Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

the makers lied and they knew.This criminal,people died ard were ruined,but no JAIL TIME.SHAME

Guilty of a misdemeanor, how pitiful.

Hi Tiger,

Are you and cat the same person? You both type exactly alike. Punctuation.

Whats up with Oxycotin?
Please explain?

I had this recently..is it bad?

Oxycontin is highly addictive and the manufacturer has been misleading regarding this issue apparently.

However, you will not see me jumping on the bandwagon against it.  My husband was in extreme pain following severe injuries in an automobile accident.  Oxycontin was the only thing that gave him some relief.  He was weaned off it and did not have an addiction problem.  

When I went to fill his prescription once I was treated like a criminal because the pharmacist claimed "a real doctor" would not have completed the prescription form in the manner the one I presented was done (wrong color ink!).  He later apologized to me.

It sure does help with pain..but..
I was prescribed oxycontin after arm/hand surgery and oxycotin after my latest surgery.
From what I understand oxycotin works faster but doesn't last as long whereas oxycontin lasts longer and has something else added to it.

I didn't like them and took them for one day (both) and went on advil, lol!
It helped me more!

Thanks Artcolley.  To tell you the truth I can't remember for sure which one he took - but I know they did work well but not last until the next dosage.

Glad you are doing better now - are you able to paint?

I think either one of these is habit forming. ONe reason I didn't want to take them...the other being that I was loopy on them. I have a low tolerance to any type of drug including advil! Advil works on me like a narcotic would on some. The oxycotin worked FAST, but, also didn't last til the next dosage on me. Seems to me it is the oxcontin that is "time released". I could be mixed up on that, though.

I haven't REALLY painted seriously yet, Bobo..I am getting there slowly. People are emailing wanting paintings so I 'd better get busy fast!  :lol:
Thanks for asking!

What I find incredible is that physicians actually swallowed the line that was fed to them that it was "less addictive". It's a freakin' narcotic!

LV,we went to the same high school and we are related,same of genes.not the same,just the same ld

Oxycontin was the major pain drug they prescribed for Rick, I guess since he never improved that I can't say if it was addicting. In light of the fact that Rick had over 30 tumors in his body, it did handle some of the pain but not all of it. Art it does put you in la-la land though, and Rick had a high tolerance for drugs but it still put him into a haze.

Justins I will tell you this much about hospice. The night that Rick passed the nurse would not even allow me to be with him in those moments just after. She made me march to gather all of the drugs and for her to inventory them and to flush them down the potty. So at least in our state they do regulate those heavily. My argument is her timing was horrible, I couldn't even sit with my children to embrace them, I had to spend a half hour signing documents for drugs  :( plus they make YOU flush them while they stand there like a guard.

Just horrible, I know these drugs need to be monitored but there has to be a better way.

Nonesy~ I'm so sorry that the hospice nurse would not let you be with Rick at that time. Seems the gathering of all the scheduled (controlled) meds could have been done BEFORE Rick's passing, and the disposal once you were able to manage it.

Even though addictive, meds such as oxycontin are needed at times. As a recovering alcoholic (a drug is a drug), I still would not want to endure the passing of a kidney stone or a fractured femur without some heavy duty narcotic.

It's the MDs that seem to write such prescriptions for minor stuff that appalls me. Addicts seek drugs, and there are far too many physicians who are either not savvy enough or do not care. And with oxycontin, those wanting a high can easily overdose by circumventing the time release.

First of all, I want to tell Nonesuche that I think the hospice nurse was totally unethical and had no insight and no empathy.

I think MANY drug companies are not on the level with us. When the new arthritis drugs came out (Celebrex, Vioxx and Bextra), they said they were safe and could do miracles in relieving arthritis pain. My Internist (specializing in rheumatism) prescribed me a maximum dose of Celebrex - 400 mg. in 2001. It did work miracles.

Just like the new info coming out about Oxycontin, the manufacturers of arthritis drugs received so many damaging case studies/reports that Vioxx and Bextra were recalled and are not on the market anymore. Celebrex was spared but they said the maximum dose should be 200 mg. They say these drugs have the potential to cause heart attacks. So I had to make a decision. I cannot function without Celebrex so I choose to take that med and say to hell with the warnings. I need to function in life now.

