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Fast methadone taper help

Oh no Barbie.. So sorry this happened. Don't get too down we can still make this work. I'm a little busy today but I'm hoping to get more time later tonight to respond. Don't beat yourself up dear. If you get more short acting opiates you still should have plenty to make a transition with only minor discomforts. Yes... Get more gabapentin as well. If you can I would get lyrica. Don't know if your doc would be willing to help you out in that regard. Try and stay on your schedule and we will tweak it in the upcoming days. I honestly believe you will be able to go down faster in the beginning . After a few days at 10 in the morning and 20 at night we should be able to drop you. I am betting your tolerance is much lower than you think. You only had to take so much in the beginning because you had to let the doses build up in your system. Once that is done all successive doses will overlap each other to build up. With methadone it is much easier to taper the higher doses and the real difficulties start to arise when you get down towards the end so don't fret you are still in a good position.

TTYS<3Somni
 
Are you familiar with the term comfort medication OP? There should be a bit on this in the SL directory.

Basically gabapentin, clonidine and diazepam (or similar). Most doctors will be okay with the clonidine and gabapentin, and those who understand what they're doing will probably be okay with a few weeks of a benzo like diazepam or clonazepam (depends on your history OP).

Sorry to hear about spilling the methadone. That sucks big time, but it is what it is. About how many mg methadone in total do you have left now?
 
I have about 400mg left now TPD. As for comfort meds I have read lots on here but I'm not sure what mg and amount I need to ask him for. He gave me 30 of the 100mg gabapentin but said only take 1 in the evening. From what I read I need them day/night. And he said no to Clonidine because I'm already on bp meds. Also no benzos because he gave me Restoril. I have a great relationship with him but he is a young dr and made it clear he's ultra conservative when prescribing meds. I think I'd benefit more from the benzos throughout the day vs the sleep med. It doesn't help at all. And then I have this awful hangover feeling the next day.
 
Tell him that about the temazepam. I certainly found a non-gabaergic sleep aid (in my case trazodone, which I took because I also experienced PTSD) at night and diazepam during the day to be far more helpful than temazepam at night. Comfort meds and their information follow:

Clonidine - he should decide on the dosage and frequency based on your history, but it will probably be 0.1-0.2mg/twice a day.
Gabapentin - 800mg every four to six hours
Diazepam (or clonazepam) - 10mg, in AM and PM (1mg of clonazepam if it is used, same schedule)

That will cover a lot of the symptoms. Ibuprofen for aches and pains and loperamide for the shits also helps a lot. Ideally you'd be able to find someone to prescribe you buprenorphine for a week or two to see you through the acute withdrawal (once you're ready for that), but at least with those three meds I mentioned AND a sleep medication (seroquel, trazodone, etc), along with some loperamide and IBU, you'll have the worst of the symptoms covered.

I terms of coming up with a tapering plan for your remaining 400mg, how much have you taken since you dosed the other day with 30mg? Or was that the last time you dosed. Just to get a sense of how to suggest you structure it.

Relying on comfort medication for a taper is a bit tricky, but if you use them for that purpose (as opposed to using them to manage acute detox, which was I was more writing about) the diazepam isn't so significant. For a taper gabapentin and clonidine should suffice, and at lower dosages than would be necessary during acute withdrawal.

Where are you interested/planning to go from here with your process in this OP? I think you mentioned work being really important, but I'm unclear as to what your other short term, perhaps more health oriented, short and long term goals are.
 
100mg of gabapentin is uselessly small imo. Your going to need 800mg a day to get decent results but get as much as you can. Restoril will work your just going to have to take it during the day too. Tramadol is useless go with the short acting oxy instead of it.

I agree with somni on cutting the doses faster at this point. Go ahead and try just taking 30mg at night starting tommorow. Maybe bring a couple oxys to work just in case you need them but I think the half-life will hold you.
 
Sorry for the delay TPD. I've pretty much slept all day. I guess that's a good thing because I feel a lot better. You asked how much I'd taken since the 30mg the other day. Today I had 10mg around 4am and I took 20 at 4pm. I'm thinking tomorrow I can skip the double dosing and just dose once a day.

As for my goals, I need multiple spinal surgeries and my dr won't do it while on MMT. I have insurance now and will be seeing a pain specialist also. And the neurosurgeon said they would want me off MMT too. So, my primary dr is helping me until I'm off the methadone and then the new dr will take over the pain meds.

I wrote everything down that you advised so hopefully he will prescribe what I need. I took him a lot of info before but he said the wd's are like a "mild flu" and I shouldn't need all that for more than a week. I know he will prescribe more oxy because he said id have to come back for another script since he can't give refills on it.
 
Oh Jesus a mild flu guy.... I'd like to see him come off a large methadone habit then tell me how mild it was.
 
Exactly. It was the worst I've ever felt and I've literally been ran over by a semi truck. Mild flu was the first week of tapering. And it just got worse from there. I think it was day 5 of nothing that it got really bad. By day 9 I think I should have been in the hospital. I hadn't held anything down in over 4 days and was passing out every time I tried to get up. And the length of time being sick seemed to be what wrecked my body. So he's not very sympathetic that's for sure. Which is fine if he will prescribe what I need I'll take his attitude.

Well I'm up and trying to get ready for work. Ugh. Still feel kinda bad. My kidneys are hurting I'm guessing from dehydration. Hopefully my jerk of a boss won't put too much on me my first day back. He doesn't know why I was off 3 weeks. I used my 2 weeks vacation then my dr gave me a week off too detox. So he may be suspicious when I show up looking like somehing from the walking dead. Everyone else who comes back from vaca is all tanned and happy.

