Opiate withdrawl question

[DylanG204]

My doctor has pescribed me tylenol #4 and ativan 0.5mg for my opiate withdrawl , i have been trying to get off fentanyl for a long time now ,


the ativan helps wonders with the restless legs and i can actually get some sleep , i olny take the T4's when i cant stand the withdrawl effects anymore

i haven been able to go to work unless i am using fentanyl because if i am cold sweating, big pupils , and muscle weakness my boss will send me home because

i look very ill and im not very productive , because i do construction and the work requires lots of strength and energy wich i have none wile withdrawing.

The problem is every doctor ive seen either they arent able to write triplicate pescriptions or have no idea what suboxone is.


I am on the opioid dependancy program list for methadone but its 2 month wait , i would like to get a docotor to pesribe me suboxone but all of them dont know

what it is , any ideas what to do >? , im going to ask to switch from t4s to hydrocodone to get me though untell the waiting list.

 

[sarkisian]

Hopefully someone can answer your question DylanG 204. I am coming here for help as well so I won't be of much help to you.

Also I hope I am posting in the correct threat her, if not please redirect me
First I'd like to say that I am a long time viewer, but this is my first time posting. I started using hydrocodone (7.5 & 10 mg usually the blue watson 540s or the yellow perc 10s) as a recreational drug my senior year in high school, 2009. Everyone has their reason for starting on pills, usually a legitimate prescription from a doctor sue to injury or surgery. Within a year I was using them just to get through the day. I didn't get a high from the pills at all. I feared withdrawal so I stayed on them. I know you're reading this and have probably read countless posts, almost identical to this but I really need help. One week before final exams (2011 spring semester) I couldn't find any hydrocodone or the occasional oxy or roxy I would use in desperate times. I took a stats and macroeconomics final in full withdrawal and honestly cannot believe it to this day. That summer when I was off from school for the semester and could take off work for a few days I finally got clean by tapering off my 8 10mg hydro a day habit. I have read all of the wd recipe articles and found them helpful and used all of the tricks in the bag. Imodium, lope, 5 htp, kpin, benzos, eating well and drinking water. I was clean for over a year then relapsed after an emergency surgery. I went through my original script so fast it was a joke. I was right back to where I was, maybe worse considering the time it took to finish the bottle. I relapsed a few times thereafter. I was confident, cool, could and would talk to anyone. I am extremely active as it is and I have a good metabolism and workout strenuously 4 times a week. Another strange thing is I can point out other addicts that are high functioning I just know, then when I get close to them in a work setting or personal I ended up being right. My friend had a worse problem than I, and has a script for 8mg suboxone daily. I got hooked shortly after. I use about 1 mg daily for the past 7 months. I got in over my head in school, working 2 jobs, manager at a bar at the one job, president for student council, even interning at a great company. I COULDN'T AFFORD TO STOP THE SUB USE. I had zero downtime and the sub got me through and then some. I would talk to any girl with confidence get out of any situation, and I realized about 3 months ago I using them to maintain. I started out 7 months ago with like .5 a 8mg strip, then month a couple months later I was up to one mg. I have stayed there for the most part and I know now that the wd will be way longer than the hydros. I need help on a tapering timeline. I graduate with my bachelor's December 17th. I plan to be down to .05 mg (like a tiny, tiny spec of a strip. Will this help the wd? Also, can anyone estimate how long my wd will be. I have the entire taper kit 5htp, 12 kpin, lope, Imodium, melatonin, sleeping pills (OTC), etc.. I am already active and take amino acids and vitamins and am in pretty good shape will this help reduce effects/wd time? I can get a sub from my buddy to night or tomorrow to start my taper from 1 mg, should I even do that? Like many sub and pills made me feel so much better and the sub lasted so long and cost me nothing out of pocket. I was superman. I dread wd but I am wondering if mine will be that bad considering activity level, time on the drug, and dosage.

 

[wezface]

Dylan, I have run into this problem as well. Unless a doctor is specifically involved in a rehabilitation program, there's a small chance that they will have even heard of suboxone. If you can, and if the wait for the clinic is that long, your best bet might be a doctor who has specialized in pain medicine. However, I wouldn't get my hopes up. As opiate withdrawal fatalities are incredibly rare, most doctors will tell you to either grin and bear it or to do exactly what you've been doing. And, honestly, if you can get a few days off work, just doing the time (3 days to a week, usually) might be your best bet. I know how much this sucks. But if you've been already using the T4s to come off the fentanyl, you're probably well on your way. Good luck to you.

Sarkisian: I'll pretty much repeat what I just said there. Go down as much as you can on the sub, but eventually you're going to have to cut it off. And I'll tell you both, if you've never done this, that at least half of opiate WD is mental: keeping yourself busy, getting outside if you can after the initial physical horridness is over, these thing are really important. I would probably do 1mg for a week or so and go to the .5 for about a week..... But I'm a pretty big proponent of the "just stop doing it" philosophy, which is what I use in my life and have used to kick many, many times over the years, so perhaps this is not what you both want to hear.