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Opioids Hi.....need help please

C

Chloe Indigo

Greenlighter
Joined
Mar 9, 2013
Messages
7
Location
Upstate New York
I have a question about tapering off of opiates. I am fighting a stubborn intestinal illness called C-Diff.....for three months I was managing the severe abdominal pain with 5-500 Vicodin, taking 2 every 4 hours around the clock. Then I was hospitalized and they had me on Dilaudid 1 mg every 2, then 3, then 4 hours. Started out intravenously then they switch to sq(under the skin). They sent me home with the 5-500 Vics and I went through horrible withdrawal and pain. Now I am trying to figure out the right kind of Vic taper as I am sensitive to meds and the withdrawal has been horrible. I am down to taking one 5-500 every 5 hours. It has been rough so far. I was told decrease one pill for one week at a time. I've also been told pick one interval during the day and decrease it by half just during that interval...which is not making sense to me at all but what do I know. Basically i really need some support and advice .
 
There's more than one way to do it; we don't always have the luxury of the slower taper. I personally do not try to space out the meds more than an hour at a time until I'm about ready to jump off. but if I can increase the length of time between doses gradually without becoming non-functional, I do that. I basically just reduce by 1/3 every three days. On day 4, take the most recent dose and reduce it by 1/3; repeat. That's worked for lots of different things with various half-lives, though it can be more uncomfortable with things with longer half-lives. But if you don't have the meds for that length of a taper, then you'll have to pick another taper schedule and try it. If I were tapering vics I'd think in terms of reducing by mgs, not by # of pills - you'd be splitting pills eventually to keep the taper slope from being too steep. And I'd reduce more often than once a week. But ymmv. I'd say you should listen to your doc, but I find they tend to give crappy advice about tapering opiates. But ymmv there too.
 
Thank you so much for responding. I am trying to be a big girl about this but I am at my wits end. One 5-500 every five hours is not cutting it and I'm starting to panic. I do have access to a slow taper and I also have access to Xanax to help the wd but it only seems to be getting worse and worse. I'm shaking all the time, headaches, muscle spasms, tremors. I feel so lost and scared that I will never get through this or off these. All I know is that my current taper is not working and my doctor will work with me with getting enough pills but she is clueless and pretty much has left it up to me (an addict anyhow for fucks sake). This may sound like a dream come true.....finding a doc who will prescribe 180 polls at one time and a psychiatrist who gives me 120 Xanax a month to top it off but I am beside myself. I want off the Vicodin and my body is having a very prolonged, extremely uncomfortable temper tantrum.
 
Thank you so much for responding but that was as invalidating as the stupid doctors can be.

What may seem like just a "low dose" to you is my demon right now just like everyone else here. It is also the result of a calculated long taper which has sucked balls every step of the way. Inherent in the very definition of a long taper is time as I have learned here. I did not realize or read anywhere on this site that at this point in my taper it was just time to jump off because I'm at such a "low dose". I tapered to get here!
 
yeah man your better off duking it out with the withdrawal beast for 2 days cold turkey than trying to taper using hydrocodone. that is the best way to do it at your dose. we aren't trying to come off like your dependence is any less real than other people's, but it's in your best interest to skip the taper and deal with the discomfort. opiate withdrawal is miserable no matter what but if you knew what coming off high dose opiates feels like you would be happy to quit the hydro cold turkey. if your new to withdrawal the symptoms seem much worse than they are in retrospect. no one here is going to be able to give you good advice on a vicodin taper because vicodin tapers are rarely used. I was given a "hycodan" cough syrup taper in one detox but because it was syrup I really couldn't tell you how they did it. I just remember being given less and less but because of the lorazepam and librium they were feeding me I was pretty much oblivious.
 
I remember going through complete hell with hydrocodone w/APAP 5/500 years ago. I averaged about 5 pills per day everyday for an extended period of time.
This was years ago. After that, I didn't take opiates for quite awhile. Now, about 2 years after being diagnosed with a chronic pain condition and starting pain management, I'm taking doses of oxycodone IR that I never would have fathomed, along with fentanyl.
This may be hard to believe, but from what I remember the withdrawals from hydrocodone were just about as bad as wd's are now.
I guess like somebody else mentioned, it's probably hard to tell looking back....
To the Opening Poster, I am sorry I don't have any advice to offer you. I just sort of wanted to let you know that I understand how you feel...You are not alone. it really is a tough situation to be in, because like others have said, I can't think of anything that would help you to taper any further, you know?
Cat
 
down508 said:
yeah man your better off duking it out with the withdrawal beast for 2 days cold turkey than trying to taper using hydrocodone. that is the best way to do it at your dose. we aren't trying to come off like your dependence is any less real than other people's, but it's in your best interest to skip the taper and deal with the discomfort. opiate withdrawal is miserable no matter what but if you knew what coming off high dose opiates feels like you would be happy to quit the hydro cold turkey. if your new to withdrawal the symptoms seem much worse than they are in retrospect. no one here is going to be able to give you good advice on a vicodin taper because vicodin tapers are rarely used. I was given a "hycodan" cough syrup taper in one detox but because it was syrup I really couldn't tell you how they did it. I just remember being given less and less but because of the lorazepam and librium they were feeding me I was pretty much oblivious.
Click to expand...

Getting stabilized on really any dose of hydrocodone and kicking that habit is preferable to the pain one goes through when detoxing from something like heroin or oxy. I so wish I could get my tolerance low enough to be able to take hydrocodone and have it do anything to then even allow me to detox off it.
 
Here's the deal: w/d sucks. But, the w/d from vicodan will only last 4-5 days. And you most likely will not be halluciating or anything detoxing from a 25mg/day habit. Ppl advocate tapering off heroin b/c a CT detox has severe side effects. While it may be very difficult to get off ur DOC, a CT detox is a very real possibility.

The benefit of just jumping off CT is that you only deal with the w/d for a week then its over. The alternative is extending the amount of time in discomfort by slowly tappering

Pls don't misunderstand, nobody is diminishing ur addiction. I know how hard it is to get off opiates. And ull def feel physical discomfort. But the severity of your physical w/d will be totally bearable even from a cold turkey detox. That's why ppl are suggesting it. Heck ur mental w/d may be worse than someone shooting 2 grams of heroin a day, but physically, ur w:d will be on the mild-moderate end of the opiate withdrawl spectrum

And don't forget, THAT IS GOOD NEWS!

If ur set on a taper tho, reduce by 2.5mgs every 5 days until zero
 
Thank you everyone. I found this site during my recent extended stay in the hospital and I am full of gratitude. Tapering just sucks.....I'm researched out. Continuing this taper has been mentally and physically and spiritually just the worst . I went down to 4 a day every six hours and the wd is raging not to mention coping with the pain from the infectious disease I had in the first place.

A pain management specialist might be a good idea but I fear that opens up a new quandary in an off itself. So I suffer and continue to suffer but in this heightened state of ridiculous self-imposed martyrdom...... It is so good to be able to come here and find support. Thank you guys.
 
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