Opioids Switching from Methadone to Subutex/ help wanted Than

[PenelopeJonez]

Hello new friends. I am here to today to hopefully receive help, opinions and experiences about what I'm currently going through. I have been on Methadone for a little over a year. I was addicted to Oc's for about 4 years. My addiction came to a sudden halt, when I found out I was pregnant. For most people, living a life of addiction is not a good place to bring a child forth into, but for me it was my wake up call and a reason to get my life together. So when I went to the Dr, I confessed to them about my OC addiction. They took it surprisingly well and referred me to a methadone clinic and outpatient program. I had no idea it was so easy to lose a child from Opiate withdrawal, but I wanted to do the right thing. My friends and peers that surrounded me, treated me absolutely horrible over being on methadone and acted like I was doing it as another way to get high while I was pregnant. Needless to say, I lost many good friends. I'm still very hurt about it, but I have a beautiful baby boy that smiles back at me and makes me forget. The highest I got on my dose was 115mg. Anyways, I knew from the get go it wasn't something that I wanted to be on forever, so I began titrating down right away. Many months ago, I sought out a dr for subs and it was an intense search and fight to find one here. Most of the drs near me are full. I have to travel to see the dr I finally was referred to by my care cordinator and physician. I drive an hour there and an hour back. When I first met my Dr, she told me I needed to get to 20 mg at least before she would even consider transferring me. I was surprised because I had been told by many others most Dr's would do it at 30 mg. So I did what she requested and got down to 20 mg and when I went to see her, they had lost my current Ua's from before, and after further runaround I was turned away and told once again that I had to get lower. At this point I had driven to that clinic 6-7 times. I was dropping 6 mgs a week. I finally got down to 11 mgs and had an appt with her and I was very frustrated and at my end point about waiting so we finally came up with a plan. She prescribed me phenagrine, clonadine and subutex. I was supposed to stop taking opiates right away and that wednesday morning (3 days ago), was my last dose of methadone. However, on Thursday and Friday I took some Kratom and 1 20 mg OP. I did this because I still had many things to do and prepare for being sick. I also thought my plan would give the methadone a little more time to get off my receptors before I went cold-turkey. The last Opiate I took was at about 8:30 pm last night and it was the 20 mg OP. I had been taking Kratom all day. It's now almost 7pm and I've made it through most of the day taking the clonadine, Phenagrin and a Tazanadine. My plan was to try and make it until early tomorrow night before I take a 4 mg subutex. Does anyone out there think my plan is ok, or that I might be able to take a subutex sooner? By the way, because I know the why am I switching question is coming. I'm doing it because I hate the way Methadone makes me feel. I don't have the energy to do Yoga like I used to, do as much with my kids, and I have been battling severe depression. Not to mention, I have gained a heaping 75-80 lbs being on the methadone. I want my life and energy back. I want to exercise and be out in the sunshine having fun like normal people do. Thanks for your time

 

[PenelopeJonez]

I can't believe nobody here has any input :-(

 

[smackydowners]

wait until you're in withdrawal. you want to wait about 24 hours since you last used an opiate. you should wait until you're in quite heavy withdrawals or you risk making yourself very very ill with precipitated withdrawals.

i'd try 2mg first and see how you get on. wait an hour and if needed, do another 1-2mg. it's always better to start on the smallest dose possible. good luck!

 

[d1ahp]

Where are you at right now?

You want to be in moderate withdrawal before dosing Suboxone. There's not much knowledge with going from Kratom to Suboxone. But I have heard of people being off Methadone for 4 days and still going into precipitated withdrawal. Suboxone works much better for those who are using it for the first time. You *should* be ok to dose Sub 10-15 hours after your last Kratom dose.

I hope someone who has better experience with going from Kratom to Sub chimes in.

 

[PenelopeJonez]

Thanks for the input. So at 9:15, I took a half of a 2 mg subutex, and nothing happened. It was really weird though, because I could feel the bup knocking off the remainder and latching on to my receptors. I felt waves roll over my body as a new feeling emerged. It's now 10:38 and at 10:20 I took my other half and I'm still doing fine. So I hope my success story helps someone in the future. I waited 96 hours, since my last dose of methadone and for two and a half days after, I used Kratom (a liquid extract) and took one OP 20 (the kind that you can't or is very hard to abuse) on Thursday and Friday. So what I suggest for someone doing this in the future should do, is get at least 30mg or below on their methadone before switching. If you can find a dr that will prescribe a short acting pain med, or find on street somewhere, take it the first 2 days after your methadone dose. If that isn't possible Kratom is still legal and if you can get your hands on an extract, that also is very helpful. After 2 1/2 days of using short acting pain meds, I went cold Turkey from any opiate. I used clonadine to lower my blood pressure and for anxiety (prescribed by my dr), Phenagrin (also prescribed), muscle relaxers, and Gaba Pentin to sleep. Yesterday was my worst day detoxing, but it didn't get anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be. I hope this might help someone in the future, because doing subutex or suboxane to early after your last methadone dose can supposedly put you into major withdrawal. Thanks again