Treating severe chronic pain can be a huge irritation for a number of reasons, and I’m hoping to address one of those irritations here. Namely, finding a Fentanyl patch that actually sticks to your skin!
Fentanyl patches can ease your pain a great deal, but there are several down sides to using them as well. For instance, picking up prescriptions in person each month can be a hassle. Add to that the special precautions you need to take if you have pets or children in the house, remembering when you put the thing on, and the side effects from taking Fentanyl (headaches, excessive sleepiness, and occasional looniness) and it quickly becomes apparent that you aren’t dealing with a bottle of Aspirin here. Still, the biggest irritation of all is getting the stupid little (or not so little) buggers to stick and stay stuck to your skin.
When I was first prescribed the patch I had the prescription filled at Walgreens. They filled it with patches from a company called Watson. I had my doubts when I took the very first patch out of the packet. The adhesive on the Watson patches sold by my Walgreens is applied only around the edges of the patch. The bulk of the patch has no adhesive whatsoever and just lays against the skin. The patch is basically a little pouch filled with a clear gel. Note: there was a recall at one point from reports that these pouches were leaking, but I never experienced that problem.
Over time the doctor has increased my prescription and until recently I had been using a larger patch from the same company. The problem is that regardless the size of the patch I have had to use first-aid tape to keep them in place, and even then I’m lucky if it stays on after a shower or on a hot humid day. To add insult to injury, it took me several weeks to find a tape that would work with my skin! At any rate, every three days I rip the old patch (and a little of my skin) off my arm and tape a new one one. Not a good experience.
Then a couple weeks ago my doctor increased my prescription again. When two different Walgreens could not fill the prescription we decided to try the CVS across the street. CVS had the patches, but theirs were from a company called Mylan. It turns out, Mylan’s Fentanyl patches are far superior to Watson’s Fentanyl patches in my experience.
To begin with the Mylan patches are smaller. In the image below, the packet in front is the new Mylan patch while the packet in back is Watson’s patch, but that’s not all. The larger packet from Watson contains a 25 mcg/h less dosage than the Mylan packet! More medicine, smaller form factor. But the best thing about the Mylan patches is that they are not gell filled pouches. The entire surface of the patch is covered in adhesive! Not only are they covered in adhesive, but the adhesive sticks to your skin and stays stuck even after a shower. They aren’t 100% perfect 100% of the time. A corner may come up or the edges may come up a little after a shower, but this does not mean the rest of the patch will come off as it did with the Watson patches. As a matter of fact, they usually just end up re-sticking themselves to your skin! Best of all, no tape whatsoever and they come off painlessly.
There has been a “down” side to these new patches, but even it is actually a positive. The Mylan patches deliver the medicine much more efficiently, and because of that the side effects have been incredibly severe. To combat that I have decided to wear the patches for the full 72 hours as opposed to the 48 hours that I was prescribed when using the Watson patches.
The bottom line is that if you have been struggling with this issue this may be the solution for you. Find a pharmacy that sells the Mylan patches and give them a try. Hopefully the Mylan patches will make the experience of wearing Fentanyl patches much more bearable.
Watson 75 mcg/h Fentanyl Patch filled with gel.
Watson vs. Mylan Patch Size Comparison (Note that the Watson
package had already been torn open, but it is actually the
exact height of the Mylan package when unoppened.
Note: Obviously I am not a pharmacist or Doctor, and these are just my experiences with the above medications. Be sure to follow your doctors advice and not mine. In any case, I am not responsible for your stupidity :)
I couldn’t agree more. I just had the virtual identical experience from switching from the Walgreens to CVS and I am noticing that the Mylan brand really does work myth better. Also, they started to work almost immediately instead of the 6-8 hoers it takes to kick in. Again, I agree 100%!