I have been on pain meds since my neck fusion in 1999. I have migraine pain that doesn't go away & the pain meds are the only thing that works (even though pain specialists swear that narcotics don't work on migraines). I can't use migraine meds because they don't work in the first place & mess with my heart in the second place.

Right after the surgery, the dose of the fentynal patch didn't work. The pain specialist I went to after the surgery gave me the patch & then other pain meds to suppliment (none worked) until he supplimented it with the Actiq (fentynal lollipop). It worked until they changed the formulation but I had to use it every 4 hours to keep the pain away (at least I had 3 good hours between that I could function). When they changed the formulation, it quit working all together. But I thought, if the fentynal was working why not just increase the patch level. That pain specialist wouldn't prescribe more patch even though it was no different than prescribing the Actiq. I found a pain specialist who had his own practice but was also tied to UCLA. He had no problem prescribing the extra patch. I had already been on it 4 years so he knew that there was no addiction problem. I was on the higher dose that worked perfect & no breakthrough pain.

Well, that was in California & in 2007 I moved to Kentucky. I managed to find ONE pain specialist who was willing to continue the prescription at that same level until he closed his practice a few years ago to to practice through a hospital doing injections as he knew that the prescribing difficulties that were coming through the government crack down on prescribing narcotics. He had already come under investigation once before I started going to him & he wasn't found guilty but it could have cost him his practice.

So then I had to find another pain specialist & NONE were willing to prescribe the dose I was on. I went to EVERY pain specialist group around where I lived. I was even at the point of thinking I might have to go back to California (that would have been a horrible choice).

I had a pharmacist friend who knew this wonderful pain specialist who wasn't practicing any longer but was taking on patients as a consultant at the practice he had established years ago. He willingly took me on as his patient but as with the rest, was only willing to prescribe 1/2 of what I had been on but he was the only one that offered a treatment option to help me stay out of pain on that lesser dose. It's a strange treatment that involved lidocain gel on long q-tips placed in the back of my nose very close to the brain's pain center. He said this had been a migraine treatment that was done long before migraine meds were developed. To my surprise, it works & I'm still doing it once a month to keep the migraine pain stabilized. I am not pain free as I was on the higher dose, but I am more pain free with the treatment than I was with JUST the lower dose.

This pain specialist group is one of the best in the area where I live & people come from all over to see the MD's that practice there.

I know that the DEA is making it a lot more difficult on prescribing narcotics than ever before.

The problem with weed is that it can cause psychotic issues. I wouldn't even want to chance a reaction like that. I have bad side effects with too many meds. I can't take morphine or dilaudid (a morphine derivative) They make me itch from head to toe so that eliminates much of the pain meds available. Demoral was the only shot that worked to relieve my migraine pain before the surgery & before the fentynal. I'm just thankful that I don't have an addiction problem & that the same dose worked for me without any need for increase for 10 years.

The cost of this med is impossible to pay for even with medicare prescription coverage. On this lower dose, it runs $1500/month. It was well over $2500 on the higher dose. If it wasn't for patient assistance.

The other problem is that the generic patches don't work at all.....there is only one brand that actually uses the same processing plant as the name brand & that one works but patient assistance only covers the name brand....that defines what I get.