Alternative to Oxycontin 60mg

[oxy-gen]

Greetings and Happy Mothers Day to all the O'phile moms! I have a question in regards to an alternative to Oxycontin 60 mg that I take every 8 hours for chronic back pain,(3 Lumbar discs needing replacement and possibly both hips). I will be losing my rx coverage soon and was wondering what possible other extended release meds that will work like the oc 60mg do. I also take the 30mg ir for breakthrough pain. Without insurance the oc60 script for 90 is about $1200 so what other possible meds could be prescribed to work similarly to the oc 60 that are moderately priced. Thank you all!

[Swellin]

Generic Morphine Sulphate long acting could be an option. I prefer morphine over oxy but every one is different, also something that should be mentioned is Oxy is roughly 1.5 X stronger then morphine, so if you do switch dont get screwed by that doc and if he tried to put you on the same dose as the oxy confront him.

[909kick]

Thats price seems pretty steep when i was paying oxy out of pocket it was only 200-250 have you tried shopping around. I second generic mscontin but have to say i think oxycontin worked better for metry to stay on the oxycontin you could also look into methadone i would think fent... patchs are cheap but check the price anyway because there pretty good for pain relief.


good luck

[austinslacker]

Opana ER is good for pain, but expensive. I did read somewhere that Opana had been approved by FDA for generic, but that is probably far away. 90 40mgs. cost ~$450-$500. IMO Opana is twice as strong as Oxy.
I wish you luck.

[jersey_emt]

The cheapest long-acting opioids are generic MS Contin and methadone.

MS Contin is similar to OxyContin but with morphine rather than oxycodone. The closest available dosage to 60mg OxyContin three times a day would be 100mg MS Contin three times a day. It is much cheaper than OxyContin because it is available as a generic, with several companies making it.

Generic IR oxycodone is fairly cheap without insurance, but generic IR morphine or hydromorphone is usually cheaper.

[909kick]

If you do choose to switch i would recommend staying on oxycodone IR for B/T(it seems to have more of punch and come in higher dosages + i noticed that most docs don't prescribe alot of morphine IR compared with oxycodone).

[Ludakris]

Would it be possible to just up the Oxy IR and just keep on a schedule to mimic the OC's long acting effects? I did that for a while, granted I was taking like 15 pills a day, I just had a timer set to go off like every 3-4 hours, it's a pain in the ass at times, but it worked.

As it's already been mentioned, MS Contin and Methadone are really your only inexpensive options, neither of which I care too much for. Methadone is dirt cheap and does work well for chronic pain, in the short time I tried it I just never felt "right". Not sure if that makes sense, I just felt off, like in the head. With OxyContin I can manage pain and keep a clear head, it's as close to normal as I've gotten.

When I lost my insurance, my doctor worked with me to try and figure something out, considered switching to morphine, but we couldn't agree on a dose. He insisted that morphine was stronger than oxy and was trying to show me an old physicians reference that showed equal analgesic doses for oxy vs. morphine. The reference was for intravenous administration only, in which case morphine is roughly 2x stronger than oxy, after trying to argue with him that because of morphine's poor oral bioavailability, oxy was actually about 1.5x stronger than morphine so taken orally I would need more morphine mg per mg than oxy. After 30-45min of this I just decided to stay on oxycontin.

While OC is horribly expensive out of pocket I was able to lessen the blow to the old bank account. The first thing I did was check around at every pharmacy in town and switched to the pharmacy that had the cheapest cash price (which was a good 30% less than my original pharmacy). The second thing I did was get an Oxycontin discount card, I forget who provided it but I found it online, I'll go find the name of the company (it wasn't Purdue) who distributes them if you'd like to try and get one. Again, a bit of a pain in the ass, but the card allowed for a $75.00 discount every 8 days. So I had my doctor write me four 8 day RX's for a month (32 days worth) this way I could maximize the discount and saved ~$300/month.

Something to consider if you want to stay on OxyContin.

[909kick]

I think we have limits on how much a pharmacy can charge on prescription drugs so thats why the cost is such big difference some of the prices mentioned in this thread are insane i could't imagine paying that much i would just switch to methadone or something.

[KoDeInaaaae]

MY LOVE FENTANYL,FENTANYL AND EVEN MORE FENTANYL....FUCK OCS

[909kick]

Only probs with fent... once you start using it your tolerance cranks up so high nothing else will work well maybe methadone.

[doctor diesel]

POPPY PODS.

[oxy-gen]

POPPY PODS.

Can someone tell me where to get the pods? Maybe a pm or direct me to where to get them??? I would need to know size,amount,kind etc. Thank you all for the responses, it is definately giving me some options!

