weaning off pain med..questions

fuzzy · #1 (**permalink**) 04-17-2015, 02:05 AM

If you can do it in 1mg 2 week steps you will have little problems other then pain increases.

I recently did jump of the Butrans patch and the withdrawal is wicked. Rather deal with an on off oxycodone regiment. That seems to not be for everyone but the Buprenorphine (Subotex, Suboxone) in pain management quantity doesn't work. Right now I am living the life of Ibuprofen, Paracetamol with medical pot and it is the devil with the pot being the most effective. Problem with it is that when I medicate my mind doesn't work. I does still work on Oxy. But the dependance and tolerance problem and withdrawal issues make it a much worse choice other then isolated prn doses below the dependance level making it only one of many methods to control pain rather then being a primary treatment.

fuzzy · #2 (**permalink**) 04-17-2015, 02:09 AM

They do consider both my surgeries a failure but I disagree and it only shows how many doctors come to premature conclusions (including German ones!) rather then carefully study the whole case.

My surgeries are not failures as my low back moves better then it has since I was a teenager and the neck surgery took away the serious issue of loosing control of my lower half due to spinal chord compression. But the pain from the cervical myeleopathy spinal chord injury has been going UP and quickly surpassed moderate medication attempts and I do agree with the experts that opiates in my case are a total failure to actually *control* pain without serious harm to the patient.

Maria · #3 (**permalink**) 04-30-2015, 04:25 PM

5mg/day. Thinking about waiting till I see my PM to lower it more.. that's about a month away. While filling the script yesterday was told by pharmacist that now address must be local to the pharmacy in order for them to fill it. In little local paper in my 55 plus community there is information about changes in pain medicine prescribing re DEA new regulations.. appears to be getting much tougher. So seems like the mandate coming from WC is trying to get in line with DEA stuff possibly of course trying to force someone who is responsibly using and benefiting by pain meds to wean in a record time frame without any assistance at all is ridiculous in my estimation .. though for my own personal wellbeing I will at least be giving it a go even if not able to fully achieve the WC or DEA's goal for getting responsible prescription drug using people off their meds.

My GI tract is still trying to figure out WTF is going on half the time it seems..

fuzzy · #4 (**permalink**) 05-02-2015, 06:16 PM

Maria, trust me, you can do it. Don't wait 4 weeks. Break em in half and try 2.5 mg's. You should be able to make the jump from 5mg to nothing.

Regarding pain these meds actually *cause* pain on withdrawal. So initially the pain will be up but throw Ibu and Ace paracetamol on in and it should reduce somewhat, depending on your actual pain levels. 5mg of Methadone is really low and stopping that may make you feel not that well but it is worth a try in my book. If the withdrawal is bad then go back to 5mg and it should stop pretty quickly.

Maria · #5 (**permalink**) 05-04-2015, 03:18 AM

Ok that helped. Cut my little round 5mg'er in half. Then tried to cut halves in half. Sorta messy. Had half and quarter approx. Wish I still received the longer easy to cut 5mg'ers. Anyway have to invest in another pill cutter as don't want to use Lola's. The day was a wash.. will see how thing go tonight and tomorrow. Had chills and GI weirdness today. Back with fine tremors like standing on earthquake. Don't want to go to 2.5mg yet because I live alone and have to do everything for myself and my 2 pets so can't be stuck in the bathroom half the day or longer or disposed from lack of sleep, pain, etc. if I can avoid it by going a bit slower. Hence the trying to halve 2.5mg dose. This way hopefully too I won't end up bumping back up to a fuller dose. Will keep plugging away and see how it goes!!! thanks again for encouragement fuzzy!

fuzzy · #6 (**permalink**) 05-04-2015, 05:35 PM

If you do it this way with quartering the 5mgs you will have guaranteed success. The problems with the tremors is probably the worst problem with reducing these medications as it can prevent sleep and that is not good. But in little steps like this it will most likely be no problem.

Best to you, you can do it!

Maria · #7 (**permalink**) 05-06-2015, 01:14 PM

The GI stuff is really difficult plus been using 4 Senakot S/night for laxatives and not sure how to decrease those with decreasing pain medication dose or if I can decrease/stop them until stop taking pain meds. Have tried some variations on use and ended up with some serious GI discomfort (actual pain). Don't want to go back to or switch to other laxatives like Miralax as had a lot of trouble with other ones.

Anyway figuring all this out gives me something to do

Yeah the lack of sleep thing.. was SO wired the other night.. drives me nutz..