Opioids Buprenorphine / Suboxone

[rplate81]

In the past, for a hand Surgury, to be sure that the pain meds they'd planned on giving me would be effective, they told me to stay off the subs for a couple of days beforehand. I think I dialed it back a bit, but I definitely didn't stop it completely for 2 days! No way! Back then I had been taking a good amount of it & there was no way I was going to go into a withdrawal- not even for 2 days! The oxy they gave me worked fine, but probably not as fine as they would have if I'd stopped the subs beforehand.

I posted this in January, so I don't fully remember what I said or if I had mentioned that I had a surgery scheduled.

It was over 2 years ago. Everything was all set up, I got the physical exam and updated X-rays. The surgeon had even written me a script for Percocet. I ended up not being able to get the surgery because, at the last minute, the anesthesiologist said that I had to stop my buprenorphine for 5 days up until the surgery. Anyone that takes subs daily knows how hard it would be to do that.


I had to call the surgeon and cancel. I only had 1 more business day to do so without being billed a ton of $. The surgeons and receptionists are all very mean and aggressive. Not surprisingly, when I called, she got all pissed and even told me that I'd have to pay for the surgery, but I just stayed calm and agreed with everything that she said. I never got a bill for it, but it completely fractured my relationship with that surgeon, so now I cannot get the surgery done because, with my insurance, there are no more ortho surgeon options.

What made me really upset is the fact that I had talked to the surgeon in person and I had told him that I take Buprenorphine and his response was "That's fine, no problem with that. I have plenty of patients taking it too, no need to stop taking your Subutex."

I've never had or heard of having to stop subs for that long time before or after a surgery or procedure.

I have had 2 procedures with other surgeons in the last few years when I needed propofol/midazolam and didn't need to stop even on the day of the surgery.


Here it is 2 years later and my knee is still driving me crazy all day every day thanks to the anesthesiologist.

 

[Binky7766]

I used an unorthodox method to kick my subs. Once I learned that 4mg saturates 90+% of the opiate receptors in the brain, I dropped from 16mg to 4 fairly fast and easily. The n worked my way down to 2mg. I happened to have a family member that recently died from cancer at the time. I got my hands on a 30ct script of 30mg roxi and a 60ct script of 60mg mscontin. I gave these scripts to someone I trusted. Then stopped the subs and started with the roxis tapered with those then tapered with the mscontin. I walked away with literally zero physical withdrawal symptoms.

Now this method only worked because I had no control over my doses. I do not endorse this method. However, it worked for me when I failed to taper low enough on my subs. So for those that have a hard time like I did. It might be worth a shot.

Do you mean that you gave your pain meds to someone to give them to you in limited doses, a.k.a. prescribed doses? I've, in the past, taper from oxy successfully a couple of times, but this last time things didn't go so well because I had hip surgery in immense amount of pain, of course they don't give you enough pain, med and so you wind up taking a little more each day than what is prescribed and before you know it you're hooked. It can creep up on you! So the Suboxone has literally saved my life. I'm down below 1 mg now of the sub and all is well. I really hope and pray that the rest of the taper will go as well as the rest of it has. That's why I was interested in the SR;. That way I could have something on hand. Should I get terrible withdrawal after being completely off it. Your way of doing it is completely legit IMO. Whatever works! Unfortunately, I don't have anyone who can hold it for me unless I feel like driving to their house every single day, 2-4 times each day. Plus, they travel a lot, but I am going to succeed, whatever it takes. Now that I'm down to a small dose, I can already see a healthier glow in my face. You should see side-by-side pictures of me completely off opiates beside of picture of me when I was on a relatively high dose. For some reason, opiates really affect my eyes.

 

[Binky7766]

I posted this in January, so I don't fully remember what I said or if I had mentioned that I had a surgery scheduled.

It was over 2 years ago. Everything was all set up, I got the physical exam and updated X-rays. The surgeon had even written me a script for Percocet. I ended up not being able to get the surgery because, at the last minute, the anesthesiologist said that I had to stop my buprenorphine for 5 days up until the surgery. Anyone that takes subs daily knows how hard it would be to do that.