[doctor diesel]

Can someone tell me where to get the pods? Maybe a pm or direct me to where to get them??? I would need to know size,amount,kind etc. Thank you all for the responses, it is definately giving me some options!

I think it would be breaking rules to do that.

Doc

[Ludakris]

Can someone tell me where to get the pods? Maybe a pm or direct me to where to get them??? I would need to know size,amount,kind etc. Thank you all for the responses, it is definately giving me some options!


I think it would be breaking rules to do that.

Doc


Yup, the Doc is right, discussing sources for pods is a violation of the rules.

If you really want to try out pods spend some time researching on the internet. It's getting more difficult to find good sources, but they are out there. It'll just take some good ol' fashioned sleuthing.

[mtren]

Probably switch to any generic like people said the generic ms contin would prob be a good bet. Generics are really cheap arnt they like a 30 day supply for 10$ but idk if strong opiates are covered in that deal but I'd still think it would be fairly cheap. Much beTter then 1200. But then again oxys are the bombest shit out there that is still only 13$ a 60. That's a good deal down here they go for 35 -45.. Rediculous

[Chemical_Boy]

Opana ER is good for pain, but expensive. I did read somewhere that Opana had been approved by FDA for generic, but that is probably far away. 90 40mgs. cost ~$450-$500. IMO Opana is twice as strong as Oxy.
I wish you luck.


MY LOVE FENTANYL,FENTANYL AND EVEN MORE FENTANYL....FUCK OCS

Since OPs problem is losing insurance, I don't think he is looking for pricey brand name meds like Opana and Actiq. Even the generic actiq is expensive. I used to take Kadian and aqtiq. Then I lost my insurance and talked to the doctor about the fact that I would not be able to afford these meds anymore.

His answer to that is that morphine is about the cheapest (I think that methadone might be cheaper than MScontin, but most doctors wont even think in terms of methadone for pain management. He then replaced the actiq suckers with generic dilaudid. I think that I was only paying about 100 bucks per month then.


POPPY PODS.

As far as alternatives go, this is a great idea IMHO. You can find tons of info by googling poppy pods. This smay help you figure out a conversion, although there will be no exact way to come up with equivilancies since poppy pod potency varies with each batch. Truly, I think that is what I would do if I needed opioids for pain management these days (luckily my migraines, which were hellish for many years have subsided significantly over the last couple of years, so it is much better and I don't need opioids for medicine. I am just a plain old addict now).

As far as where to get them, that is something the one OP will have to figure out for themselves. That is a no-no on the board.

[mountaingirl]

Would it be possible to just up the Oxy IR and just keep on a schedule to mimic the OC's long acting effects? I did that for a while, granted I was taking like 15 pills a day, I just had a timer set to go off like every 3-4 hours, it's a pain in the ass at times, but it worked.

As it's already been mentioned, MS Contin and Methadone are really your only inexpensive options, neither of which I care too much for. Methadone is dirt cheap and does work well for chronic pain, in the short time I tried it I just never felt "right". Not sure if that makes sense, I just felt off, like in the head. With OxyContin I can manage pain and keep a clear head, it's as close to normal as I've gotten.

When I lost my insurance, my doctor worked with me to try and figure something out, considered switching to morphine, but we couldn't agree on a dose. He insisted that morphine was stronger than oxy and was trying to show me an old physicians reference that showed equal analgesic doses for oxy vs. morphine. The reference was for intravenous administration only, in which case morphine is roughly 2x stronger than oxy, after trying to argue with him that because of morphine's poor oral bioavailability, oxy was actually about 1.5x stronger than morphine so taken orally I would need more morphine mg per mg than oxy. After 30-45min of this I just decided to stay on oxycontin.

While OC is horribly expensive out of pocket I was able to lessen the blow to the old bank account. The first thing I did was check around at every pharmacy in town and switched to the pharmacy that had the cheapest cash price (which was a good 30% less than my original pharmacy). The second thing I did was get an Oxycontin discount card, I forget who provided it but I found it online, I'll go find the name of the company (it wasn't Purdue) who distributes them if you'd like to try and get one. Again, a bit of a pain in the ass, but the card allowed for a $75.00 discount every 8 days. So I had my doctor write me four 8 day RX's for a month (32 days worth) this way I could maximize the discount and saved ~$300/month.

Something to consider if you want to stay on OxyContin.

(emphasis added to Ludakris' post)

Luda - Did you ever find the link for the Oxycontin discount card? Just curious. I'd like to get one for next time I rotate meds. Thanks for sharing this money-saving tip with us! I don't have insurance either at the moment, so every little bit helps, as you know! :D Thanks again!

Mountain Girl