Originally Posted by
StratMan 
The Last Suffer
A Personal Chronicle of Oxycodone Dependence and Withdrawal
Well, unfortunately, by mid-2012 I had developed another extremely painful condition, for which the only solution is a very invasive surgery that I simply was not then, and doubt I ever will be, willing to undergo. Consequently, I permitted myself to once again enter into chronic opioid therapy. Except this time things ended up going far beyond where they had gone before. By early 2013 I was being prescribed a maximum of 18 30mg oxycodone immediate release pills every day! Yes, you read that right: my doctor was prescribing me over 500mg/day of immediate release oxycodone, those little blue pills that are the cruelest, most merciless slave master ever conceived.
Anyway, sometime around June of 2013, I came to realize that this simply could not go on. Even at 500mg/day, the oxycodone was no longer able to relieve my chronic pain.
Strat Man,
Sorry to hear your W/D is exceptionally brutal even by most Oxy users standards. The very high level and duration of same has a lot to do with it, for sure. As to that level no longer being able to relieve your chronic pain, while a very significant component of that is the tolerance issue, I suspect an equal (or more) part is probably due to a still, not well understood phenomenon that is somewhat related to tolerance, but not the same thing. Opiate induced hyperalgesia. See link:
Opioid-induced hyperalgesia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Basically, it seems that in addition to the tolerance issue escalating the need for higher doses, hyperalgesia is a mechanism brought on by the increased doses in which your body dramaticly increases sensitivity to pain.
I have definitely felt such a response to some degree myself. Coming off Oxy at a substantial level (for me, up to 240 mg./day) is the toughest thing I've ever done. I didn't have RLS, but everything else, including the insomnia and very brutal nausea in which I couldn't even keep plain water down.
After the worst of the physical symptoms dissapated, I also felt at least a temporary and fairly significant reduction in pain levels...it's basically as if, since your body doesn't have an artificial means of doing so, it starts to relearn how to assist in at least a small amount of pain reduction. At least that's how I interpret it. Hang in there...it's tough, I know. I too have chronic pain which makes everyday tasks pretty difficult.