My guess is that it’s an issue with tolerance. I was using patches for many years. I started on lower doses (like you’re on now), and increased all the way up to 150 mcg patches. It’s really a normal thing for this to happen with any pain killer (I’ve been on almost everything you can imagine). What helped me a lot was switching the type of painkillers I was taking, as tolerance develops. Example: From the patches to dilaudid, dilaudid to oxycontin, etc., etc. You really need a doctor that knows equivalencies of all the different pain medications for this to be effective though. I wish you the best.
1 other thing:
I had to switch pharmacies at one point for insurance reasons, I forget the patches I was originally on, but the Duragesic brand was superior to whatever patch I was using originally. They had much better adhesive.