I had to call the surgeon and cancel. I only had 1 more business day to do so without being billed a ton of $. The surgeons and receptionists are all very mean and aggressive. Not surprisingly, when I called, she got all pissed and even told me that I'd have to pay for the surgery, but I just stayed calm and agreed with everything that she said. I never got a bill for it, but it completely fractured my relationship with that surgeon, so now I cannot get the surgery done because, with my insurance, there are no more ortho surgeon options.

What made me really upset is the fact that I had talked to the surgeon in person and I had told him that I take Buprenorphine and his response was "That's fine, no problem with that. I have plenty of patients taking it too, no need to stop taking your Subutex."

I've never had or heard of having to stop subs for that long time before or after a surgery or procedure.

I have had 2 procedures with other surgeons in the last few years when I needed propofol/midazolam and didn't need to stop even on the day of the surgery.


Here it is 2 years later and my knee is still driving me crazy all day every day thanks to the anesthesiologist.

Ugh! That's terrible! Yeah, these doctors are not on the same page yet with what to do with Suboxone patients some say just stay on it while others say stay off it for a couple of days so that the morphine will be effective. I will admit that the morphine was not all that effective after my hip replacement, so perhaps there is something to the stopping or at least lessening your dose before the surgery. At least you know you'll be back on a narcotic immediately after the surgery. That's hard though man. WD SUX!

 

[rplate81]

Ugh! That's terrible! Yeah, these doctors are not on the same page yet with what to do with Suboxone patients some say just stay on it while others say stay off it for a couple of days so that the morphine will be effective. I will admit that the morphine was not all that effective after my hip replacement, so perhaps there is something to the stopping or at least lessening your dose before the surgery. At least you know you'll be back on a narcotic immediately after the surgery. That's hard though man. WD SUX!

I wasn't to receive any painkiller while under, I think just Verced/propofol which is even more frustrating.

 

[Xyborg]

Do you mean that you gave your pain meds to someone to give them to you in limited doses, a.k.a. prescribed doses? I've, in the past, taper from oxy successfully a couple of times, but this last time things didn't go so well because I had hip surgery in immense amount of pain, of course they don't give you enough pain, med and so you wind up taking a little more each day than what is prescribed and before you know it you're hooked. It can creep up on you! So the Suboxone has literally saved my life. I'm down below 1 mg now of the sub and all is well. I really hope and pray that the rest of the taper will go as well as the rest of it has. That's why I was interested in the SR;. That way I could have something on hand. Should I get terrible withdrawal after being completely off it. Your way of doing it is completely legit IMO. Whatever works! Unfortunately, I don't have anyone who can hold it for me unless I feel like driving to their house every single day, 2-4 times each day. Plus, they travel a lot, but I am going to succeed, whatever it takes. Now that I'm down to a small dose, I can already see a healthier glow in my face. You should see side-by-side pictures of me completely off opiates beside of picture of me when I was on a relatively high dose. For some reason, opiates really affect my eyes.

Exactly, I was living with my mother at the time. Started at like 5 per day dropping a half every other depending on how I was feeling. Then switched to the mscontin after the roxis were gone. She was receptive to giving me my doses early especially in the beginning as I'd barely get 4hrs of comfort. I did take my daily doses to work. For the most part that went well, minus a few times where I decided to eat all my doses for the daytime lol. It might've been a 60ct of the 30s as well because I was more slow on the taper with those than the mscontin.

Suboxone, well subtex for me. Was a blessing and a curse. It got me off the fent. However, it turned me into emotionless shell of myself, even at low doses. The doctors that push more the 4mg a day need to be held accountable. Maybe in some severe cases start at 8 or 12 but quickly drop it down. These stories I hear of people taking 24mg is absolutely insane. Bupe is so potent that you truly don't need more than 4mg at that dose all your receptors are basically covered and any additional now just causes nasty side effects.