My uncle was a Food and Drug attorney for his whole life. He was so wary of drugs in general, he had to be almost at death's door before he would even take an aspirin.

Justins and Louise, thank you, it was one of the worst moments. some had warned me that hospice isn't always of great assistance and honestly they provided little help, arriving only the last 10 minutes of his life. I post about it now just because I hope this never happens to anyone else.

My father was given Vioxx samples by his physician for pain from his knee replacement. He had beaten cancer but came down with a respiratory infection, went to the doctor who tried to admit him to the hospital but when they had no available beds he then sent him home to wait for one. My father lay down to take a nap then never awakened again, was on life support for 30 days until his heart shut down. I still to this day think the Vioxx played a part in it.

Justins you are 100% right, doctors or some doctors prescribe drugs so indiscriminately which does create these problems. If they did not so many couldn't become addicted.

Louise I am like your uncle, I think long and hard before I even take tylenol or advil. I worry so much about these superbugs that I only take an antibiotic when I am truly very ill. Drugs are a huge industry in our country and our world. It's why we don't have cures for cancer too, hats off to Australia who seems to be doing nearly all of the successful research into cures for cancer currently. That could never happen here, the lobbyists in DC for the drug companies will make sure no one harms the big revenue stream for treating cancer.

WTF?  Why didn't the nurse flush the stuff?  That's ridiculous.  

Oxycontin is the same compound as Percoset, just more addictive.

Hi Nonesuche,

I'm still upset about the hospice nurse. In my experience, hospice care began about a week before each of my three aunts and three uncles died. Also two other dear family friends had hospice care for a week. They died surrounded by loving family and friends, as well as the hospice nurse.

I don't understand why your nurse flushed the drugs. I'm sure they were legally prescribed. I don't get it.

Regarding your father and Vioxx, I also think Vioxx did him in. Perhaps having beaten cancer and having had a recent knee replacement, he was no longer at his most vigorous and vibrant good health and was susceptible to the danger Vioxx posed. I'm sure plenty of people brought lawsuits against the drug manufacturer so they had to take it off the market.

I'm so sorry.

none....you did not tell me that story...that is just awful! i have never had one on one dealings with hospice but i know people who have...i am going to ask if the meds are dealt with like that here. i assume hospice provided the meds? if a person receives a prescription for pain medications from a doctor (who is not a hospice patient) and they die....nobody comes in and takes those pills. the family of the deceased would have possession and would have the decision what to do with them. of course, if they were arrested for something else and they had them in possession they could be charged since the prescription is not in their name.
as for as oxycontin....i am glad the drug company is getting the bad publicity...that is just absurd to knowingly lie about the effects! :x
but...that does not mean that the drug does not have a place....very effective if used correctly.

Nonesuche, I am sorry you had such an insensitive hospice nurse.  Her behavior was so callous.  My only experience with a hospice nurse was very positive.  My mother's nurse was a newly graduated student and she took her job seriously but was so kind.  I'm sorry you could not have had that.

As far as the meds, they were left in my mothers home when she died.  I knew they were expensive and wanted to donate them to some organization, but finally flushed them away.  That was 12 years ago so I suppose laws and regulations may have tightened up since then.

Again, I am sorry that on top of your great loss of Rick you had to deal with such insensitivity.

LV, thank you for your compassion. I really only posted about it for Oxycontin and morphine were the two drugs the nurse seemed to be having fits about. I don't want to see others go through this though, not ever.

thecuz - I think it has taken me this long to even talk about it, I mean you are grateful for help at that point but honestly, hospice was little help to us. They promise a lot but deliver very little  :? Even with baths, they promised help twice weekly but then didn't show up? The nurse assigned to us had a sick dog so she disappeared for the seven days prior to his death? I had to beg her to come over and check his kidneys finally  :? at that point he was in horrible pain as they began to shut down. the counselor we had was very good but she was stretched so thin, but did help me as much as she could. I think we just got a nurse with personal issues. I also haven't told anyone this either but when he began to decline into indicators of impending death, they realized our nurse had never ordered the 'kit' with the morphine which supposedly she should have done. So the counselor had to find morphine in our city, couldn't so we had to dispatch little none to drive nearly 40 miles to the only pharmacy that did have morphine? It was all just so traumatic and I remember her being in tears driving home and I was in tears hearing her and watching Rick writhe in pain waiting for the morphine.

