Opioids Running low on roxys, how to get the most of of what I have left?

[BlueEyesAL]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum so first off I apologize before hand if I am posting this in the wrong place. To make a long story as short as possible, after a very severe car accident leaving over half my body crushed about 18 months ago, I've had to see a few pain management specialists during this time. It was inevitable that I was going to become physically addicted to the meds I was given for pain being that my recovery was going to take so long. Well, I've recovered to the most extent that I probably will without another surgery, but still have chronic pain and still am on pain meds. I've been taking almost twice my prescribed dosage for the past 2 months because my tolerance is up so much and my pain levels have actually increased recently. This has left me with only about 7 days left of my RX and it's going to be 14-15 days until my next appt. Can anyone offer advice on how to get the very most out of the amount of medicine I take? Are the supplements that can be taken along with my meds that can help extend the life of it, or things that I can avoid that might move it through my body faster? Basically cutting down over 50% is going to give me withdrawal symptoms and cause me a lot of extra pain. I've been taking almost 200mg of Roxycodone a day for the past few weeks and have only about 75mg a day to last me till my next appt. Any advice is very much appreciated.

Thanks!

Jillian

 

[alt 14]

Hey Jillian, sorry for your situation.. If you can in the future, type in size 12 times new roman font. Reading that was hard on my eyes.

Unfortunately, you are on oxycodone. The most effective way to take oxycodone is by swallowing the tablets. Shooting or snorting them will make you get less out of your meds. You have a very important choice to make... You can take the 75mg/day orally and have severe withdrawal symptoms, or you can buy some heroin/pain pills off the street and avoid withdrawals. Both options aren't ideal. A third choice would be enrolling in a methadone or suboxone matienence program. I'm sorry that's the best advice I have for you :/ if I was in your position and could find street opiates, I would buy them. Try not to abuse your meds in the future, or you will be in the same situation next month.

 

[BlueEyesAL]

Hey Jillian, sorry for your situation.. If you can in the future, type in size 12 times new roman font. Reading that was hard on my eyes.

Unfortunately, you are on oxycodone. The most effective way to take oxycodone is by swallowing the tablets. Shooting or snorting them will make you get less out of your meds. You have a very important choice to make... You can take the 75mg/day orally and have severe withdrawal symptoms, or you can buy some heroin/pain pills off the street and avoid withdrawals. Both options aren't ideal. A third choice would be enrolling in a methadone or suboxone matienence program. I'm sorry that's the best advice I have for you :/ if I was in your position and could find street opiates, I would buy them. Try not to abuse your meds in the future, or you will be in the same situation next month.

Thank you for your suggestions. Looks like I have no good options. I don't know if there are any available that I can buy, they are really hard to find where I live because the biggest pain dr in town got shut down by the DEA for writing huge dosages to every patient he saw so they are hard to come by (and very expensive), I do have a bottle of methadone somewhere but I was in the middle of a move when I had the prescription and i only took one pill and it made me feel sick so i didn't take it again, then ended up misplacing the bottle. Looks like i need to do some digging through my boxes to see if I can find it, then I won't be searching for someone to sell me one pill for $50! Thanks for the advice. Next month I'll try to control my intake and not take them so irresponsibly.

 

[missmeyet?]

Hey girl...so sorry for your situation..I know your pain.

Here's the deal, at the amount you are currently taking if you cut the dosages in half so that it will last 2 weeks instead of one then yes you will be back in pain. But as far as the withdrawals go it should not be bad. You won't feel as good as you normally do but it only takes a small percentage of your normal dose to keep you from going into withdrawals. So cut it in half and you will avoid the WDs, like I said you just won't feel as "good" as you normally do, and of course you will not get as much pain relief (coming from a chronic pain patient who is dependent on oxy and a nurse of 20 years).
Good luck

 

[alt 14]

If you weren't so far away from your normal dose, I could say buy a box of Tagamet and some grapefruit juice.. But that can only add maybe 15-20% more to your stash. If you can find your methadone script, you will be in a much better situation.

One other thing you can try next month is getting switched from oxycodone to oxymorphone, and then extracting the oxymorphone from ER pills and shooting them up or snorting them. Snorting them would give you about 4x more than taking the pills by mouth, and shooting them up would give you about 10x more. You will lose some oxymorphone in the extraction process, but its worth it for the increase in bioavailability.

I'm not an opiate addict, so my advice isn't first hand. But it is something to consider, if you're open to these options. As for this month though, a lot depends on you finding more opiates or your methadone script.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

Only thing to really do is start cutting your doses down. Take just enough to get well and stay out of withdrawal. It's easier said than done, I know, but just think about how bad it will suck if you run out totally.

 

[missmeyet?]

/\yes, exactly this. So even if you aren't comfortable completely cutting dose in half like I had suggested maybe work your way down some. But I will find a reference (and of course everyone is a little different in how drugs affect them) about how you only beed so much percentage of your regular dose to prevent withdrawals.

As far as harm reduction matters go I think it is wrong (and terribly irresponsible) to suggest to someone who is taking narcotic pain meds for legit chronic pain to ask the doctor (or obtain it in any way) to switch a person to something stronger and to start injecting it??. I wouldn't go that route personally OP, it could lead to all sorts of more severe issues of all types.

If you current medication regimen isn't cutting it as far as controlling your pain I would suggest talking to your doc. I wouldn't suggest telling him you had increased the dose (I personally wouldn't) and I don't know your doctor of course and they are all different in how they react. Maybe you can just let him know that it has become less effective...maybe a dose increase? But I would not begin to inject your pain meds if you are not already doing that. It will certainly jump your tolerance way more than taking them by mouth and the effects do not last as long and it can be a very bad habit to get into due to all of the complications that go along with it.

