Suboxone causing severe nausea and vomiting

[Twinriser]

I wasn't sure where else to go with this, so I hope some of you are able to help me out. It may be long and rambling so bear with me.

First of all, I'll include a little background about my usage. I've been using prescription hydrocodone and oxycodone/Percocet on and off for about 4-5 years. My habit has ranged from 20mg daily to 120mg daily depending on how often it's available. For the past six months my average daily usage has been around 30-50mg, which I realize is a small habit compared to some others. I've tried quitting over the years and ALWAYS end up relapsing, without fail. I have a very hard time dealing with the withdrawal symptoms, even when using a little lope to help out. I'm beyond ready to kick the habit because, a, it's expensive, and b, I'm only using now to stay out withdrawal anyway..it would take upwards to 60mg to actually get me even remotely high.

With that said, I have a couple of friends who have raved about suboxone, so I decided to give it a go to maybe use short term to help quit the pills for good. They use more so I guess I should have considered that when I decided to try it. I am aware that I needed to start off with a super small dosage, so I got a an 8mg strip and cut it into 8 pieces. Placed one of those tiny slivers of strip under my tongue, one of the smallest pieces, and waited. It had been about 2 days since I used and I was definitely in active withdrawal at this point -chills, hot/cold sweats, irritable, anxious, restless legs, and aching all over. About 30-40 minutes later I broke into a very intense sweat and the fatigue was horrible, but right after, I started to feel better finally. Attempted to eat some ice cream about 2 hours into it, and that's when my hell began. I got a sudden wave of nausea so intense that I could barely tolerate it. The waves of nausea intensified and kept coming for the next hour or so. After that, I started vomiting until my stomach was completely empty and literally sat next to the toilet half the night dry heaving and vomiting bitter, hot orangish liquid (stomach acid maybe?). During this time, I also started to feel extremely drowsy and was nodding, waking up every so often to dry heave again. I don't think I've ever felt so miserable and almost went to the ER because of it. I finally went to bed at around 5am and woke up at 7 to take my son to school, feeling substantially better, but still nauseous. Picked up a ginger ale and now it's starting to ease off, but I'm afraid to attempt to eat anything. My legs are also achy too so I'm afraid the WD is creeping back in.

So...I feel like I'm back at square one. I took a minuscule amount of suboxone (probably not even 1 mg) that made me THAT sick, and I feel like it's not a good idea to try that again. Could it be that a tiny dose such as that is still too strong for me? Maybe just a bad reaction to the drug period? At this point it seems my only option is to bite the bullet and face the withdrawal head on, cold turkey...it's so much easier said than done though. I already had RLS before I started using and the all over snake like restlessness throughout my body is the one thing I have an impossible time dealing with. The anxiety and irritability is tough too, especially considering I'm a single mom to 2 boys. I legitimately feel like I'm preparing for war once the WD kicks in. I've taken methodone before which works like a charm, but with a 30-50mg hydrocodone/oxy habit, I'm sure methdone is beyond overkill, and a worse habit I'll have to kick later.

Has anyone else ever had this reaction with such a small dose of suboxone?

 

[Keif' Richards]

Buprenorphine is actually pretty well-known for inducing this sort of reaction, among a class of drugs that is notable for producing nausea. I'm not going to throw a bunch of meaningless anecdotes at you, but I've known a half-dozen or so folks who have had extremely severe nauseous/emetic reactions to it. Buprenorphine was first introduced back when I was in High School and we were already hooked on Opioids for the most part. My friend ended up taking 2mg Insufflated and was sick for a full 24 hours, vomiting everything up that touched his stomach. I just enjoyed it.

Years down the road, the same guy is on Buprnorphine maintenance and is relatively successful with it. The severe nauseous reaction faded into memory. At any rate, my point is, that Buprenorphine is well-kown for causing nausea. I wouldn't let one or even a handful of negative experiences turn you off from a drug that could positively impact your situation. Another thing, Buprenorphine is often written for dosages higher than what is ultimately required. This often leads people to assume that, like you, "one-eighth of a pill is insignificant" when truly, 1mg Buprenorphine is actually a potent dose of Opioid Agonist.

If you decide to try to repeat the experience (I wouldn't yet), I would start with .25mg or as close as you can get with your eyes to that size of a strip.

Do you have a prescribing doctor? You're in a perfect window for using other, non-narcotic drugs to deal with your symptoms. You're right that reaching for something like Methadone or Burpenorphine maintenance is probably a little extreme at this point. Do you have experience with Gabapentin (Neurontin)?