Opioids Finally got help after 27 years...

[Led Sabbath]

After a leg injury in 1993 I was given Vicodin 500 like candy & got hooked big time. Changed Doctors in 2004 and no mas Vicodin instead was given tramadol 100. After 3 years of taking off work for in person refills I elected to online order same meds* been that way till 48hours ago I have NOT taken any tramadol for pain in 48 hours wow..... In 27 years the longest I went without a opiate for pain was 10 hours it felt really ugly tried again to stop haaaa wasnt happening. Monday I met with a Dr that put me on (Buphenoprine Nalox 2mg/.5 sublingual) I was told its a narcotic thats easier to ween off of than full dose opiate. I cant explain other than Gods will but I truly have been able to control the urge/ need for a tramadol unbelievable to me anyway. Im so happy I feel like Im closer to being 100% opiate free. Because of time constraints Ive left out alot of details on my post Ill be happy to answer any questions. Also If your situation is similar or you have used this medicine please let me know your experience good or bad. Thanks God bless.

 

[G_Chem]

After a leg injury in 1993 I was given Vicodin 500 like candy & got hooked big time. Changed Doctors in 2004 and no mas Vicodin instead was given tramadol 100. After 3 years of taking off work for in person refills I elected to online order same meds* been that way till 48hours ago I have NOT taken any tramadol for pain in 48 hours wow..... In 27 years the longest I went without a opiate for pain was 10 hours it felt really ugly tried again to stop haaaa wasnt happening. Monday I met with a Dr that put me on (Buphenoprine Nalox 2mg/.5 sublingual) I was told its a narcotic thats easier to ween off of than full dose opiate. I cant explain other than Gods will but I truly have been able to control the urge/ need for a tramadol unbelievable to me anyway. Im so happy I feel like Im closer to being 100% opiate free. Because of time constraints Ive left out alot of details on my post Ill be happy to answer any questions. Also If your situation is similar or you have used this medicine please let me know your experience good or bad. Thanks God bless.

I’m really sorry to stomp all over your parade but your not clean at the moment, in fact you just switched to an opioid that’s even stronger than the 100mg tramadol you were taking and a lot harder to get off if you use long term.

I know as someone that’s still on buprenorphine 10+yrs later...

That said, a quick taper using the buprenorphine is effective. Taper off over the next week and it will help a lot compared to CT.

-GC

 

[Deru]

Agreed 100%, the only thing I'll add is that some consideration needs to be given to allow positive behavioral changes prior to tapering off and allowing complete cessation of opioids. It creates a really terrible cycle of relapses otherwise, but absolutely, an emphasis should be put on stopping buprenorphine as soon as possible because it's quite possibly one of the worst opioids to withdrawal from (although I've heard Tramadol and methadone are in the same ballpark - Tramadol due to the double whammy with the SNRI/SSRI issue and methadone for the same reason as buprenorphine, the insanely long half-life and potency). Whoever said it's easier to wean off buprenorphine was sadly mistaken, unless used for a very short time period. I'm glad to see your doctor only has you on 2 mg of buprenorphine per day, I would never increase dose if possible, that's for sure. 2 mg was the perfect dose, where I could almost feel the equivalent of full agonist opioids and it would satisfy not only the physical but the mental cravings as well (for me anyways.)

 

[Led Sabbath]

Forgot to mention Dr told me to cut the pill in half so my dosage is 1/2 pill every 12 hours. I cant speak for the difficulty of stopping this med although Having been on Tramadol for 14 years and stoping or changing over to this med is promising at least to me. Im not gona dwell On what may go wrong and focus on getting off this train completly.

 

[Deru]

Im not gona dwell On what may go wrong and focus on getting off this train completly.

Technically, these two are not mutually exclusive and it's, in my experience, appalling that doctors do not stress this in the beginning of buprenorphine treatment so patients can make more informed decisions. I'm not suggesting you should worry or alter treatment course, I'm just trying to give you as much information as possible so you can make good, informed decisions for yourself. It's very easy to wind with a deeper opioid addiction with buprenorphine than you had with Tramadol, for sure.