I do think our state has tighter controls over drugs, at least this is what the nurse told me. I just think they could have done that for me, let me grieve and take care of the kids in that moment.......there were some other things that happened that night that I won't go into. It's just so apparent now our nurse was the weak link that made this harder than it should have been. That being said I didn't want to keep those drugs post his death, I was fine with disposing them.



Bobo2 - thank you sweetie, I appreciate it. We did have a kind counselor and she's stayed in touch too, so that was the one blessing. I also feel sure hospice is very overworked but with funding so hard to secure, I feel sure that's part of this issue too.

I really think our pharma companies have to do a better job in clinical trials. By law they only have to report the side effects that fall consistently within the bell curve, so it could be the real issue resides with our own FDA too. I just don't know.......I know we need certain drugs and should be grateful for them for they save lives. It's a complex issue.

NONE  that should have never happened to you.  That was just mean.

Oxycontin was a blessing for my mom.  She had so many health problems.  Osteo-arthritis, kness were bone on bone, double curvature of the spine, nerve problems, congestive heart failure, sundowners, severe migraines etc.

Her doctor explained to us and to her that oxy was very addictive. She told him she was 78 years old and did he really think she was worried about that! lol

 Mom took 17 different meds that I had to keep set up and given too her.  Some of the meds were to offset complications of other meds.

But Oxycontin kept my mom going, and thank God for it.  A year or so before she died they came out with a news scare about it, and how it was going to be taken away.  My mom was so upset and crying so hard that she was going to lose her oxycontin.  I told her not to worry about it. I would see to it that she had it, and I would have done whatever was ness. to get it for her.  I actually use to worry that if the wrong people found out about the narcotics that she had that our home would be broken into.  At the time (2003) 1 pill was selling for $10.00 and it was nothing to have 300 when I got her 3 month supply of meds.

When mom died hospice came and never said one word about all of her meds.  I called her doctor and he said to flush them down the toilet.  At the time I was concerned that I wouldn't have documented proof that I had destroyed them, but figured oh well.  So me my hubby and sister Joyce sat on the side of the tub and flushed everything.  Such a terrible waste as I had just rec. her 3 month supply from Caremark.

I'll let ya all google how to dispose of meds, but flushing them down the toilet is extremely bad for the environment.

There are now numerous warnings against doing so since water treatment plants are not designed to filter out the drugs.

Snoopy, thank you and I agree at your mom's age with the health issues, pain management should have been a top priority. We all know she didn't want to be dependent upon it, but her quality of life would have suffered greatly had she not. Like you, I flushed about $9,000.00 worth of unused chemo drugs down the potty that night. I even asked the nurse why on earth they didn't recapture those and have a program to help those without medical insurance.........she said FDA regs would not allow this? unreal and what an utter waste.



GO, pretty frightening isn't it? I know our city water got a good dose of some very toxic drugs that night. Sad thing is I think I was the only one present with any conscience that night regarding any of it  :?

There are certain free clinics which will accept medications if they are still sealed.  I know from my own hospital stay a couple of months ago that they have now gone to keeping medications in seal packets and locked in a drawer in each patientts room.  Each day the pharmacy sent up the days dosage, so everything else was kept in the pharmacy.

It does seem like the more progressive we get the more behinded we become.  As I float over the streams and rivers I can see some pretty high fishy's and duckies.  As we harvest those species and put them on the dinner table we soon will not need to have pharmacies as everyone can go down to their local stream for a fix.   :lol:

GO you are so right, the hurrier we go down the drug development highway the behinder we get in progress as it relates to useage and even it would appear genuine and real notification of possible side effects. Actually some of the drugs we flushed were experimental so I'll feel really badly if fish or ducks with three heads start appearing at the lake near to us !

FYI for any interested, new report regarding prostate cancer released today......it appears excessive vitamins can worsen this cancer so please all guys make sure your doctor is aware of the level of your vitamin intake.

Gee, I just went through that surgery exactly two months ago.  Not the funest surgery I have had but certainly not the worst.  I am recovering pretty well so far.  Now its just the 3 month check up I dread.  :shock:

GO I hope it goes well for you and that new study did state that large vitamin dosage can accelerate it, so please review that with your physician too. We need you healthy !