I haven't taken the 10mg like I did yesterday. I'm trying to just do the 20mg later on. I'll keep everyone posted.

❤️Barb
 
If your hurting take the extra 10mg it's not going to make or break either way. Do what you need to do to make a good impression. Your gonna need some Goodwill later because your going to be hurting.
 
I'm at work now. It looks like today will be pretty laid back. I brought the 10mg and the 20mg with me. Sometimes I'm stuck here after 8pm. If I don't need the 10mg do I still need to wait til 4pm to dose the 20? Or should I try to get on a regular dosing time? I have to leave for work at 5am so that's usually when I would dose before I started all this.
 
With methadones long half-life it doesn't really matter when you dose. Just dose when you feel the need is my advice.
 
Hey barb!
I hope you are doing well.
I sent u a friend request. This site is weird about posting but I am in the same state/area as you and am in the same position.
I would like to talk with you if that's somehow possible. Maybe we can help each other.
Idk.
I am praying for you.
I wish I could send u a pm type message but idk how in this site.
I hope u see this message and we can talk.
Best of luck!!
 
HI BB! I didn't receive the friend request. I wasn't aware there was a way to pm either until yesterday. I had to get on the desktop version to do it. I will gladly share any knowledge I have gained over the past month and a half. I've def learned a lot. I started out doing it all wrong. Ended up in a world of hurt. Now I'm just going slow and really listening to all the advice given. I'm at work now but will check back in later. Have a great day!
 
Beenbetter said:
Hey barb!
I hope you are doing well.
I sent u a friend request. This site is weird about posting but I am in the same state/area as you and am in the same position.
I would like to talk with you if that's somehow possible. Maybe we can help each other.
Idk.
I am praying for you.
I wish I could send u a pm type message but idk how in this site.
I hope u see this message and we can talk.
Best of luck!!
Click to expand...

Send badbarbie a PM by following this link: http://www.bluelight.org/vb/private.php?do=newpm&u=357408

badbarbiedolly said:
HI BB! I didn't receive the friend request. I wasn't aware there was a way to pm either until yesterday. I had to get on the desktop version to do it. I will gladly share any knowledge I have gained over the past month and a half. I've def learned a lot. I started out doing it all wrong. Ended up in a world of hurt. Now I'm just going slow and really listening to all the advice given. I'm at work now but will check back in later. Have a great day!
Click to expand...

Just wanted to point out that it is inherently dangerous meeting up with folks you meet on the internet, especially BL. That is all the more true when you're dealing with early recovery, as you are badbarbie. I'm not saying don't reach out to one another for mutual support, but perhaps tread carefully. Be mindful of the fact you don't really know anyone you meet on the internet, until you do. From personal experience, sometimes without the proper vetting that can be too late.

Also just keep in mind, if either of you end up using BL to source/distribute drugs, you'll be infracted. NOW outside all the paternalistic nonsense of mine, it's wonderful to see people supporting one another! Have at it! :)
 
BB there is a lot of solid advice from people more knowledgable than me on here. Not saying I don't want to chat with you about my experience. I've certainly learned a few dos and donts. If I would have listened to those same people I wouldn't have ended up in such bad shape. The big one that sticks out to me is "taper of MMT as slow as is possible" I could have went much slower and did not.
I just wanted to post again and say that because I didn't want to come off as all knowing when I'm sooo not.
 
Oh nooo I would never ever ever meet up with anyone I met online ever. I wasn't even reading it like that. I thought bb meant chat on here. Did I read that wrong? I was wondering how bb knew what area I was from and realized I had told in a post what state I lived in. It was regarding kratom I believe.

I rely on BL way too much to do anything to get banned. ❤️Barb
 
Finally off work woohoo! First day back was ok. I didn't do the split dosing today. I took 20mg before lunch. I tried waiting as long as possible but it looks like I need to dose in the mornings so I can get through work. So for now the plan is stay on 20 until Wed. right? So if I remember correct I drop my dose 5mg every 3 days to start. Then when I start to "feel the drop" slow down to every 5 days. I have the means to measure 1mg at a time if I need to. I still can't believe 20mg is holding me as well as it is. It's only been about a month since I started the original taper. I can't wait for all this to be in the past.

Hope everyone had a great day and looking forward to anymore feedback.
❤️Barb
 
20mg is still a pretty solid dose. I'd suggest try reducing it to 15mg and see if that hold you after taking it for a few days. You only have so much to work with, so if you could reduce to 10mg or 15mg and then reduce by 1mg/week you'd end up in a reasonable position come the final detox, once you run out of your now greatly reduced supply.

What are your thoughts on how you'll be trying to move ahead, considering you only have so much methadone to work with and all?
 
The goal is to get off the methadone completely so that I can get back with a pain managment dr. That's what brought me to MMT to start with. My previous pm dr disappeared overnight leaving hundreds of patients with nowhere to go. The receptionist there gave out several numbers and 2 of them were methadone clinics. I'm from a very rural area with very few pain specialists. And most refuse cash paying patients. I have decent insurance now so the only thing keeping me from going is the methadone . So end goal is to stop the methadone and use the oxy my primary dr is prescribing until I can see the pain dr. and neurosurgeon.
 
Ok so here's what I'm thinking. Tomorrow I'll take 15mg. Stay on that maybe 2 days. Then do the same for 10 & 5. Then do a mg a week. Does that sound like a good plan? After that shouldn't the transition to the oxy be a lil easier?
 
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