Bupe Suboxone/Buprenorphine Mega Thread and FAQ v17.0 + v18.0

[Blacksheepannie]

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When will suboxone allow me to sleep??? I wonder if I'm still not used to it yet. I'm on 12mg day and on day and 6 taking it now. I'm so tired. Nausea after each dose is also a huge problem. I'm still missing my methadone.

 

[chelseagirl]

^Same thing happens to me dude. The more times i go from using back to bupe, the longer it seems to take to get back to feeling decent on the bupe. I have a feeling that you cant go on and off bupe forever, i feel like one day its just not gunna work anymore.

Im also afraid of this.. I have several friends who went on methadone after bupe stopped working for them. It can be a life changing drug, but if you take advantage of its powers repeatedly and abuse it, eventually it seems to wear off.

 

[Tommyboy]

Thanks much for your help. Just to give some hope to those with larger habits - I looked up conversions before switching to bupe and was very scared it might not work for me as my habit was much larger - at one point I was doing multiple buns a day (snorted though, not shot) or upwards of 500 mg oxy. I have not had issues with bupe not holding me. I've also switched back and forth a few times and so far so good. I was started on 10 or 12 mg in rehab when my habit was around 400 mg oxy or around a bun a day, and it not only held me, but I caught a slight nod (although I hadn't slept the previous night). I had about 24 hrs off oxy. When I started bupe treatment a few months later my habit was around 2 buns a day and 16 mg held me but that was it, however that was only 16-18 hrs after sniffing h.

I have a bupe appt in a few days and possible drug test. My question does not pertain to the test. I have only been taking 2-4 mg bupe per day, but am scripted 20 so I must take 20 for the next few days. How long do you think it will take after three days of taking 20 mg to get back to the point where I get slight mood lift/energy from doses of 1-2 mg? Also, how long do you think it will take to feel dope? 2-3 half lives? Also in this time would it be very helpful to not dose again until I feel wds coming on?

Do you really think they test for the levels? Even if they do, you could take less (like 16mg) and be fine since people metabolize drugs at different rates so the levels would vary between different people at the same dose.

After taking 20mg for a few days I would wait 48 hours or so until dosing. Basically until you are feeling a little sick.

 

[HdoubleODeezy]

If it is just a panel test it won't show levels but if they're sending it to a lab it will.. I've been to 2 different sub drs and 1 did 1 way and the other did the other way.. do they check it right then or do you get the results the following month at your next appt?

 

[The Doc.]

Thanks much for your help. Just to give some hope to those with larger habits - I looked up conversions before switching to bupe and was very scared it might not work for me as my habit was much larger - at one point I was doing multiple buns a day (snorted though, not shot) or upwards of 500 mg oxy. I have not had issues with bupe not holding me. I've also switched back and forth a few times and so far so good. I was started on 10 or 12 mg in rehab when my habit was around 400 mg oxy or around a bun a day, and it not only held me, but I caught a slight nod (although I hadn't slept the previous night). I had about 24 hrs off oxy. When I started bupe treatment a few months later my habit was around 2 buns a day and 16 mg held me but that was it, however that was only 16-18 hrs after sniffing h.

I have a bupe appt in a few days and possible drug test. My question does not pertain to the test. I have only been taking 2-4 mg bupe per day, but am scripted 20 so I must take 20 for the next few days. How long do you think it will take after three days of taking 20 mg to get back to the point where I get slight mood lift/energy from doses of 1-2 mg? Also, how long do you think it will take to feel dope? 2-3 half lives? Also in this time would it be very helpful to not dose again until I feel wds coming on?

They won't test your levels of bupe as long as you have it in your body then your good to go. Why do you get 20 mgs prescribed if you only take 4 mgs ? Lol you want a huge stockpile or sumthing

 

[The Doc.]

When will suboxone allow me to sleep??? I wonder if I'm still not used to it yet. I'm on 12mg day and on day and 6 taking it now. I'm so tired. Nausea after each dose is also a huge problem. I'm still missing my methadone.

They really should have put you on trazadone or something for your induction into suboxone. Its hard to tell you when you'll sleep again cause some people sleep like a baby after taking sub their first day on it then others a month layer still can't seem to get to sleep. Do you dose once daily? That may be the problem I couldn't sleep when taking it once a day cause of my fast metabolism but when is tarted taking it 3 times a day in small doses then I slept perfectly fine. Everybody is different but I reccomend seeing your doctor for some trazadone its not habit forming and helps you sleep great.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

They won't test your levels of bupe as long as you have it in your body then your good to go. Why do you get 20 mgs prescribed if you only take 4 mgs ? Lol you want a huge stockpile or sumthing

Ha a lot of people do that actually. I used to do the same thing. That way in case anything ever happens, you have plenty of bupe. You never know when you're gonna need it in the future or something. Then when you wanna come off, you can taper on your own at your own pace.

