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Englandgz's Methadone CT - feeling a bit rough

BigG

BigG

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As a lot of you know I've been prescribed opiate painkillers of every sort imaginable for almost 20 years (19 years actually since 1996).

I was currently on physeptone (methadone) tablets at a dose of 60mg 3 times a day (180mg/day).

This is a high dose and methadone is only usually used for pain as a last resort.

Anyway after my last surgery my back (the reason for taking the meds) is a lot better and I intended to try and come off opiates. I just wanted to be off ASAP.

I tapered 10mg a week until I got down to 100mg and then jumped off on Monday. I am also prescribed the following:-

Pregabalin - 200 mg x 2/day
Naproxin - 500mg x 2 /day
Diazepam - 4mg at night
Paracetamol - 1,000mg x 4/day (don't always take this for liver safety reasons).

And finally Lansopraszole for potential stomach problems for the NSAIDs at 15mg / day.

I'm planning to maintain all the other meds for now and just try to stop the methadone.

One bump in the road is that I'm collecting a script tomorrow with all my meds and the methadone will be with it. I dumped ,my last lot but I'm considering keeping this lot (or at least some of it) for a safety net as I am working full time though this in a pretty demanding job.

Am seeing the doctor next week to see if he will prescribe lofexadine to help with the WDs.

I'm not looking for any WD tricks as such as I've heard of and tried all of them....just want a place to vent I suppose.

Peace to all and please stay safe <3
 
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Jumping off at 100mg is one hell of a leap mate but you are more than aware of that.
I imagine due to the half life of methadone it will be a little while before shit gets really bad. I've been on methadone myself for over a decade and am now on 35mg daily and I can go days without taking it but those are the days that I'm using heroin instead. I would say it's a good idea to keep some methadone to hand in case things become unbearable and then at least that way you can take a dose to ease yourself up a bit.
Good luck mate, you got balls. Don't feel bad though if you do have to take some meth again as it's not gonna be easy what you are doing.
I wish you all the best Englandgz
 
You sound like a really busy man Mr English with a lot of responsibility in your career. This must be some added pressure and stress on a personal life that already has enough. I can only implore you to be kind and patient, maybe take things a bit easier than you'd naturally want to.

Please don't set yourself up to fail and then get into a downward spiral about that.

You have my admiration %)

This thread's a great idea as so many of us are looking out for you and want to now how you are <3
 
Thank you all. That's so nice.....even Rassy was being nice (I think :) ).

On a serious note this is not going well at all. Yesterday (day 4) wasn't too bad. even though I didn't get any sleep whatsoever the night before I got up at 5:00am and went to work. It was tough but I kind of dug in and mentally willed myself through the day. I think I've got some kind of masochist streak as I almost enjoy it when things get really tough. However, I've just spent another entirely sleepless night and I'm now on day 5.........and I feel fucking terrible. I'm not rolling around the floor crying or anything but fuck me I feel ill. I knew what to expect as I've done this before but out of all the symptoms (of which there are many) I think it's the hyper-noradrenergic state that's the worst. Other symptoms like sneezing, sweating, fatigue I can handle and push through but it's this constant surges of nor-adrenaline washing across my body that I cannot stand (which is why I wanted my doc to give me some lofexadine - but I don't think he's going to.....plus my appointment isn't until next Thursday). Other symptoms come and go but these nor-adrenaline surges are pretty much constant. They make you feel sick to your stomach and so agitated you just want to climb out of your own skin. Maybe if I was holed up in a house somewhere with someone to look after me 24/7 I could manage this but being on my own and having to do everything myself as well as work a really hard tiring job I think is just too much. I'm picking up a prescription in about half an hour and I think I might have to resume a taper.....

BUT....I still think I've gained something. I know now that me "feeling it" at 100mg was absolutely nothing compared to "feeling it" at 5 days CT. I still think that if I can get some ancillary drugs working to combat the worst of the side effects and a strong mental attitude and I can be off pretty quick.

I would hate for this to be in vain so my advice to anyone thinking of getting on methadone, whether for pain management or opioid dependence is to think twice about it. Unless you plan to take it for the rest of your life you are going to have to stop sometime. Fair enough I've never used heroin but I've detoxed of morphine, oxycontin and fentanyl before and yes they were hard but by now (day 5) you would be starting to feel well again but with methadone the symptoms haven't even peaked yet. It truly is a bastard to come off. I would say that it's not as acute as some of the other shorter-half life opioids but it's far, far, far more chronic. While undergoing a lot of pain for 5-7 days is within the tolerance of most people. Undergoing it for a couple of months probably isn't. I was just thinking last night while I was tossing and turning and sweating my balls off that if you could induce this feeling on someone as a form of interrogation torture, they would tell you anything you wanted to know because this would break almost anyone. I'm no wimp I was a bouncer in Newcastle and Manchester for 15 years and got into some pretty serious scrapes (and have the knife wounds to prove it :) ) but this is really, really, really hard.