:cry:  Too sad. and I do recall what you went through back when Rick was ill.  The nurses and all.  :(  So sorry again. SIghhhhhhhhhh

Nonesy,  that is such a horrible story. I think I would have just went OFF on her and told her to kiss my a$$.   What is she going to do?  That was so insensitive and I'm sure the drugs were the least of your concerns at the time.   Especially, since those were probably a great comfort for him in his last days.
I have never heard anything bad about hospice before, I pray that your experience was just an exception and I certainly hope somebody let's them know how they need some improvement in you area so as others may not have to experience such a horrible situation again.  I am so sorry to hear you had to endure that! {{HUGS}}

I guess I don't understand why they are making such a big deal about just Oxycontin.  ALL narcotic drugs are addictive if abused.  But they are a godsend for those who need it.  I guess I never questioned whether it was or not, because of known addictions to any narcotic..

Angie thank you, we survived it and I try hard to forgive that nurse now.

Dihannah, thank you. I had been up for two days with no rest at that point, I also think I was just in a stupor from the events and the loss. I'm not sure I had it in me to push back, rick's mother had been extremely emotional and distraught at his bedside as well for that entire day too. The funeral director she contacted also was heck to deal with, he arrived moments later and when his own staff didn't show up, he asked my kids to help him remove Rick's body? That night truly remains the worst ever in our lives for many reasons.

Someday I may write a book........oddly enough when looking for an easy A in college in an elective, I took a course based upon a great book "On Death and Dying". That was in the late 70's but it details all of the stages we traverse in dealing with death so well. To think I had that information yet the caretakers around us with hospice and the funeral home didn't practice it? Something is wrong here.....and yes, several friends did warn me in advance that hospice might not be what we hoped. I had hoped they were wrong, sadly they were not.

Nonesy~  :smt056

 :shock:

Oh nonesuche, what an ordeal. You need to write that book because that story should be told.

I told you about the wonderful experience we had with a hospice nurse.  So much of that time is a blur for me, but I just remembered that it was not an official hospice program we had my mom in.  We just hired a newly graduated nurse who was looking for a permanent position, and she served as a hospice nurse for us.  Maybe that is why the experience was better?

Thanks Justins, I try to push back those memories for it's just so painful still..

Bobo2 - I am glad you had loving care instead of our experience and since in some states hospice is state-regulated and some are privatized and in others not, I think there is some good and some bad depending upon where you live? I also suspect that the nursing shortage impacts hospice and retaining good ones may be hard, for their budget likely can't rival nursing salaries such as in medical centers?

We did have a great counselor but for Rick, the nursing care was key. Just a few days before he passed he had an episode where his extremities turned blue. It was late at night and I called the emergency number at hospice and a nurse who luckily lived closeby came over. She was compassionate and I wish we'd had her instead of the one we did have assigned to us. She also explained to me and to daughter that death was imminent, something our other nurse seemed not to believe? If not for her I might not have been prepared for what came next, he passed 3 days after that. The hardest thing and only other regret I have is that when the episode happened he looked at me and asked me "am I dying?" and I lied, even though I didn't know for sure I know I was lying in my heart when I told him "no I don't think so but I"m calling for a nurse right now".

So I feel the lack of nursing care and information from our assigned nurse put me into that position, and I often wonder now if he forgave me? I also wonder how families with members with serious chronic illnesses cope with all the emotions and challenges? Euthanasia being one thought, another being having to utilize heavy pain meds for often years? It's so much to reconcile and such a fine line. As Snoopy mentioned, oxycontin and similar drugs allow some in our country to get through the day and function or have some measure of quality of life. I've had to stand at the prescription counter and answer the spanish inquisition one goes through to get those prescriptions filled when Rick was too sick to make the trip, but with our country now stating prescription drug abuse equals illegal drug abuse I guess we all need to understand the demand for the inquisition? I just wonder how really sick people have the energy to stand there and jump through all the hoops?

I also just wish our drug developers were required by the FDA to list out the top three side effects in BOLD TYPE taped to each bottle, instead of the tiny type where they bury it five pages into the literature inside your prescription bag. Increasingly it just seems the pharma companies are six removed from separation of responsibility and our FDA has to do a better job with this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!