 

[Eveleivibe]

If you take lower doses, why not ask the doctor to prescribe lower dose to you? I'm not, in any, trying to be offensive or funny with you, just asking because I don't understand.
I didn't know that they could test for levels - that's really impressive.
Good luck with the test n I'm sorry that I cannot help you further.
Evey xxxx

 

[The Doc.]

Ha a lot of people do that actually. I used to do the same thing. That way in case anything ever happens, you have plenty of bupe. You never know when you're gonna need it in the future or something. Then when you wanna come off, you can taper on your own at your own pace.

Lol yea I see why I have a good sized stockpile too for emergencies but 20 mgs a day when you take 4mgs is a bit excessive isn't it lol when are you gonna need that much medicine I get 8 mgs and take 3-4mgs a day and that leaves me with plenty extra. Doesn't it expire though? Or who knows mabye he sells his pills or sum thing and that's why he doesn't want to lower it.

 

[The Doc.]

And I really couldn't see somebody getting kicked off a suboxone program cause their blood levels are not what they should be. I mean every body's metabolism is different and with suboxone the exact dose you take everyday varys quite a bit due to being a sublingual tablet. If a person takes 8mgs a day one day they may absorb 30 percent cause they don't have so much saliva in their mouth so it absorbs quite a bit of the dose over a half hour. But other days a person may have tons of saliva in their mouth wasting a lot more of the pill so you don't absorb as much that time. I think all these variables with sub's mean that its hard to get a precise number of what a persons blood levels of bupe should look like.

 

[Effect]

I got lowered 2mg from what my doctor thinks I was taking. I was getting 8mg/day to be split with 4mg in the morning and 4mg at night. So I was getting 1 8mg tab a day. Now I'm at 6mg/day with 3mg every 12 hours and he wrote me for #63 2mg tabs which seems like it's going to be a lot when I go to fill it later.

Also he made a stupid mistake when writing how it should be taken. He wrote "1 TAB SL TWO TIMES A WEEK PRN x 21 days". Do you guys think the pharmacy will just be able to call and fix it for me when they write it based on the amount of doses I was written for? It would be a pain to have to go back to the office for another copy.

 

[HdoubleODeezy]

They should be able to.
Once my Dr gave me the wrong amount of suboxone and I called the Dr office first and told them the mistake. By the time I got to the pharmacy they had already called and knew to change the amount on the script.
I'd think getting more on the script would be a bigger problem than them messing up the dosing.

 

[Eveleivibe]

Lol yea I see why I have a good sized stockpile too for emergencies but 20 mgs a day when you take 4mgs is a bit excessive isn't it lol when are you gonna need that much medicine I get 8 mgs and take 3-4mgs a day and that leaves me with plenty extra. Doesn't it expire though? Or who knows mabye he sells his pills or sum thing and that's why he doesn't want to lower it.

yay my stock mile is like a flipping mountain now since I've been taking 8-10mg a day n saving an extra 2-4 mg. I nearly had to go without this Easter hols but I went straight to my D n A place n went mad. They weren't answering the phones, treat us like we're scum of the earth. I said "Look! I need to see the duty work and get my script or I'll have none over the Easter hols." Eventually, after snapping at me n making me wait ages, they gave me my fortnightly scrip so will go to pharmacy tomorrow n have it sorted. I have to collect it on a Monday but the pharmacy would not give me any suboxone without a prescription, which apparently they produce a month in advance. I also need to book an appointment with the doctor to have it reduced to 10mg. I had an appointment yesterday but I had to cancel as it's the Easter holidays n my little had an appointment, which I felt was more important. Good job because we also had a routine dentist appointment, that I'd forgotten about.

I'm hoping they won't rush me off the suboxone n let me taper slowly but I do feel that it's time now. I've been on it suboxone just under 11 months so I don't think withdrawing from it would be that bad after that amount of time, I'm not addicted to it like I was with the opiates so the psychological attachment is not there with suboxone so I really think that I won't have any problems coming off it.

But yeah having a stockpile for emergencies is an ace idea, in my opinion.

Good day all.

Evey xxxx

 

[Effect]

Yeah it's supposed to be written "1 tab SL three times a day PRN x 21 days" with the understanding that I take 6mg a day. I like to dose 2 times a day with a total of 2-4mg/day so I always end up with some left over to do what I want with, but it's nowhere the amount of extra I know some people end up with. I don't really mind though because my appointments are always pretty smooth other than the waiting which sometimes is only a few minutes to the other day where it was at least 30 minutes.