Good luck and hope you start feeling better. But try to just start decreasing your dosages for now. Even if it doesn't stretch all the way til your next script it will definately buy you a little more time before you hit any WD symptoms.

 

[Fire&Water]

Jillian..

Some people feel (up to) 50 % more pain relief from plugging their opioids. Please read the 'Plugging Mega-thread" as it is very informative, read all of the details to get the most out of what you have left...I feel this is the only other safe ROA, keep things sterile and comfortable.

I am not saying this is your case, but you can have severe "rebound pain" (please, look this up also) from taking large doses at regular timed schedules, "example" (every 8 hrs.) - you may benefit from holding off as long as you can before re dosing, I know it can be very hard to do. I do not recommend ER formulas because they can be very unpredictable and do not work well at all for me, because of the way they are manufactured.

Only consider methadone as a last resort and do not use them in conjunction unless told so by your doctor, (highly unlikely) as this is a bad idea all around in the long haul.

All the best in your physical pain subsiding at the very least...

F & W

 

[alt 14]

I had to look it up for the numbers, but bioavailability of oral oxycodone is 60-87%, and rectal is the same or less. Don't waste your meds. To effectively "plug" your meds as described above, you need to do it after a bowel movement, and there needs to be a potential gain in bioavailability. And with oxycodone, there isn't one.

The only option you have to get more out of your meds is to get prescribed an equivalent oral dose of another opiate like hydromorphone, oxymorphone, or morphine IR and take it by another ROA. While shooting your oxycodone will give you no gain(actually will give you a loss), snorting a prescribed orally equivalent dose of extracted oxymorphone can quadruple your meds, or increase it 10fold if you decide to shoot it up.

 

[Fire&Water]

"Some people feel (up to) 50 % more pain relief from plugging"... this number varies, and it will not last or stay the same over time.
Being said, chronic pain patients are not clones. You will waste nothing by giving it a chance.

It's in the details...

 

[Morphling]

^^ I don't know, I haven't tried but some people seem to be able to get far better effects plugging oxy, at dosages lower than they need to take orally. It's definitely worth trying, it shouldn't be a waste of pills either way. I really have to discourage snorting or shooting oxymorphone as well, that's exactly how my tolerance got to be so beastly. It's a very bad road to go down, when you need your meds for pain.

BlueEyes, if your pain isn't being managed suitably at the dosages recommended by your doctor, you need to have that problem addressed or you'll just keep ending up in the same situation as you are now. As Missmeyet? mentioned, telling your doctor you have elected to increase your dosage without consulting him could cause you some difficulties. You'd still be telling him the truth by saying that the amount of medication scripted to you isn't controlling your pain very well, and you are suffering throughout the day. Talk to him, that's what pain management specialists do--manage pain.

If you can get your hands on some neurontin or pregabalin(Lyrica), it should help to ameliorate withdrawal symptoms, and might even help with your pain some!

Good luck hun!

 

[RTrain]

If you weren't so far away from your normal dose, I could say buy a box of Tagamet and some grapefruit juice.. But that can only add maybe 15-20% more to your stash. If you can find your methadone script, you will be in a much better situation.

One other thing you can try next month is getting switched from oxycodone to oxymorphone, and then extracting the oxymorphone from ER pills and shooting them up or snorting them. Snorting them would give you about 4x more than taking the pills by mouth, and shooting them up would give you about 10x more. You will lose some oxymorphone in the extraction process, but its worth it for the increase in bioavailability.

I'm not an opiate addict, so my advice isn't first hand. But it is something to consider, if you're open to these options. As for this month though, a lot depends on you finding more opiates or your methadone script.

Are you seriously suggesting someone who is on pain management to switch their medication and start shooting that? Also telling them to consider hitting the streets and looking to cop some dope. You got any other great ideas?...maybe try to convince her to rob a pharmacy while you're at it.

To the original poster, do not consider this at all. It is a bad idea on so many levels I am not even going to start get into them.

 

[alt 14]

I mean there was obviously abuse or sales of meds going on, so why not switch to something that will allow you to do that?

Sorry for being sane and looking at the situation objectively. Not really though. Theft is different from better utilizing ones meds, and its a shame you can't tell the difference.

Rectal bioavailability of oxycodone will be less if not plugged immediately following a significant bowel movement. It's a fact, and you can't argue that it "might work." At best, bioavailabilities will be the same. At worst, she loses some of her meds. There is literally nothing to gain.

 

[missmeyet?]

I mean there was obviously abuse or sales of meds going on, so why not switch to something that will allow you to do that?

Sorry for being sane and looking at the situation objectively. Not really though. Theft is different from better utilizing ones meds, and its a shame you can't tell the difference.

Rectal bioavailability of oxycodone will be less if not plugged immediately following a significant bowel movement. It's a fact, and you can't argue that it "might work." At best, bioavailabilities will be the same. At worst, she loses some of her meds. There is literally nothing to gain.

The OP said nothing about sales and even said she didn't know if it were even possible to buy narcotics in her town so obviously that is NOT going on. And if by abusing her meds you mean she has done what she says, increased the dose to help better control the pain (not to get high) then yeah I guess so. But that is a far cry from going on the streets and buying dope. It is also a huge leap from taking extra for pain control to get something much stronger and start injecting it! WTFM

Sane? Seriously? As in everyone elses advice is not and you truly feel by giving that advice it is the sane thing?

 

[cathinone_king]

Just don't binge on them on u should be able to conserve them. An opiate tolerance builds up rapidly, thats why most junkies are broke. I love roxies but I know my limits, and I understand that they're pretty much heroin pills.

 

[Morphling]

Alt14, I'm not going to bother arguing with you. You've mentioned that you're not an opiate addict and don't have first-hand experience, so why are you contradicting those of us who actually have years of experience with these things? What is your basis for expertise on these things??