I'll have an easier time than last time because of my short duration on opiates and smaller doses. This is just my experience. You should NEVER change your meds or taper off your pain meds without discussing it with your doctor FIRST.
For me, it seems more difficult to taper when you get to the smallest dose of the 'hard stuff' that you are taking without a smooth next step. For Oxy in the US, IMHO, that step is down from 10mg 3x/day. Fortunately for me, I was prescribed the 5mg pills that are available in Europe, so that minimum dose is 5mg 3x. Actually, this time, it was 2x dosing that I could go down to. Instead of something like 7am, 3pm, 11pm; if I could go 8am then take the second dose at 6 or 7pm, I'd be (mostly) adequately covered until the next morning. Stepping down to 20mg/day from 30 came with withdrawals, but they were relatively minor. They are strong enough to make me want to accellerate the taper so I don't feel like crap for weeks to come... but not strong enough to make me worry about accellerating the taper. 20 to 15 was done Thursday. 15 to 10 was done Friday. Saturday morning I took the last 5mg Oxy and moved to hydrocodone instead. My PM gave me Norco instead of Vicodin because of less Tyelenol, but I'll be doing this for such a short time, I don't care about the Tyelenol. I tried quartering the Norco, but it's too much of a pain. I'll use 1/2 Vicodin's today and hopefully today or tomorrow, I'll be done.
The withdrawals are not too bad, but it's hard to tell what is real pain versus withdrawal pain. What seem to be my real post-op symptoms are up. I don't know if it's realistic to be off the meds now. I'll try for a few days and see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.
All the best,
Mark
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