Noelle14

Hi, everyone.
I'm new to this forum and wanted to share my story and ask for some advice from anyone who has been through this before. I have been taking opiates for about the past 2 years. In the last year, I was seeing a pain management doctor due to 2 ruptured disks in my lower back and a shattered tailbone. He stared me on 4 10mg Percocet and 2 15mg MS Contin a day. The MS Contin gave me some bad side effects, so he switched me to 20mg oxy extended release, 2 a da and within the last 3 months or so, upped it to 2 40mg oxy's a day as I was having pains in my hips and down my legs. The last few weeks, I've wanted to justbe off of it and decided I was done, but didn't have the time off of work to go ct. I went to a suboxone doc on fri after waiting over 24 hours since my last oxy and perc. He put me on 16mg a day (2 8mg strips) and told me I would be on it for at least a year. I don't want to be on it any more than a month. The last 2 days, I've cut my dose it 8mg and plan to cut down 2 mg every 4 days and be done. Has anyone had success or failure with this? Any advice is appreciated. I have always taken my meds as directed but was sick of it and couldn't take time off work for ct. Thanks in advance!

JennyMack

Hi Noelle,

I don't have much experience with suboxone, but as a pain patient with similar back problems I know how hard it can be and what it feels like to want to be done with it all. Just keep in mind that your body didn't become dependent on the opiates in one day, so your recovery won't happen overnight I hope someone comes along who has more experience with subs. Personally, I only ever took them to get through a rough day and never as part if a real treatment plan. Have you told your doctor that you would rather use them for a fast taper? The methadone clinic i attend has a sub program and they do six month tapers with either methadone or subs, so maybe you could look into a program like that? I wish you luck !!

cleaninLI

Noelle, hi and welcome to SR!

I'm currently on sub. I've been on it for 7 months now. I'm using it as a maintenance med so will probably be on it a year or so. There are people on here that have only used it for WD and have done a pretty fast taper. I'm sure they will be around shortly. 16 mgs is an awful lot of sub for what you were taking. I'm glad you've decided to taper down a little. It seems like your Dr. is in it for the money. Can you find another doctor who would honor your wishes? Anyway, I'm sure someone here can answer your question.

Good luck!

Noelle14

Thanks, guys. I know my brain needs time to heal and everything, but I don't want to be trading one thing for something even worse, so that's why I want off in as little time as possible. I'm on day 3 of 8mg and I feel fine. I go back to the doctor tomorrow and I'm just going to use what I have left and what he gives me tomorrow to wean off. I also have 120 perc 7.5's left that I might use if I start going into withdrawl with this and taper down with those so the withdrawl will be less. Again, if anyone has any advice or have done this before, it would be greatly appreciated

Noelle14

I've also looked for another doc as this one doesn't take my insurance and I do believe he's in it for the money aspect. I don't feel comfortable going in there either. I am a white, 31 year old female. I'm 4'11" and weigh about 110 pounds. This place is in the middle of the ghetto and the nurses gave me a very hard time when I went in for my induction and make me feel like a total piece of ****

mkintexas

Noelle,

Here is my take. Suboxone is a different beast and is not fully understood by most people. I will preface this by saying ALWAYS listen to your doctor. Follow their advice ONCE YOU HAVE RESEARCHED.

Personally I think 16mg is WAY too high. But you will need to judge that for yourself.

From what I am reading it does not sound like you are addicted to your pain meds. It sounds like you are physically dependant. That makes a HUGE difference

Suboxone is an extraordinarily strong opiate in itself. It also has naloxone, but when taken as directed the naloxone is just this side of useless.

From what I understand of suboxone it is a decent tool for treating addiction and a good tool for helping someone come off of medically prescribed and used medication. However in my opinion FOR YOU 1 year is nuts since you are not an addict. The reason doctors say you will be on it a year or more is because that is the amount of time a lot of addicts take to get the psychological help they need to overcome their addiction. You don't appear to have that issue so in my opinion your need for sub is simply to get off of oxy.

Personally I think you are making the right choice in getting your dose down. The idea with sub is to start high (I learned this the hard way) in order to get yourself saturated with Buprinorphine. The idea is for us addicts is that we want to reach saturation so that we will not dip below the ceiling effect between our once daily dose. That will help us not crave. FOR YOU however this may not be of value. From what I am finding you should already be at saturation and 4mg a day should keep you above that line so that you don't crave. However if you don't crave and are simply trying to end a physical dependency you may want to start lowering your dose even more.

I would ask your doctor some very important questions.
1. Since you were taking your pain medicine as prescribed and you have no desire to take it any other way why does he think you need to be on it a year.
2. Isn't long term suboxone use for patients who are addicted to their pain medicine and need time for counseling and healing before they deal with the physical aspects of their addition (withdrawal)
3. What would a good rate of taper be to limit the amount of physical withdrawal you will feel. Reitterate that you are NOT ADDICTED to your pain medicine. You are simply DEPENDANT on it. VERY VERY different beasts and as such requires a completely different approach with suboxone as a tool.

NOW. Answer yourself honestly. Are you addicted? Or are you simply physically dependant on your medicine. If you are addicted you need to make sure you deal with your emotional issues before you consider getting off sub. If you are honest with yourself and conclude that you are you only physically dependent then yea. In no way should you be on Suboxone for a FREAKING YEAR.