I haven't decided if I'm going to have any methadone later yet or not as I may see how bad this weekend gets (the other big problem is the back pain I was taking it for in the first place has come back with a fucking vengeance)....but.......well....fuck me man this is torture :(

Thank you for the kind comments and the lovely pm's....tis' really appreciated :)
 
it will probably never peak as acutely as the 5 day ct's were all used to and you describe - like you said it will be the chronic never ending discomfort that you have to face for the next 14 -30 days - surely this is a legitimate medical issue that would entitle you to some time off, but if your strong enough to struggle through work then surely thats better than spending sleepless day after day doing nothing. im sure i dont need to tell you this but if you intend to continue with your full duties then be careful how much you expose yourself while your feeling so out of it, especially when it comes to super critical tasks like life saving interventions and driving the van and such.

well done tho, your so brave to try and get shut of this once and for all - i have to do a 70 - 0ml reduction over the next 6 - 9 months so i have it all to look forward to

stick in there

stee

ps whats with the 100mg doses of APAP are you breaking up tablets or are you using a pediatric preparation / suspension. just interested is all, wouldnt touch the shit unless i had a fever, or had some 30/500 and couldnt be arsed doing cwe
 
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All the best Stee and Englandgz. I know how hard I found codeine withdrawal, so I can't really begin to imagine how shit this is gonna be.
 
cheers c24, most of its horses for courses, i cant see your codeine wd being any easier than the heroin cold turkeys we have all done, its all about getting out of your comfort zone and denying yourself your drug of choice while feeling sick as a result.

however the methadones going to be a new one for me because of the protracted wds. lets see how englandz gets on - jumping off at such a high dose might mean being opiate free within a month, while my 'planned' reduction might do nothing more than stretch out the pain for longer than is necessary - rather than just getting shut of it once and for all, am i not just exposing myself to a fortnight of mild to moderate wd every month following each 10ml reduction, as my body restablises to each new (lower) dose?
 
steewith2ees said:
am i not just exposing myself to a fortnight of mild to moderate wd every month following each 10ml reduction, as my body restablises to each new (lower) dose?
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Stee mate, this is EXACTLY why I did it. I started off at 180 and dropped 10mg a week for 8 weeks. The first 7 weeks were a piece of piss but the last week was tough (when I got to 100mg). I then thought "well I'm gonna have to reduce the drops to 5mg/week at the absolute max so that's AT LEAST another year of this shit". You can't blame me for having a go.

Also thanks for the concern regarding doing critical interventions and bombing round town at 60mph in a 30 zone in a top-heavy 7 tonne van during rush hour Newcastle City Center while feeling fucked but I won't be doing that (I wouldn't even try to do that), The only way I'm even attempting this is because I'm doing an office Job at Ambulance HQ until 2nd Feb, and while I would technically be on call if there happened to be a tsunami or an earthquake..... that's unlikely :)

Anyway mate, to be honest with you I don't think this is going to work. I may jump back on and finish a protracted taper. Going from 180mg to 100 in 8 weeks then jumping is nothing short of fucking madness.....in fact it's probably against the Geneva Convention :)

Oh and that thing with the Paracetamol was a typo...should have said 1,000mg (2 tablets)...I'll go back and fix that
 
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Would it be an option to switch to an opioid with a short half life and maintain on that for a month or so until the methadone is out of your system. Once the methadone is gone, you can then do your five day cluck from the short half life drug and be opiate free.

I'm far from an expert on this stuff, so I may be missing something, but it sounds plausible in theory... right?
 
curious_24 said:
Would it be an option to switch to an opioid with a short half life and maintain on that for a month or so until the methadone is out of your system. Once the methadone is gone, you can then do your five day cluck from the short half life drug and be opiate free.

I'm far from an expert on this stuff, so I may be missing something, but it sounds plausible in theory... right?
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You're spot on actually. That is pretty much how it works (although it's debatable, I would say 2 months for the meth to be out of your system). If I was writing my own scripts then what you have described is EXACTLY what I'd do. Unfortunately (sigh) my current GP and I do not get a long.....not one bit (he seems to hate paramedics from what I can gather and the sarcastic remarks he makes....or maybe he just hates me). He wouldn't agree to that just out of blind stubbornness no matter how much sense it would make.

I'm giving very serious consideration to moving practices actually. See if I can find a more forward thinking GP. I mean this one won't even prescribe me lofexadine. Whenever I see him I have to practically sit on my hands to resist the uncontrollable urge to deck the cunt :)
 
Well I'm glad to learn that my theory was right at least.

Your doctor situation sounds untenable. He's supposed to be an impartial professional, so letting personal prejudices influence prescribing decisions is seriously not on (unless he's just a miserable bastard and like that with all his patients?). Maybe a change of practice would be for the best. Forthwith!
 
curious_24 said:
Well I'm glad to learn that my theory was right at least.

Your doctor situation sounds untenable. He's supposed to be an impartial professional, so letting personal prejudices influence prescribing decisions is seriously not on (unless he's just a miserable bastard and like that with all his patients?). Maybe a change of practice would be for the best. Forthwith!
Click to expand...

Yeah and just to make it worse, while there are two other doctors in the practice he has sent instructions to the other two that on no account are they to prescribe me ANYTHING....and I'm not talking about opioids/narcotics here but ANY med at all. Bearing in mind he's hardly ever in, if I need to see him in an emergency I'm fucked.

Next week I'm going to go online and see which of the practices in my area are taking on new patients and register with someone new. This guy is intolerable and actually seems to take perverse pleasure in working against me rather tan helping...He really is a 110%, Grade A1 arsehole!!.

It's the last thing you need when you are going through something like this is to have the one man who can actually help you go out of his way to make sure he doesn't
 
First i have to ask why - you have a legitimate reason for using methadone and presumably you will be in pain once your off it. Jumping from 100mg is something i cant even contremplate let alone working at the same time, lofexadine did fuck all for me except mess my BP up. It could take 6-8 months to get back to 'normal' then PAWS will follow on for maybe a year more.
So why the need to come off the tab's? - apols if you have already explained elsewhere, im just a lazy reader
 
I've found with the various Gps I've had; if you go in there with as much, if not more knowledge of your condition and remedies to resolve it they really get their backs up..

Obviously this isnt the case for all GPs, however In my experience, they don't like a junkie coming in and telling them what it is exactly they want.. I've been treated this way for Lofexidine, Naltrexone etc, all drugs with zero recreational value or even re - sale value. Why so reluctant to prescribe it when someone is seeking help?
 
We're a bit worried about you petal - can you let is know your still with us? <3
 
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