Wow. Reading this thread really freaked me out. I already pretty much knew this but I didn't realize just how extreme a case mine has been. But the first thing I wanted to say to the person having nausea and difficulty eating is that you might be allergic to our intolerant of naloxone. The buprenorphine itself is the opiate agonist that fills the receptors and stops the withdrawal and cravings - the naloxone is just there to act as an antagonist and both keep people from abusing it by injecting it (when it was ask still in pills) and to keep you from being able to get high. But some people are allergic to naloxone, I am one of them. I was started out on 16mg Suboxone t hen whenI still had cravings was raised to 32mg a day. And in the beginning, if I took extra ones, I could feel a little bit better than normal (normal f or me, which is depressed). So I was taking sometimes over 60mg a day. I thought the nausea and gastroparesis (paralysis of the stomach) were just side effects I had to live with. My stomach got so bad I literally could only eat baby food and mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs, and that was even just tiny amount at a time, even when I took only the prescribed amount. If I ate real food, it just sat there in my stomach and didn't digest and eventually all soured and made me incredibly nauseated. I could eat a serving of a cooked vegetable and a half piece of chicken for dinner at 7pm and the next morning at 11 or whenever I got up, I would still feel full and bloated and be sick. I'd make myself throw up and everything I'd eaten 18 hours earlier would still be there unchanged. I had all kinds of tests done and even was told I had gallbladder diseas and had surgery to remove it. I don't know when I finally made the link but I eventually realized that it was the suboxone causing the problem. I bought this up over and over and finally was allowed to switch to plain Subutex (without the naloxone) and the stomach problems got about 70 percent better right away. (I don't know if the continuing problems are from the buprenorphine or because the naloxone had already damaged my stomach beyond repair. But now no nausea: I can eat most things and it just takes a while longer to go through. If you are still having stomach problems including acid reflux or indigestion or nausea, try to get them to let you switch to subutex. They don't like to because it is pure buprenorphine and as such could be snorted or injected, but I've never considered trying either. Trust me, it's not pworth ruining your entire digestive system. I now have GERD and Barrett's Esophagus (a pre-cancerous state if the lining of the esophagus) from throwing up so much acidic stuff so often for so long.
I have been on these meds four years now! I was never told that there would be s long, difficult struggle to get off it, it that I would have to taper or told must people only stay on it a short time. I was told it was usually a couple of years or three seven and that some people needed tutu stay in it for life.
My doctor doesn't k now it but I have tapered myself down to just 8mg a day yet that last several months. (I would have switched long ago but he's the only game in my area.) I believe he would keep me coming in e every month for an office visit and drug test for another four years if I stood for it.
Etat
OTOH in a way it has been good-there have been many times I would probably have thought I HAD to take narcotics for pain (surgery, dental implants) and might have relapsed if I'd taken it. Instead I found out that ibuprofen actually really works pretty well and that being in pain us very unpleasant but it s will not kill me and I can tolerate a lot more pain than I thought I could.
The Subutex is still my opiates safety net. I still have emotional issues that haven't been dealt with and probably will never be fully resolved. As long as I am l "protected" I don't have to use will power to stay away from opiates. That's not how I want things to have to be but it's better than taking 8 Percocet a day.
I'll probably try to always keep a back supply if it, even after I'm off it. My opiate withdrawal s were so bad I came close to suicide many times. Not the physical stuff, that I can take, but the emotional pain was what was unbearable. I have some kind of genetic neurotransmitter dysfunction so I'm always starting out a few levels below a "normal" baseline. When I go down, it is waaaaay down.
Sorry this is so long, I meant to just tell people about the possibility of stomach issues with naloxone and got carried away.
Dagny