I'm taking oxycontin with oxynorm as a breakthrough, to manage pain from bone mets... and have a fairly constant battle trying to get my bowels working properly because of the medication.
They fluctuate between constipaton and diahhrea, and its very difficult to find the balance of medications etc to take to control it. I've been in hospital 2x now with constipation.. very unpleasant.
But I'm going to try a new medication now... Targin
http://chealth.canoe.ca/drug_info_details.asp?brand_name_id=5531&rot=4
It is a combination of oxycontin (slow release), and bowel medication to help stop the constipation. It has only been on the market in Australia for a few months.
Havent started it yet, but I'm excited about the possibility of managing my bowels better. I'll let you know how it goes. thought there would be others in a similar situation who would be interested to hear about it.
Reply # - July 14, 2012, 09:19 AM
Reply To: Pain killers and constipation
Hi WarriorPrincess, I haven't heard about this drug. It certainly makes since to put the 2 together. I'm sorry you've had a bad time with your bowels and hope this is a treatment that balances things out a bit.
Janine
Reply # - July 14, 2012, 02:28 PM
Reply To: Pain killers and constipation
I've never heard of this medication, but I agree that the rationale is obvious. However, I effectively do the same thing by nearly ALWAYS providing an accompanying prescription for colace (docusate) and often senokot (senna) when I give someone a prescription for any opioid that we can anticipate them needing regularly.
I also just wanted to mention one more medication, called Relistor (methylnaltrexone), a subcutaneous injection that blocks the opioid receptors on the gut and can sometimes work when nothing else does. I wrote about it several years ago:
http://cancergrace.org/cancer-treatments/2008/08/08/methylnatrexone-nej…
-Dr. West