 

[Led Sabbath]

Interesting

 

[Pickledlemons]

Bupe may be a more potent opioid than tramadol but it is a more functional addiction, OP is probably taking it less frequently than the tramadol which is a step in the right direction I think. 30 years is nothing to sneeze at, even with a weaker opioid.

 

[G_Chem]

Bupe may be a more potent opioid than tramadol but it is a more functional addiction, OP is probably taking it less frequently than the tramadol which is a step in the right direction I think. 30 years is nothing to sneeze at, even with a weaker opioid.

I agree, and I apologize I came off kinda of rough in my first post. Buprenorphine is more functional and may be a better option than the tramadol despite it still being potent in its own right.

Just OP please realize once your on it for awhile WD is hell to get off.

-GC

 

[Deru]

OP is probably taking it less frequently than the tramadol which is a step in the right direction I think

In this specific case, I'm not so sure. If OP was taking Tramadol even four to six times per day and now buprenorphine two times per day, but due to the long half-life of buprenorphine and potency is trading off for a worse opioid addiction to dose a few times less per day, doing this long term seems to have less benefit than risk. Unless OP was buying Tramadol off the street and all of the risk associated with that, it really brings benefit down and risk up. This really only implies to using buprenorphine long term though, which more and more doctors are moving to do now as recent studies show that buprenorphine should be used long term or even indefinitely versus the 2 to 4 weeks it was originally supposed to be used for.

 

[Led Sabbath]

Bupe may be a more potent opioid than tramadol but it is a more functional addiction, OP is probably taking it less frequently than the tramadol which is a step in the right direction I think. 30 years is nothing to sneeze at, even with a weaker opioid.

"a more potent opiod" please list your source Id like to see. It would explain why I went from 4 or 5 tramadol /day to one buprenorphine/ a day. My body may be getting use to it, But it sure feels ugly.

 

[Pickledlemons]

"a more potent opiod" please list your source Id like to see. It would explain why I went from 4 or 5 tramadol /day to one buprenorphine/ a day. My body may be getting use to it, But it sure feels ugly.

You want me provide sources to prove the bupe, an opioid that is prescribed in 2mg and 8mg tablets for patients that have high opioid tolerances.... is more potent than tramadol which is prescribed in doses of 100mg - 400mg for treatment of mild to moderate pain? Seriously? You can find that info on any opioid conversion chart.
Also worth noting that the opioid effect of tramadol is not the only effect... its also has an SNRI effect which also causes withdrawal symptoms that bupe is not going to mask.

 

[Pickledlemons]

Alright here you go.

https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Prescription-Drug-Coverage/PrescriptionDrugCovContra/Downloads/Opioid-Morphine-EQ-Conversion-Factors-March-2015.pdf

According to that bupe is 100x times more potent than tramadol.... though it is true that both bupe and tramadol are irregular opioids making the conversion... less accurate. Still... its hard to deny that bupe is more potent than tramadol by a long shot.

 

[Deru]

This one is more accurate for the actual film and tablets:

Opioid Oral Morphine Milligram Equivalent (MME) Conversion Factors1 ,2 - CMS

This lists:

• 1 mg of sublingual buprenorphine to the equivalent of 30 mg of oral morphine.
• 1 mg of parenteral buprenorphine to the equivalent of 75 mg of oral morphine.
• 1 mg of oral tramadol the equivalent of 0.1 mg of morphine

Thus,

• Sublingual buprenorphine is roughly 300x stronger than oral tramadol.
• Parenteral buprenorphine is roughly 750x stronger than oral tramadol.

Edit: I'll add, it's widely agreed that parenteral administration of 1 mg of buprenorphine (IV, IM, etc.) is the equivalent of 75 mg of morphine (MME), and using 40% sublingual bioavailability is where the 1 mg oral morphine to 30 mg sublingual buprenorphine is calculated. I'm not sure what year that was drafted that lists it as 10, but that would be calculating sublingual buprenorphine bioavailability as 13%, which is incorrect. I'm curious what year that first source was published in, as both are published by CMS. It's for Medicare, so the number may be low for insurance calculation purposes, as normally buprenorphine is exempt from any type of maximum MME/day limit - other than that, I'm not sure why they're using 13% sublingual bioavailability.

