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Severe methadone withdrawal and desperation

I think that bad taste in your mouth is caused by breathing through your mouth when you are asleep and as you suck in air over hour teeth and tongue it dries your mouth and causes that taste....try those breath-rite Basel strips (you know those ones that stick on and hold your nostrils open).....that helps me with similar problems. Sleep and nighttime are always the worst when in wds as you are alone in the dark and silence with your thoughts and are very conscious of how bad you're feeling. I think a benzo in these instances is worth the negative repucussions that it may have.....just don't make a habit of it I guess.

Hope you sleep better tonight mate.
 
I was on 40mg and had a seizure from LQTS about 6, 7 weeks ago. It was a very fucked up event, happened out of the blue while pulling weeds, and my memory is still scrambled. I was already cutting my dose, am Rx'd 90mg/day for RA pm but wanted the pharmaceutical handcuffs off before i ever had a seizure.
I'm at 15mg now, can't imagine how you must have felt coming of 100-200mg/day.
Best of luck to you.
-izzy
 
Day 7 (PM): I got my chills back tonight, slightly. but not nearly as bad as before, thank God. Smoked a little green monster and I'm about to take a couple benadryl and pass out (with a little luck, anyway) and sleep for maybe a little longer than hour and 15 minutes at a time. Into day 8. Oh boy oh boy.
 
Some more time down nocturne.. doing great and at least you're sleeping a little, I didn't sleep at all for almost two weeks and then like three and a half hours a night for almost five months. It was alright though. But your that much closer. Nice work.
 
Day 8 (AM): Today is HORRIBLE. I don't know how I am even sitting here able to type this. I woke up with the worse nausea and gastrointestinal cramps I have ever had. My entire body is shaking and convulsing and I've had to crawl to the bathroom 4 times in an hour. I managed to choke down some wheat crackers and some cranberry juice. As soon as I'm able I'm going to drink some lime juice for electrolytes. Whether all this shit stays down isn't up to me though. I took some Excedrin ES for the headache, it took the edge off but contributed to the nausea. I also broke down and took 250mg of Tramadol at once. Back into the seventh circle, I suppose...
 
On a side note: I took 2 Benadryl last night but the exp date was 2012. These are the first benzos I have taken. Could this be part of the issue?
 
Benadryl is not a benzo.. benzo stands for benzodiazepine;).. I don't think so.. your just losing more and more of the methadone from your system and will continue do so until around day ten. This can cause the symptoms to get more severe as it happens.

You did not talk to the doctor about medications to help you?
 
I must have misread the benadryl information :/ my head is in 300 places at once right now. I did talk to the doctor and aside from the clonodine there's nothing that he would do. Some of the doctors here are not very sympathetic to people going through withdrawals. I do have an appointment with a psychiatrist and I've joined a few more support groups. Going to start going to NA meetings and once I get my medicaid I am going to try to get into an inpatient clinic. I won't go to a suboxone clinic though. No thanks.
 
Some doctor are as in the stone age about detox as they are about addiction. If you see another one I would bring these to show them.

Importance of gabapentin dose in treatment of opioid withdrawal.
Add-on gabapentin in the treatment of opiate withdrawal

If I were you I would stop back in the office and give them a copy of the two reports with a nicely written request for two weeks worth of gabapentin. Their ignorance should not be paid for with your misery. I would not encourage you to consider this if I didn't think it has a very strong potential to make you feel allot better.


Your doing great though. keep pushing through. =D

If your board you can read through some stuff about what will almost undoubtedly come after the Acutes. The PAWS. Its good to create a plan to work through these.

Way to be proactive in your recovery. Great idea at getting back to the meetings.

 
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valiumnocturne said:
I must have misread the benadryl information :/ my head is in 300 places at once right now. I did talk to the doctor and aside from the clonodine there's nothing that he would do. Some of the doctors here are not very sympathetic to people going through withdrawals. I do have an appointment with a psychiatrist and I've joined a few more support groups. Going to start going to NA meetings and once I get my medicaid I am going to try to get into an inpatient clinic. I won't go to a suboxone clinic though. No thanks.
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Your almost home brother. Most drs aren't compassionate at all, I think we all know exactly what u mean there. Once u get your insurance you can kick him to the curb and find a caring dr, good riddence to bad rubbish like my mom used to say lol.. Anyway dude smoke the shit outta that weed man, what a great medicine it is!! I got permission to smoke so I'll be puffin with u bro :) whatever makes it more bearable man. A crutch is helpful of u can't walk! Lol. The sleep is the big issue though, I remember that when I was going through wd. You just wanna pass that time and sleep is the best way. Then when u can't get any it makes 1 night seem like a week, ughhhh. Hang in there bro!! You doing a whodini on those handcuffs and u already got the straight jacket almost all the way off. The rls is a bitch, before I had a good dr I'd go through wd once a week and the rls turned into restless everything syndrome! What I would do is lift dumbells til I couldn't lift anymore on whatever arm was jiggling( I called rls jiggle legs, jiggle arms etc lol) is do push-ups for the legs and put all my weight on whatever leg was jiggling til I couldn't do another push up. If u don't have a dumbbell for the arms u can use a 2 liter soda bottle, do it a thousand times if u gotta, it worked pretty good for me. I drank a lot to help me sleep too, not saying go drink(don't yell at me everybody!) I'm just telling u what I did. Drinking could've killed me but I didn't care, I was near suicide when the wd peaked at day 4 so I said fuck it. If I was wd from done' I think I would've ended it, seriously. Your built for this shit bro, beat it back!! U got this!!! I don't know u but dude it sounds lame but I'm proud of u and living vicariously through u ATM. I think the whole bl community is proud if you and were all behind you brother!!!
 
