Greg, As for pain relief, Duragesic worked great for me! BUT... regarding side effects, I can tell you that Mark suffered the more common potential side effect, but not the only one.
For me, I fit into the small niche of folks who get diarrhea. Fentenyl is a synthetic codeine-derivitive. Most who use the "-eines" (codiene, morphine, other opiate[-like] compounds in general, etc) experience some degree of constipation. If you're using Oxycontin (another "-eine" deriviative) without constipation, you probably won't have that using Duragesic. On the package insert, though, it describes all the known side effects broken into "percent of users who experience...." Diarrhea fell in the 3-10% range of the study group... It might have been 3%, might have been 10%, but was probably somewhere between. (The low end I would suspect... <g> Pun intended!) Only way to know is be forewarned of all the possible outcomes, be prepared, and stay in touch with your doc! Best! Tod ------- Greg, I was on the Patch for awhile and it worked very well for my shoulder pain and the general pain that we have. I had to stop using it because it stopped my bowels up terribly bad. Mark -------Original Message------- From: Greg Date: Friday, October 08, 2004 6:29:38 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [QUAD-L] Duragesic Patch, FentanYL Anyone using the Duragesic Patch? I am on Oxycontin, and a guy I met is on that patch (the guy is not a quad, new amputee). My doc gave me a few to try, only 25mg, lowest dose.. It would be nice if they help, each patch lasts for 72 hours, no forgetting to take a pill. Greg