Darvocet withdrawal duration

[gsd257]

Hi my name is George and i've been sober for 3 years and I'm new here. I was on hydrocodone 10 for 2 back surgeries this year every 4 hours then darvocet 4 to 5 times a day, anyway it's been 10 months and I always took as directed and have gone down to 1 to 1 1/2 a day for the last week and will stop on sunday starting a 12 day vacation from work. Can anyone tell me how long I will be uncomfortable for? I take 50mg of seroquel a night and .5 xanax if the seroquel hasn.t worked after 1 hr and have been sleeping pretty well.

[Dee74]

Hi George
welcome to SR.

Have you asked your Dr? He or she knows your history and circumstances...

we're a peer support group - we can share our experience, but we can't give out medical advice here

D

[gsd257]

He said a week but from what I've read on here tapering down usually lessens the severity. I started tapering from what I read on here and due to the fact that the last surgery seems to have worked. Anyone who can offer their experience it would be greatly appreciated.

[krisgrace]

Sorry I know nothing about Darvocet only Codeine. I am sure somone can answer soon though...

[krissypissy]

hi welcome to SR george...darvocet is a very 'weak' opiate so i would like to say in my experience the detox was very minimal-i was over most of the bad stuff after about 5 days...good luck and keep us posted!!!! take care--

[gsd257]

Vacation starts Sunday and with the tapering I already feel like I'm getting stuffy and hot. I was in rehab a little over 3 years ago and don't remember the detox being this bad at all and I was taking almost lethal doses of darvocet and other opiates. This time I took less than the prescribed doses of all my meds and have a feeling this will be tough. I'm going to call a Sub approved doc a few blocks from my house and see if I can get an appt not for sub but more for support and anything else she can help with.

[gsd257]

Nearly 24hrs since my last darvocet and all I took today was an ultram.I might take a couple of these over the next two days and dump the darvocet all together. The frustrating part is for the first time in my life I took everything as directed,as a matter of fact I still have 20 hydro 10's and 130 darvocets that will be going to my sponsors house. Does anyone have any experience with using ultram for the last few days of taper as I don;t want to lose my whole vacation since I;m in Florida and have a boat and love to fish.

[sunshine2481]

gsd...I started using Vicodin...as directed for surgery as well. Then it went to "well I'll take one in the morning, then one in the afternoon, then one in the evening." That quickly changed to one or two...or three or four or whatever I needed to build up that high...then snorting them, chewing them, or shooting them. Then I mixed it with the occasional drink and marijuana and it was all downhill from there. Vicodin gave me energy; the marijuana and alcohol did completely the opposite. I'm on day 6 of detox and i am finally feeling somewhat better. I didn't not taper or use anything else...other than my prescribed meds (as prescribed) for bi-polar and severe anxiety disorder. I also still have vicodin, and for whatever reason don't want to get rid of them, but have no urge (right now) to take them. At this point, I cannot envision putting myself through the same sickness I dealt with for the first 4 or 5 days of detox...by taking more vicodin. I have been approached by someone who wanted to smoke weed and was able to turn them down without a second thought. Apparently I REALLY want to quit this time!

I hope this works out for you!

[gsd257]

Thanks, I can't really see a terrible withdrawal as I've been down to 1 darvocet a day for the last week and today I've only taken ultram and that was at 7:30 am and I'm still feeling fine. Good luck w/your detox. I also take seroquel at bedtime which helps a lot.

[gsd257]

7pm tonight will be 48hrs and aside from a headache and not being real hungry I feel pretty good. Actually I felt worse at some points as I was tapering, what made it even tougher was the fact that I have plenty of refills left. I did take some of the advice on here and started the vitamins etc during the last couple days of tapering. If it helps anyone else I started tapering 6 or 7 weeks ago going down about a half to one a week and the last couplke weeks used darvocet 2 to3 a day going down to 1 for a little while and the last two days I took two ultrams in the morning. Now I'm at 48 hrs and don't think it will be bad at all. I guess the difference is weeks of feeling kind of crappy or a few days of feeling like your worlds ending.

[findmyway706]

I got addicted to ultram (tramadol), even though they say it's not addictive, it is. I thought it was better than using real opiates. Ultram is a synthetic opiate and when you get it from the pharmacy it says that if you had a previous addiction to opiates not to take. I take Ultram ER now, it's once per day and extended release. If you have to take something for your pain, maybe that's an option. For me, I know I only have thirty pills per month and once per day. But for me, with the tramadol, I got 180 pills per month and really abused them along with other opiates.

[gsd257]

I don't even want the ultram anymore I just used them for the last two days at work to take the edge off. My last back procedure worked and I wanted off all the meds.

