Methadone Uses

Question by 2fly1: I’m prescribed methadone for pain – Oh the effects.. MethadoneForum.com contacted me last night?
I am on methadone pills for pain management and http://MethadoneForum.com sent me an email and said they were a safe online discussion group but when I went there it appears to be only me in the forum.

I yake methadone for pain control but have side effects. Because of the side effects I would like to talk to someone besides my doctor which says their normal.

Are posts and threads hidden on the forum or would I be the first patient to visit the site.

Safety for myself & privacy are important since I have a high paying job that I wouldn’t want to lose.

Best answer:

Answer by Rachel T
I took Methadone for pain too and came off of it after only 4 days because of all of the side effects. Plus, after some research, I discovered that this drug is very hard to come off when you are ready and I decided that it was not for me. Even though I was only on it for 4 days, and was immediately switched over to OxyContin for my Pain Management, I still had some pretty nasty withdrawals for about 5 days. My feet, legs, hands, arms, and stomach swelled up to 3 to 4 times their normal size. I could not get my shoes on for a week! I could not get my wedding ring on either and almost had to cut it off because of the severity of the swelling. I had severe insomnia and anxiety. I think I slept about 4 hours the entire time that I was on the medication. When I called my doctor about the insomnia and anxiety, he said these were normal side effects and that I just needed to let my body adjust to the medicine. I started it over the weekend, so when the swelling started, I called the pharmacist who said that swelling can also be a typical side effect and should diminish in a few days. Well, it did not, I scheduled an emergency appointment with my PM doctor, and once he saw the severity of my swelling, he immediately took me off the Methadone. He said that was not normal and was a severe allergic reaction.

I have found that Methadone is some pretty nasty stuff. I think that it has a purpose for patients who will never come off pain meds, but I will be able to come off of them after I have the surgery I need on my neck (hopefully). If you are unhappy with the Methadone, then you need to convey this to your doctor. Do some research online and present it to him along with an argument for trying something else. I found that when I went in with an alternative and well researched plan, my doctor responded better to me than when I just called and told him I didn’t like the medication.

As far as the web site, I went on to the link you provided and it looks like the administrator just started the forum a couple of days ago, so there may not be any members yet to post anything. Or, if there are members, they just have not posted anything to the forum boards to date. I use a forum that looks like this one and they can be run by anyone, so the possibility that there are no members yet is highly likely. Good luck with the Methadone. I know it can be useful to some people, it was just completely awful for me!

Answer by qtpie20121
The forum is definitely new and probably not a great place to go for help right now. There are some well established groups out there that can help. I have a website but other than info a website is not interactive so I would suggest http://www.readybb.com/nama_wespeakmethadone/ which was created by NAMA (National Association of Methadone Advocates) & http://www.methadonesupport.org/forum.html which has a chronic pain forum. Both would be good. As far as side effects go though I don’t know what sort you are having but there are many that are considered normal which almost everyone has especially at first. Usually, these disappear within the first 3 mo.’s.

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