I get my buprenorphine through a pain doctor (the guy who sees the buprenorphine patients is different than the one who sees the PM patients) so I'm always in the waiting room with the people who are actually there to get opiate scripts so the office is usually jammed. It's mostly pain patients though and I have a pretty good eye for telling who's there for what.

 

[HdoubleODeezy]

When I got off subs I had over 300 8mg tabs saved up plus about 1000 tramadols.. for the sake of staying clean.... I flushed em.
Glad I did now.. not so happy when I felt I was dying lol.
Should have sold them. But didn't want any more trouble with the law as I'm already a felon unfortunately.

Almost 2 years clean! Was hard especially with relentless PAWS but I made it.
*pats self on back* lol.

 

[Effect]

To be honest, initially upon reading that I think that sounds crazy, but it really does demonstrate one's true determination to getting off the bupe and not having a heart-breaking setback. We all know how easy it is to say that we're going to stick to our taper plan and not take more than your supposed to, but we also all know how difficult it can be to have the self-control to not stray from the taper plan when all it takes to give yourself the sweet relief of getting well when you've been dealing with the long and drawn out symptoms that occur with buprenorphine withdrawal.

Especially at night when your just tossing and turning and unable to catch a wink of the beautiful thing that we take for granted when using called sleep. I've had my most frustrating experiences during withdrawal, without a doubt, while lying in my bed, at the point of punching my headboard, because I just can't get myself into a comfortable position.

 

[The Doc.]

When I got off subs I had over 300 8mg tabs saved up plus about 1000 tramadols.. for the sake of staying clean.... I flushed em.
Glad I did now.. not so happy when I felt I was dying lol.
Should have sold them. But didn't want any more trouble with the law as I'm already a felon unfortunately.

Almost 2 years clean! Was hard especially with relentless PAWS but I made it.
*pats self on back* lol.

Holy crap yea that would have made you some money thats for sure I would have given them to a friend or some random addict on the street and make his day say here you go you'll never have to be sick again.

 

[The Doc.]

To be honest, initially upon reading that I think that sounds crazy, but it really does demonstrate one's true determination to getting off the bupe and not having a heart-breaking setback. We all know how easy it is to say that we're going to stick to our taper plan and not take more than your supposed to, but we also all know how difficult it can be to have the self-control to not stray from the taper plan when all it takes to give yourself the sweet relief of getting well when you've been dealing with the long and drawn out symptoms that occur with buprenorphine withdrawal.

Especially at night when your just tossing and turning and unable to catch a wink of the beautiful thing that we take for granted when using called sleep. I've had my most frustrating experiences during withdrawal, without a doubt, while lying in my bed, at the point of punching my headboard, because I just can't get myself into a comfortable position.

Uhhh I know what you mean bro the nighttime is the absolute worst part of withdrawals Its just you and your miserable thoughts while you kick your legs in a pool of your own sweat. So many times ive wanted to commit suicide really bad when going through that crap that's how horrible it is.

 

[Eveleivibe]

Yeah it's supposed to be written "1 tab SL three times a day PRN x 21 days" with the understanding that I take 6mg a day. I like to dose 2 times a day with a total of 2-4mg/day so I always end up with some left over to do what I want with, but it's nowhere the amount of extra I know some people end up with. I don't really mind though because my appointments are always pretty smooth other than the waiting which sometimes is only a few minutes to the other day where it was at least 30 minutes.

I get my buprenorphine through a pain doctor (the guy who sees the buprenorphine patients is different than the one who sees the PM patients) so I'm always in the waiting room with the people who are actually there to get opiate scripts so the office is usually jammed. It's mostly pain patients though and I have a pretty good eye for telling who's there for what.

Really???? How do you tell who is in what???? That's amazing if you really can do that. I'm prescribed 12mg a day n when I take that I'm as confident n as talkative as hell so I take that when there's places I need to go, like my recovery group, because I don't want to feel nervy there, but when I take 12mg for a few days I wake up each morning with an ace in my knees n the stiffness is that painful it's really hard for me to get out of the bed. So things are better taking 8-10mg.

Evey xxxx

 

[fullycaffeinated]

I want to have a good stockpile because my dr is basically the bupe version of a pill mill, definitely just in it for the cash, it's $140 every month for my "visit" and I don't even see him, he just writes a script. The other day I tried to pay with a debit card and they wouldn't even take it! Had to spend another $3 at the ATM to get cash. Plus they drug test, and I came very close to getting kicked out last month as I tested positive for weed and alcohol. They tried to tell me I also tested positive for heroin on my 2nd visit, 7 days into the program. I hadn't touched opies, so if I did test positive it was from before I started the program. No way they could tell heroin specifically by then. I'm also currently unemployed, so a little pocket cash is nice. Also, I'd like some other green... Helps with anxiety and pain (I have fibromyalgia).