Opioids Help weaning off of pain meds

[JohnnyTruant]

So I have been displaced from my Dr, and need help titrating from the following dose without getting too sick:

60-80mg Hydrocodone/day
.25mcg Fentanyl every 2 days
20mg oxycodone/day


been on this regiment for approx 5 yrs and fearing the sickness. I have roughly 90 10mg HC and 10 .25 fent patches left to try to step down. Anyone have any ideas of a good schedule to get off this dosage? Thanks

jt

 

[T. Calderone]

It was difficult for me to step down. You have plenty of hydro left and if you really want to do a taper to completely stop there are threads that give suggestions. I had a hard time personally quitting and didn't want to go to detox again. So stayed at a friend's house and got through it after 3-4 days cold turkey. The fentanyl is a drug I never used so I am not much help, sorry.

Did your doctor discharge you? You can get your medical records and try finding a doctor who specializes in opiate addiction. He can step you down properly so you won't feel sick. A medically supervised program would have been ideal for me but I couldn't afford it. Do you have insurance? You have options and don't need to go through it alone.

 

[JohnnyTruant]

The Dr and I had a disagreement over a substance that appeared in a urine analysis (oxy). He wrote me a final script and fired me, since ox was clearly not something he prescribed to me.. It's been a little humbling, as this 'failure' has happened to me once before with a different dr, which lead me to this current dr. I am afraid I will be blacklisted, and have no choice but to go it alone.

I do have a real pain condition that requires help, but doubt that it will arrive before my meds run out, if I keep taking them as prescribed. I can't afford to be absent from life while detoxing, so I need to somehow take what I have left and get my crap together. I can deal with the underlying condition until I can get back with someone who could help me, but I can't afford to miss work due to WD symptoms.

thx

johnny

 

[Beachcat]

If he was not prescribing the oxy, where did you get it from? Will you still have access to it? The fentanyl is via patch, yes?

What happens when you wear your patch and don't take any other meds? Does the amount of fentanyl hold you ie- does it keep you "well" on it's own?

Here would be my advice to you. I have done tapers before. Others here may have other ideas, but if it was me I would do this. This is also under the presumption that you are not looking to quit but merely need to buy time not being sick while to try to finds another doc, keeping in mind that you might not find one in time.

1. As long as the fentanyl on its own keeps you from being dope sick and controls your pain, I would use that first. Since you won't be taking your breakthrough meds you may feel some increased pain, but the goal here is to keep well, so ignore unless it becomes too hard to handle. Do not take any of your hydros.

2. This should buy you 20 days. When your last patch runs out, you should then switch to hydro. It is easier to withdraw from hydro than from Fent.

3. It is hard to say what dose of hydro you will need initially as your body withdraws from the Fent. I would say take the amount that keeps you from feeling dope sick, but does not give you any type of a high. Since you have 10 mg pills it should be easy to titrate the dose you need.

4. As quickly as you are able to, start reducing the amount of hydro you take per day. At this point, count all of the hydros that you have left and try to come up with a reasonable taper plan. The goal here is to "jump off" taking the least amount of hydro per day. Don't mess around and end up having to jump off at a high dosage of hydro, that will suck.

5. If you make it here and have no new doc, try to go to your primary or somebody and ask for some clonidine and maybe a benzo if you have no problems with those. Pick up some Imodium (loperamide) as well.

If you get to actual painful physical withdraw symptoms there are a ton of threads here advising what to do.

Good luck, I have been in your shoes.

 

[JohnnyTruant]

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it a lot. I am going to try to get off this stuff completely. I still have access to the oxy, basically unlimited. The goal is to get off of everything and see where my actual physical pain level is--can I deal with it without being spun out all the time and worrying about being piss tested all the time. I don't do other drugs with any frequenct, but it would be nice to be able to take a rip at the monthly poker game without stressing over being tested. I have always been able to stop using street drugs (pot, coke, ice) very easily. I usually just keep super busy. But I have heard that getting off high doses of HC and other opys can be very tough, not too mention very dangerous..


The fent doesn't hold off WD's by itself, but it makes it somewhat bearable. When I am out of Fent, I feel like my soul is being crushed from the inside out. Sucks hard.

thanks again for the advice.

jt

 

[opiatekrzy]

it can potentially take years of reducing ur doses, at high levels/low levels, switching to different medications also, to wean off opioids successfully without too much pain from withdrawl, my dad has been RXed pain pills from hydrocodone, percocet, fentanyl, morphine,darvocet, etc...his tolerance was high, from taking #180 morphine 30mg a monty (6 a day) along with#180 percodan along with that for breaktrough, it took him 5 years to finally get down to taking just 30mg of morphine 2x a day...he use to be on xanax 2mg 4x a day, and switched to klonopin 2mg 4x a day, worked himself down to klonopin 2-3mg a day at the most..all this took years, to do comfortably..if u go into detox, expect 10-20 yrs of opiate use to be weaned out of ur body within 3-5 days (avoid!)