[gsd257]

72hrs and the only adverse feelings so far is some restless legs and a little lack of energy but what the hell I'm on vacation anyway. For the record i'm a recovering addict alcoholic with a very strong sponsor. When I decided I wanted off my pain meds I put in for my vacation time a few months ago,talked to my family doc about some meds to help me sleep and most important I read the first 100 pages of the substance abuse part of this forum. I've also done a 28 day program at Hanley center in West Palm about 4 yrs agobut I don't remember what they gave me to help detox but I came down relatively easy. If the stories I read didn't put the fear of God in me like they did I would n ever have been able to taper down the way I did.

[gsd257]

7pm was 4 days and my appetite is back but I've been coughing all day. I really hope I'm not getting an infection now. Funny thing is I have an appointment with my pain management doc the day before Thanksgiving that I have to keep or I will be dropped as a patient. Hopefully it will be an in and out and they won't really offer any meds at this point unless I ask and I have no plans to do that. On another note I send prayers to anyone who is still suffering on the boards and on the street.:praying

[gsd257]

5 days, I got 10 hrs sleep last night. Does anyone get sneezing/allergy episodes when quitting?

[Stagebear]

Originally Posted by gsd257

5 days, I got 10 hrs sleep last night. Does anyone get sneezing/allergy episodes when quitting?

I noticed an increase in sneezing after getting clean from opiates.

I need to ask a question here, though. You say you're clean/sober, with a strong sponsor. Yet there seems to be a lot of self-medicating going on (self tapering, ultram to "take the edge off", etc.) And if you're worried about having refills of a medication you say you no longer need, why not tell both your doctor and your pharmacy that the refills need to be canceled?

[gsd257]

The ultram was an old script that I used for the last 2 days at work ,the last 5 days have been 0 meds. As for the pain doc he's also the one who did my back procedures-17 epidurals and a ryzotomy in the last 10 months and if I don;t keep my appt I will be dropped as a patient. As for refills 0 left at the pharmacy and my sponsor has all my other meds. One problem with the ryzotomy is the possibility of the nerves trying to regenerate too quickly and it can be very painful. The reason for the self tapering is at my last pain appt in mid sept my pain doc said if the pain is better to take the Hydro 10's sparingly yeah right so at my next appt at my primary I told him I was weaning off the meds and he put that on my chart and gave me a taper schedule to stick to. And my pain doc will gat the same message. I dont want to be dropped by my pain doc just in case I need another procedure because in Florida the wait to get into a specialist is a long one. As for the meds my sponsor is holding I'd better be near death before I see them again but if I ever need another procedure done I'll already have them and won't have to pay my insurance deductible which kicks in on Jan 1st $$$$$$$

[Stagebear]

Originally Posted by gsd257

my pain doc said if the pain is better to take the Hydro 10's sparingly yeah right so at my next appt at my primary I told him I was weaning off the meds and he put that on my chart and gave me a taper schedule to stick to.

Do the doctors know your history, that you're ostensibly in recovery and that you've noticed a potential problem with medication addiction? Any doctor with a clue about those issues would likely be much more conservative.
I understand chronic pain and pain following procedures, believe me. I'm a cancer survivor and have had surgery since I got clean from opiates a year ago. I don't believe in martyrdom and have taken pain meds appropriately and sparingly. But it was a big, big deal for this addict. The meds were locked in my home and were discussed, at length, with my partner, my sponsor and my doctors...all of my doctors.
Sorry, I'm just confused by what you describe.

[Wolfchild]

[gsd257]

The reason she said to take them sparingly was that I had some left from my last script and she didn't give me a refill. My pain doc is very strict and I had to sign a drug agreement and do a drug test EVERY visit. Trust me this was the very first time in my life that I took my script exactly as directed or less and yes my doc knows my history but I guess they think that if you take meds as directed you can just stop one day and life goes on. One other thing to note is when I was given my hydro 10's I was given 1 month supply with an appt 1 to 3 days before the script would run out and if it ran out any sooner sorry about your luck. I only kept the darvocets and ultrams because thats what they started me on and it was a big help in tapering down. This has given my self esteem a real boost because with my history I fell great that the addiction didn't take over my life this time. I don't know what the future holds as the doc said due to a car wreck injury that I was never treated for at age 17 and the build up of bone or calcium in my cervical vertebrae it will keep degenerating,as it is when I turn my head from side to side its as if someone put gravel into the ball bearings on a wheel the crunching is real creepy. But all that aside I'm on day 6 no pills in the house and I don't have any cravings for any pills and if I do thats why my sponsors name is on speed dial.