Two questions

[houghchrst]

I was just wondering if anyone has ever take Methadone for pain and had it make them slightly hyper and interfere with their sleep.

And has anyone had their knee drained with a needle and is it a seriously painful procedure?

Thank you.

[Mark N]

I don't take methadone but do know that opiates can make some people edgy and unable to sleep so it isn't surprising you are dealing with this. Draining a knee isn't painful but more uncomfortable. You will feel some discomfort but it shouldn't be too bad just something you need to go through to relieve th pressure of fluid build up.

[houghchrst]

Thanks Mark. Today is the day. I wouldn't let him do it last time I went but things have gotten worse and I am hoping the pain level will go down.

[Kathi49]

Christina,

Let us know how it went today. I am very curious myself as I may need to have the same thing done...someday. I hope it went well. :)

[suede]

Christina

I can't help you with the draining of the knee.

However I have been on methadone now for several years, The highest dose I have taken is 40mg a day, at first it really helped with my pain levels, better then most meds I had been on, after so many years of not getting much relief I was really happy.

Now all I can say is that I am going to do whatever I can to get my Dr. to please take me off it.
Now mind you this is me and I have spoken with many that it has worked wonders for and at much higher doses then I'm on.

The side effects are by far out weighing the relief. I noticed it myself but like I said I was just happy to get relief, and my family was happy for me but at last it has gotten to far out of hand and they are afraid to leave me alone at all and even with them here they still worry about me.

I have to say with great cause. One thing it is not managing my pain as well which means an increase and that is out of the question, a short list of my side effects are:
I nod off anytime and anywhere, I have done damage to my home and myself nodding off, fortunately so far not real serious.
I can't sleep at night, not because of nodding off, as you see it doesn't last long just long enough to be dangerous. I get a total of maybe 3 interrupted hours of sleep a night.
I can't remember anything, have forgotten to pay bills and had things disconnected, have made overdrafts in our account, these are things I have NEVER done.
I can't find words that are as familiar to me as my name.
there are times I am so short of breathe it scares me.

Now please remember this is just my side effects and there are many it is a great pain med for, I'm just not one, my DR. even put me on provigial to try to stop the nodding off and it doesn't help.

I'm only telling you this because you asked and not to scare you off.

I wish you the best of luck and may you be one that this is a great pain med for, not to mention it is also one of the least expensive pain medications around.

Linda

[houghchrst]

Thank you Linda for the info. I don't like taking the Methadone but I can take 5 mg in the morning with a robaxin and my lower back pain is gone for the most part, for most of the day. Now if I am going to do something that will require me to be on my feet for most of the day I take 10 mg and it helps. The only problem I have is that while it helps my lower back it only takes the edge off of the rest of my pain. I get breakthrough pain with my upper back, knee, feet and hands and it wears off after a couple of hours. If I could take the 5mg and not do much of anything for the rest of the day then I would be fine but if I am not going to do anything then I would just as well go without the pain meds and tough it out. My big thing is that I am a recovering drug addict (7+yrs clean and sober) and I am afraid of becoming addicted to the meds, that is why I just tough it out most days. But it is exhausting. When I do take the meds I also find myself forgetting things, putting things in the oven and forgetting they are there until I smell the burning, searching for that word on the tip of my tongue. God forbid I should try to make an important call. One night I was in excrutiating pain and decided to take a methadone becasue it was all I had, besides Vicodin which I now seem to be allergic to, and because I have sleep problems I took an Ambien, only 10mg instead of the 12.5, and kept waking up because I would stop breathing. Very scary. Anyway, everyone that I had talked to said the med would make them sleepy but it doesn't do that to me. Just the opposite. I am really hoping to start the Lyrica on the 9th.

As for my knee, I went to see the ortho yesterday and he said my knee wasn't swollen enough for him to drain. Had some minor swelling but he said I might get that on and off for the rest of my life. Gee thanks. Told him about the pain just above and toward the inside knee cap and the popping on the outside back of my knee and he said it may be because of the little bit of swelling. Don't have to go back unless things get worse. I guess that is a good thing. Hopefully the Lyrica will take care of that.

[Mark N]

Christina, what type of doctor is looking at your knee? If it isn't an orthopaedic knee doctor I would recommend seeing one because living with swelling of the knee is okay for an athlete that doesn't want to take time out of a season to fix the knee but they will get it fixed after the season is over. Something is causing the swelling and you may need to fix it if it won't heal on its on.

[houghchrst]

I am seeing an ortho spec. I had ACL reconstruction last November and am still kind of recovering. My weight I know has a lot to do with it, kind of hard to move when you hurt all over, and I have arthritis which seems to be spreading and getting worse. My first 2 bouts of PT were helpful but after that it just seemed to aggravate it. We tried water PT but after the first couple sessions we found out that my insurance didn't cover it. Didn't matter, was just more of an irritation. Since I stopped the PT my knee seems to be getting better on its own, very slowly, but I know I don't get as much exercise as I should but I am slowly working on changing that. It is not a constant swelling. A lot of it depends on my activity level throughout the day. I did very little yesterday so that is why by the time I saw him there was nothing much to drain. He told me to come back if there is any change so I will.

[Rozia]

Knee should be a piece of cake . and yes the med can make you edgy .

[shotspine]

Hi Christina....
I can't respond re the knee issue but I do take Methadone. I don't have anything remotely resembling hyper on any med I take. Almost wish I would. Very early in my journey with narcotics, I was tried on pretty much everything with very bad results from side effects. I knew nothing so I couldn't ask the right questions. After being on this forum for many years now, I have learned soooo much. One biggy for me was that my Dr. that took my opiod virginity, was way overdosing me. Long story short...methadone became a drug I said I would NEVER EVER try again. Due to finances, I caved and tried again.......at 1/4 of a 5 mg tab (1.25 mg) per day for a few weeks and added same until I reached a level that I could tolerate and felt it was helping. I stopped at 12.5 mg/day, taken 2.5 mg x 5 day. I've stayed on this dose for almost 2 yrs. I also take Dilaudid but the methadone helps my nerve pain so much better. If you can get it down to where it works but s/e aren't overwhelming, I believe it is a great pain reliever.

I now ask my Dr. to prescribe just a few of any opiod until I know if I can tolerate it.....at the lowest possible dose. I've thown out so many meds that may have worked great if I had been started at lower doses and worked my way up.

Wishing you better days ahead!