Note: I changed the title as it was misleading
Hi Im 55 and have had chronic intractable headaches since 1987. They wrecked my life, even before I was ever prescribed opiates.
After 13 years of neurologists making things worse, I went to pain management. I was finally able to work, have a life, travel etc. Of course I was on an ever increasing dose of short acting opiates. Changed doctors and he put me on methadone, at times the patch, I was on a lot of stuff.
In 2009 he died and I found a local doctor and he had me on methadone and meds for breakthru. I was on huge amounts of methadone and prescribed enormous numbers of breakthru meds. I gradually decreased the methadone and in 2015 wo telling anyone I quit. I quit at too high a dose, it was awful. Had to use suboxone to get off. I was off opiates for a year but was incapacitated with headaches a lot of the time.
Went back to pain mgmt and have been on short acting meds since, and also using a lot of sumatriptan. Botox for migraines too.
Last few years my tolerance has gone thru the roof, and I have been using 120 x 10mg of oxycodone a month and often run out early. Last appt I asked him to change me to something else for a while and he prescribed a lesser amount of dilaudid for next month with a refill date a week from Wednesday, which is fine.
I ran out of my oxycodone on Friday. Like i said tolerance is thru the roof and I absolutely don’t want to ask my doctor for more because it will only get worse. My fill date isn’t until a week from Wednesday. I’ve gotten withdrawal down to a science. I take one 100mg capsule of Lyrica a day for 3 or 4 days. NyQuil as needed for runny nose. I have clonidine I take twice a day. And Valium if needed. I don’t feel so bad, even the first few days, just tired and irritable and COLD. It’s a terrible time of year to go thru this. I don’t feel like doing much though and what really suffers are my appetite and desire to drink liquids. I’m dehydrated and it’s not from stomach problems it’s just that I have no desire to drink. Everything I eat or drink leaves a terrible aftertaste in my mouth. Tomorrow Im going to have to buy a bunch of pedialyte.
I’ve done this many times before so I know I’m not going to die but how do you people who need to take these things get thru times when you’re running short or out or decide to take tolerance breaks? The only opiates/opioids in the house are methadone (still have lots left over) and suboxone (same). I’m leery to take either but this is going to drag out for another week and a half. I know how hard it was to get off of them. If I were to take 5 or 10mg methadone once or twice a day until my refill date and then switch to the prescribed dilaudid would it be seamless or would there be major issues bc of the methadone? I seem to recall that while in methadone wd I could take my opana breakthru med and see relief. I’ll get thru it either way. I can gut it out but I don’t want to touch either one of those drugs if the cessation of them are going to present an issue when I resume my rx. And if I gut it out I don’t know how to deal with the cold. It’s horrendous.
Thanks.
Hi Im 55 and have had chronic intractable headaches since 1987. They wrecked my life, even before I was ever prescribed opiates.
After 13 years of neurologists making things worse, I went to pain management. I was finally able to work, have a life, travel etc. Of course I was on an ever increasing dose of short acting opiates. Changed doctors and he put me on methadone, at times the patch, I was on a lot of stuff.
In 2009 he died and I found a local doctor and he had me on methadone and meds for breakthru. I was on huge amounts of methadone and prescribed enormous numbers of breakthru meds. I gradually decreased the methadone and in 2015 wo telling anyone I quit. I quit at too high a dose, it was awful. Had to use suboxone to get off. I was off opiates for a year but was incapacitated with headaches a lot of the time.
Went back to pain mgmt and have been on short acting meds since, and also using a lot of sumatriptan. Botox for migraines too.
Last few years my tolerance has gone thru the roof, and I have been using 120 x 10mg of oxycodone a month and often run out early. Last appt I asked him to change me to something else for a while and he prescribed a lesser amount of dilaudid for next month with a refill date a week from Wednesday, which is fine.
I ran out of my oxycodone on Friday. Like i said tolerance is thru the roof and I absolutely don’t want to ask my doctor for more because it will only get worse. My fill date isn’t until a week from Wednesday. I’ve gotten withdrawal down to a science. I take one 100mg capsule of Lyrica a day for 3 or 4 days. NyQuil as needed for runny nose. I have clonidine I take twice a day. And Valium if needed. I don’t feel so bad, even the first few days, just tired and irritable and COLD. It’s a terrible time of year to go thru this. I don’t feel like doing much though and what really suffers are my appetite and desire to drink liquids. I’m dehydrated and it’s not from stomach problems it’s just that I have no desire to drink. Everything I eat or drink leaves a terrible aftertaste in my mouth. Tomorrow Im going to have to buy a bunch of pedialyte.
I’ve done this many times before so I know I’m not going to die but how do you people who need to take these things get thru times when you’re running short or out or decide to take tolerance breaks? The only opiates/opioids in the house are methadone (still have lots left over) and suboxone (same). I’m leery to take either but this is going to drag out for another week and a half. I know how hard it was to get off of them. If I were to take 5 or 10mg methadone once or twice a day until my refill date and then switch to the prescribed dilaudid would it be seamless or would there be major issues bc of the methadone? I seem to recall that while in methadone wd I could take my opana breakthru med and see relief. I’ll get thru it either way. I can gut it out but I don’t want to touch either one of those drugs if the cessation of them are going to present an issue when I resume my rx. And if I gut it out I don’t know how to deal with the cold. It’s horrendous.
Thanks.
Last edited: