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Sorry, why on earth had your doctor changed to oxy only "on weekends"?
From a clinical perspective it makes zero sense to use an entirely different drug for 2 days out if 7.... I mean, it's not even at the correct conversion rate between morphine and oxy...
That's really strange
as I mentioned, In my country we have a lax and supportive approach to opiate maintenance.
I was put on the ER morphine as per 90% of other patients however I relapsed with oxycodone maybe 3-4 months into the program* as I no longer got a rush or any desirable feeling from the morphine.
I specifically asked that on non work days, where my mind is more idle, that I could be switched to oxycodone. I work long weeks at what most would consider a stressful job and my mind rarely switches to needing any sort of rush during the week, rarely anything else but work actually... I was pretty sure I was going to relapse again and if I was going to be taking anything I wanted it to be under the supervision of the program. Otherwise I could end up rebuilding my tolerance by taking both morphine from the program and oxycodone from illicit channels in tandem on the same days. It also would put me at higher risk of overdosing etc.
He was very supportive, and given the fact that we still have a long road ahead with the taper he wasn't against the idea as we still have plenty of time to address the issue that is me essentially needing some sort of rush when my mind is idle. He had to seek approval from the head doctor and I am essentially a case study, they have some patients entirely on oxycodone (although I think all on Oxycontin formulas) and a ton of patients on ER Morphine - but I believe I am the only one with a combination of both.
It is clear once we get lower with the Morphine doses, which we try to reduce by 20 - 30mg every 2-3 weeks depending on how I feel, that I will have to switch back to solely morphine. We always reduce the oxycodone by 10-20mg in tandem with the morphine decreases. Usually they avoid giving patients opiates/oids with short half life's with the maintenance treatment however due to my great track record with him he was willing to try. We monitored if having the two days of the Oxy (at higher equivalent doses) would cause me to experience mild withdrawals when switching back to the lower dose of morphine during the week - but thankfully it didn't. The oxy dose is higher simply as we ran a trial the first few weekends basis what I would need to get the rush I was seeking without going overboard - when it worked switching back to the morphine, he allowed me to keep it there.
If you wonder how I built his trust. I think I am quite different to most of his patients.... I am nearly 26 and have a job in the finance sector, I come after work and therefore am wearing a full suit and tie each day. I am usually his last appointment of the day and he is often tired, back when he used to prepare my medication for the week in advance he made a mistake 3 times by miscalculating and giving me too much, each time I corrected him on the spot and gave him the extra medication back. I don't think I have ever seen someone so surprised. I am also often the one pushing for the decreases in dose, not him - as I do genuinely want to get off this dependency ASAP, sadly I am just too weak in the mind and still need those weekend rushes. I get the feeling that quite a lot of the patients in the program, and this is a pure assumption - he has never told me this, try and abuse it's laxness and probably try to up their doses by claiming WD symptoms or avoid decreasing.
Hope that cleared it up? I know it is difficult to believe a country can have such supportive systems in place but if you look up Switzerland - they were really one of the leading countries to get heroin addicts off the streets and into the clinics, they even provide synthetic heroin to patients for which methadone/morphine wont work. I am also happy to PM you any of my prescriptions with my name blurred out, I know it is easy to question people on the internet and I want to post here more often - i don't want to be assumed as a liar.
EDIT: what you may believe even less, is that as of approx. one month I just get handed the boxes of morphine and get to refill them as I please, he keeps track of when he has given me the boxes in the system but definitely doesn't do the maths, I assume he would only do it if he thought something didn't add up. The other day I told him I needed a refill of the 120mg and 30mg pills and he assumed I would need the 200mg pills too but I corrected him, I still had enough for the next week. I still meet him every week and get given the box of 30x20mg oxy IR and have a 20-30min chat on how things are going.
*could have been earlier actually, my timeline could be off. I am pretty sure I started the program in March-May last year, I need to find the original documents to give a definite answer on that.
