Originally Posted by
rpenmanparker
The only advantage of waiting might be to get a substitute, less powerful pain killer from the doc to bring you down more gradually than cold turkey. But if you can make cold turkey work, nothing wrong with that. Remember if you switch to an OTC NSAID that the prescription doses of those are 2 or more times as much as the dose on the OTC label. For example, the Rx dosage of ibuprofen is 800 mg or 4 OTC tablets. That makes a big difference in effectiveness. I'm pretty sure the Rx dosage of naproxin (Alleve) is 2.5X what is on the OTC label. Check with your doc for guidance and maybe an NSAID scrip. High doses of the OTC NSAIDs can be really effective.
I have other prescription pain drugs from my doctor available in case I needed something to use while on the patch but I only used them once and that was when I overdid it a few days ago. I've got Tramadol and Rx Ibuprofin and also a muscle relaxer. To be honest, I don't anticipate using any of them as my pain has really abated the last couple days.