 

[Keif' Richards]

I’m really sorry to stomp all over your parade but your not clean at the moment, in fact you just switched to an opioid that’s even stronger than the 100mg tramadol you were taking and a lot harder to get off if you use long term.

I know as someone that’s still on buprenorphine 10+yrs later...

That said, a quick taper using the buprenorphine is effective. Taper off over the next week and it will help a lot compared to CT.

-GC

Hey Gchem. You know I respect you and your contributions, but there was a little something you said that I disagree with. It is opinion anyway.

In this day and age, sobriety can mean radically different things for different people. My view of sobriety is genuine progress, honest, no criminal activity; progress essentially.

I take Gabapentinoids every day and also use my medical cannabis. I also go to an AA meeting every night. I go to 12 steps because I dont want to drink, I dont want to do dope and I want to progress toward a better version of myself.

These drugs were the ones that made my life chaos. If I'm not using Alcohol, Opioids or anything else, I can look in the mirror and say I am sober, but that is jus a word. I'm genuinely trying, making progress and I feel like I'm doing right.

So I really just want credit where credit is due. Encouragement will validate the work this guy is doing and hopefully motivate him keep going.

 

[Deru]

Encouragement will validate the work this guy is doing and hopefully motivate him keep going.

I would say this requires context. For instance, if someone came in here with the assumption that they were making a positive change from switching from diacetylmorphine to fentanyl, would we encourage them to do so? Of course not, and there is not much difference between the comparison of diacetylmorphine to fentanyl and Tramadol to buprenorphine. Context would also require to take into account if doing Tramadol involved negative behavior, such as buying from an illegal and unregulated market, which we don't have. But, considering OP mentioned this was all prescribed by a doctor, it's hard to add that into consideration. There is a lot of misinformation regarding buprenorphine, especially that buprenorphine is some end all, be all help -- or cure, as some believe -- when it is by no means either. It can severely hurt some people's lives worse than they ever were, and sometimes good advice and the truth is uncomfortable to hear.

 

[Jabberwocky]

After a leg injury in 1993 I was given Vicodin 500 like candy & got hooked big time. Changed Doctors in 2004 and no mas Vicodin instead was given tramadol 100. After 3 years of taking off work for in person refills I elected to online order same meds* been that way till 48hours ago I have NOT taken any tramadol for pain in 48 hours wow..... In 27 years the longest I went without a opiate for pain was 10 hours it felt really ugly tried again to stop haaaa wasnt happening. Monday I met with a Dr that put me on (Buphenoprine Nalox 2mg/.5 sublingual) I was told its a narcotic thats easier to ween off of than full dose opiate. I cant explain other than Gods will but I truly have been able to control the urge/ need for a tramadol unbelievable to me anyway. Im so happy I feel like Im closer to being 100% opiate free. Because of time constraints Ive left out alot of details on my post Ill be happy to answer any questions. Also If your situation is similar or you have used this medicine please let me know your experience good or bad. Thanks God bless.

I’m currently wasting money and life with kratom and occasional oxy your story gives me hope thank you for sharing

 

[G_Chem]

Hey Gchem. You know I respect you and your contributions, but there was a little something you said that I disagree with. It is opinion anyway.

In this day and age, sobriety can mean radically different things for different people. My view of sobriety is genuine progress, honest, no criminal activity; progress essentially.

I take Gabapentinoids every day and also use my medical cannabis. I also go to an AA meeting every night. I go to 12 steps because I dont want to drink, I dont want to do dope and I want to progress toward a better version of myself.

These drugs were the ones that made my life chaos. If I'm not using Alcohol, Opioids or anything else, I can look in the mirror and say I am sober, but that is jus a word. I'm genuinely trying, making progress and I feel like I'm doing right.

So I really just want credit where credit is due. Encouragement will validate the work this guy is doing and hopefully motivate him keep going.

I completely agree and felt I came off a little harsh in my initial post. I may edit it to not come off as assholish as it does.

My frustration likely stems from my own experience of being told “how easy it is to get off Suboxone” only to find the complete opposite when it came time to finally get off.

Thank you, and to the OP I apologize again for my initial post. That jump isn’t easy and your taking the first steps to a better future, not an easy feat.

-GC