This side effect is treatable with prescription or non-prescription medications. This is usually not due to allergy but if the itching is accompanied by a rash, swelling or difficulty breathing, you should stop taking the medication and seek medical attention. Drinking lots of water (up to 8 glasses per day) and exercising as much as you are able to will help. You should contact your doctor before trying any laxative on your own. Stool softeners and fiber are not as effective and could make your problems worse. Laxatives that increase the activity of your bowels such as Senokot are the most effective. You can be prescribed a laxative for this. This side effect will usually go away with time. You should discuss medication with your doctor before taking it or increasing the dose you are taking. It is possible to take medication for this either by prescription or over the counter. Methadone may make you sick to your stomach or even make you throw up. It may take several months of adjusting your drugs and drug doses before you obtain satisfactory relief. The purpose is to reduce your pain to an acceptable level which allows you to perform your usual activities of living. Methadone will not take away your pain completely. The purpose of narcotic medication is to reduce the amount of pain that you are having and hopefully to increase your tolerance for activity. When you are taking methadone you should not drink grapefruit juice as this may increase your blood levels of methadone.īecause of the possibility of interactions between various drugs, you should get all your drugs from one pharmacy. You should contact your pain clinic doctor as soon as possible after this.įor your own protection, the pain clinic may request samples of blood or urine. You must only receive narcotic painkillers from your pain clinic doctor except in emergencies. You must not drive a car after drinking any alcohol. If you feel drowsy you should also not drive or operate machinery.
You should not do either for at least a week after starting your drug or changing the dose. You must be cautious driving a car or operating machinery. Ideally you should not drink any alcohol. You must show caution in drinking alcohol. If another doctor prescribes one of these drugs, you must ask your pain physician before starting this drug. This includes drugs that you can buy without a prescription, herbal medications and illegal drugs. You must tell your pain doctor about all other drugs that you are on especially all sedatives, tranquillizers, antidepressants, nerve or sleeping pills. Generally as time goes on you will feel less drowsy. If you are drowsy on the prescribed dose this may mean that you need to have this dose decreased or that the doses of other drugs you are on need to be reduced. You should take your methadone in the amount prescribed and increase your dose only after asking your pain doctor. This can also happen with your prescribed or normal dose. This can happen if you take more than is prescribed or if you take them along with sedatives, tranquillizers, sleeping pills or alcohol. In extreme cases they can stop you from breathing. In order to safely and effectively take narcotic painkillers, you need to be aware of the following. Generally speaking, if you require more than 2 breakthrough doses per day, your dose of methadone needs to be increased. Ideally, you should not take more than 2-3 doses per day, although when you are starting out, it may be necessary to take more. This is to be taken only if you have severe pain that is greater than 50% above your normal pain despite your long acting medication. This is either a smaller dose of methadone, or a different shorter acting narcotic which typically lasts 3-4 hours. You may also be prescribed a breakthrough medication. For flexibility it is okay to vary these times by 1-2 hours.
If you are to take your pills three times a day, you should take each pill 8 hours apart (7 am, 3 pm and 11 pm). If you are to take your pills twice a day you should take each pill 12 hours apart (i.e. When you have chronic pain, it is important to "get ahead" of the pain. If you wait until you are in severe pain to take the medication you will not find it to be as effective. Methadone should be taken on a scheduled basis regardless of how intense your pain is. It is preferable that you take it as a pill, although, if you have trouble swallowing pills a liquid form is also available. Some pharmacies are able to make it into pills and there are now commercially available pills. Methadone is not available in all pharmacies. It is taken between 2 and 4 times per day. Methadone takes a long time for your body to break down. You are being prescribed Methadone for treatment of your pain.
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