I am on my 3rd month of being on Belbuca. This is my first week of 300mcg twice a day, and I started on 150mcg twice a day. Prior to Belbuca I was on Buprenorphine sublingual tablets, before that Suboxone (reacted badly to naloxone), and before that the transdermal patch Butrans, which gave me horrible rashes where the medicinal patch sat, and the adhesive would come off a day into my week. My best pain relief was 5+ years ago on Buprenorphine Sublingual with Tramadol 50mg between doses. My pain is from a combination of Anklosing Spondylitis (autoimmune bony growth spurs), Osteoarthritis/Degenerative Disk Disease, Fibromyalgia and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (benign hypermobile type). One day my insurance told me I couldn't have both Tramadol and Buprenorphine, so I chose the Buprenorphine. My new insurance won't cover Buprenorphine sublingual, even with a prior authorization, and they cut me off on day 1, cold turkey, so I went through hellish withdrawals WHILE also having dental abscesses and a large kidney stone and swollen kidney and ureter!!! The ER and dentist gave me the lowest mg of hydrocodone and oxycodone, which is like taking nothing at all for me. My pain doc put me back on Tramadol, but even after success with it for many years, I ended up having to discontinue it because of serotonin syndrome! Funny how our body's betray us and change in such a short time. October is when I started the Belbuca. I do think it works BUT I am having a heck of a time getting them to stick to my cheek properly! Yes, I do yellow towards the cheek and white with the writing towards my finger, but it doesn't seem to matter. When it does stick, it rolls or bunches up into a blob, OR it'll stretch out and morph across my inner cheek all broken and weird. I'd say 30% of the time I have to unstick it from my finger and attempt to restick, which it doesn't work. Tonight I gave up and shoved that little ball of goo between my lower lip and gums and came looking for answers or alternative placement. It's a shame, because the 300mcg film is half the size of the 150mcg, which makes zero sense! It has a pleasant minty taste, unlike the nasty bitter orange of Suboxone and Buprenorphine SL. But I can't gauge how much I've actually absorbed based on trying to reapply it, having it roll and ball up, stretching out and breaking, etc?
*Note: I also have Sjogren's, and extremely dry mouth. I've lost 8 teeth in the last year due to that and/or previous Buprenorphine SL use. I saw a class action lawsuit about it, and never would have guessed my pain med caused that! In addition to the dry mouth (and eyes and skin) of Sjogren's, I also have a deviated septum, sinus polyps and am a literal mouth breather, which dries everything out worse, and I take allergy meds daily, which also are drying. The boxes of Belbuca state that it should take up to a half hour to dissolve/absorb completely, but I've had it taken 45 - 75 minutes before! It's very hard, if not impossible, for me to go so long with my mouth closed, and not drink anything!!! My rheumatologist prescribed a pill to increase moisture in my eyes and mouth, but it also makes me sweat worse than I normally do. Can't seem to win either way!
I also take Advair inhaler, Humira, Methotrexate, folic acid, esomeprazole, and Gabapentin for various issues. I'm 47 years old, female, postmenopausal. My current med list is only a quarter of what I was on last year and years prior, as I felt worse side effects from a lot of them than I did the actual conditions themselves, and wanted to take a break and reduce the amount of meds I was on. I'm sure all of my issues and issues I've had with various meds over the last 30 years make it difficult for doctors, but I would love to find a holistic doc that would look at all of it together and see what they say. My insurance won't cover it - I'm disabled and on Medicaid (which I'm grateful for because I don't have co-pays) - so I'm kind of at a loss and so tired of suffering! IRead More Read Less