am somewhat opiate naive. I am not in pain management and hopefully won'...

142 REPLIES

I have just switched from oxycodone to fentanyl patches. I will be withdrawing from them following sugery. any suggestio...

74 REPLIES

I've got an mri reporty, and the mri itself on a cd, and live in southern louisiana. a lot of ppl used to go to hous...

74 REPLIES

Can a pharmacist just be quite and fill the script the doctor ordered for his patient.They lie to us and then fill freds...

64 REPLIES