I hope this helps a little.

Noelle14

Thanks mk!
I am only physically dependant on it and that is why I am looking to do this the way I am. I appreciate your advice. The physical dependance sucks but I am ready to just deal with the pain as it is, which is why I want to do this so quickly. Tomorrow is my last day on 8mg, then I'll jump to 6, then 4, and go from there. I'll also chronicle all my physical and psychological symptoms for anyone else in my position looking to do this, so stay tuned!

cleaninLI

Noelle, mk made an excellent point! There is NO reason for you to be on sub for a WHOLE YEAR! That's insane! Obviously, you are not an addict only physically dependent. I had a quack doctor in the beginning too! Only in it for the money. I'm so glad I switched doctors!

I just want to wish you well on your taper!

Noelle14

Thank you so much, clean! I was really discouraged at my initial appointment last week because the nurse made me feel like a scumbag. She yelled at me and asked if I had used the day before, which I did and she wasn't going to let me in because of that. Luckily, another nurse that was working there decided to let me see the doc. I'm going back tomorrow and I'm going to use the rest of what I have and what he gives me tomorrow and be done with this! I've been reading horror stories about people trying to get off of this, so I don't want to be on it any longer than needed to really detox. I'm not expecting miracles as far as no withdrawls but I'm hoping to shorten them and have them not be as bad

Noelle14

I'm really glad I found this forum! It's been very informative and given me a lot of hope. I know there are people out there that were in way worse situations than I was and have been doing an amazing job with such positive attitudes! I'm a little concerned that my depression is going to come back way worse ( I was on 60mg a day of Prozac and weaned myself off) but I know I can work through it

cleaninLI

That's good! It sounds like you have a very positive attitude. That's too bad that the nurse made you feel like a scumbag! That's how I felt when I went to my first Dr. The thing is I'm an actual addict not just physically dependent so I was carrying a lot of guilt with me anyway.

There aren't any other sub docs upstate? Have you checked the suboxone website? They have a doctor search engine. I live in NY also but on the Island. There are quite a few here but you know I'm close to the city.

Oh, one more thing, did your doctor think that you needed sub for pain? Sub is also used for pain management. It's not uncommon for doctors to prescribe it to treat long term pain.

Anyway it looks like you have a good plan. Take care!

mkintexas

Honestly if I was lucky enough to be in your shoes. And by lucky I mean simply physically dependent and not the addict that I am. I would simply go to four MG and not worry about six. I am currently addicted to the amount of oxy you are coming off of. Maybe even a little bit more. I screwed up my induction but was not feeling any cravings at about 2 to 3 MG until about eight hours after dosing. You are most certainly saturated by now. When I say saturated I mean every single opiate receptor and your body has buprinorphine bound to it most likely with some to spare. So it is of my opinion that if you went from 8 to 4 you physically and psychologically would notice absolutely no difference. If you Google tapering Suboxone. You will find that nine times out of 10 most people who were on very heavy drugs say that getting down to four MG was a piece of cake. I am of the opinion it is because they were saturated and since they were dosing every 24 hours but the half-life of Suboxone is in the 36 hour range they never went below ceiling effect and that is why it was so easy for them to go to four. My final opinion is if you go from 8 to 4 that you will not feel any different but the psychological victory of dropping so rapidly would do wonders for you emotionally.

If you did drop to four MG and you began to feel some WD I think it would be fairly mild and you can handle it but if it did interfere with life and work you could always take a little bit more Suboxone until you stabilize.

Keep us up-to-date on what you do and how you do it your story can always be of help to somebody

Please excuse this message for spelling and grammatical errors I am using Siri while I drive.

Noelle14

I did call a couple other doctors but none of them returned my call. I know how you feel about the guilt part. I feel the same way. I can't believe i got myself into this situation to begin with. As for the pm, he more talked at me than to me. Anyways, we'll see how it goes. I dated a guy for a while that was extremely addicted to anything he could get his hands on. When I broke up with him he was taking about 40 10mg tabs a day and more if he could get it and I never touched it at the time and never wanted to

Noelle14

Thanks again, Mk. I just might do that. Going from 8 to 16 I didn't have a bro ken, so I just might do that

Noelle14

Tomorrow is the jump to 4. I'll let you guys know how it goes

mkintexas

Please do as I am quite curious. I will be starting suboxone next week for my second and final time.

Noelle14

Good luck and let me know what dose they start you out at, how you're doing and everything

cleaninLI

Glad you're doing good noelle!

575

I don't have any experience with these issues, but want to wish you all the best in the world. I love the shades of grey and if you need to take a step back, slow down and go forward at a slower pace, it will still be a success. Bright Blessings!

Noelle14

Thanks, guys! I appreciate everyone's support as you all know how tough this can be, and it's nice to have people to talk to who have been there. Myopathy is day 1 at 4 mg and the only difference so far is I'm noticing the back pain coming back a little more, which sucks. I had to squirm and stretch a lot at work to get comfortable. For those who haven't read my initial post, I have 2 ruptured disks in my lower back and a shattered tailbone. Anyways, I got home and took a hot bath and I'm laying on the heating pad, but I'm still doing ok!