Day 8 (PM): Went to the ER today. IV fluids and cyclobenzapr to help me sleep and with the muscle spasms that I've been having. I told the doc about the methadone use and he did a CT scan to check for kidney stones (I still have 13 small ones [under 7mm] in my kidneys) but they're still immobile for the time being. He looked at my records and xrays for my back and saw the swelling and compression fracture, as well as the slipped discs on each side. Not only am I dealing with the horrors of WD but with the ceaseless back pain as well. So he gave me 5/325 Norco to help take the edge off the pain. Feeling alright right now.
 
Glad you are feeling better:)

How much of the back pain did the medication relieve?

Whenever we take opiates during detox we can prolong the time we are in the acutes. In this case I don't think it will prolong them that much as you still had a week or more to go. So this may work out well.. kinda switch over to a short acting as the methadone level works its way down. Hopefully this will cause a shorter withdrawal in the end.
 
Cliffy78 said:
Your almost home brother. Most drs aren't compassionate at all, I think we all know exactly what u mean there. Once u get your insurance you can kick him to the curb and find a caring dr, good riddence to bad rubbish like my mom used to say lol.. Anyway dude smoke the shit outta that weed man, what a great medicine it is!! I got permission to smoke so I'll be puffin with u bro :) whatever makes it more bearable man. A crutch is helpful of u can't walk! Lol. The sleep is the big issue though, I remember that when I was going through wd. You just wanna pass that time and sleep is the best way. Then when u can't get any it makes 1 night seem like a week, ughhhh. Hang in there bro!! You doing a whodini on those handcuffs and u already got the straight jacket almost all the way off. The rls is a bitch, before I had a good dr I'd go through wd once a week and the rls turned into restless everything syndrome! What I would do is lift dumbells til I couldn't lift anymore on whatever arm was jiggling( I called rls jiggle legs, jiggle arms etc lol) is do push-ups for the legs and put all my weight on whatever leg was jiggling til I couldn't do another push up. If u don't have a dumbbell for the arms u can use a 2 liter soda bottle, do it a thousand times if u gotta, it worked pretty good for me. I drank a lot to help me sleep too, not saying go drink(don't yell at me everybody!) I'm just telling u what I did. Drinking could've killed me but I didn't care, I was near suicide when the wd peaked at day 4 so I said fuck it. If I was wd from done' I think I would've ended it, seriously. Your built for this shit bro, beat it back!! U got this!!! I don't know u but dude it sounds lame but I'm proud of u and living vicariously through u ATM. I think the whole bl community is proud if you and were all behind you brother!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the support man, really. It doesn't matter if we don't know each other and it's not lame at all. We all share a nightmare or two, and they're some of the worst things imaginable. I have been working out as much as I can stand to and it seems to help with natural energy and to relieve some of the bullshit RLS and spasms. I also picked up a script of cyclobenzapr from the ER doc today soooo hopefully I will get some sleep. I'm glad that you're able to find a little light in all the darkness man, really. I am pushing forward into day 9. And don't worry, I will definitely smoke the hell outta this green monster. It helps!
 
neversickanymore said:
Glad you are feeling better:)

How much of the back pain did the medication relieve?

Whenever we take opiates during detox we can prolong the time we are in the acutes. In this case I don't think it will prolong them that much as you still had a week or more to go. So this may work out well.. kinda switch over to a short acting as the methadone level works its way down. Hopefully this will cause a shorter withdrawal in the end.
Click to expand...

Here's hoping :) the norco has alleviated a little of the pain in my back but I also haven't taken much.
 
Hi Valiumnocturne, I know exactly how you are feeling. I have been taking methadone for the past thirty years and have detoxed from high doses like yours twice. All the advice you're getting here is good. One thing I discovered that helped me get through withdrawals from methadone and Xanax was sitting in a full warm to hot water bathtub for hours at a time. Or you can pull a plastic chair into your shower and just sit. This will give you relief from the body aches and also calm your frayed nerves. I know it sounds simple and weird, but it has helped me a ton during detoxes. I cannot figure out why our government is so opposed to just letting us have what we need without having to jump through hoops and/or pay a fortune. I can't tolerate these hard ass people who think we deserve to feel like crap and should just tough it out. For some of us, life without drugs IS toughing it out!
 
keemo7 said:
Hi Valiumnocturne, I know exactly how you are feeling. I have been taking methadone for the past thirty years and have detoxed from high doses like yours twice. All the advice you're getting here is good. One thing I discovered that helped me get through withdrawals from methadone and Xanax was sitting in a full warm to hot water bathtub for hours at a time. Or you can pull a plastic chair into your shower and just sit. This will give you relief from the body aches and also calm your frayed nerves. I know it sounds simple and weird, but it has helped me a ton during detoxes. I cannot figure out why our government is so opposed to just letting us have what we need without having to jump through hoops and/or pay a fortune. I can't tolerate these hard ass people who think we deserve to feel like crap and should just tough it out. For some of us, life without drugs IS toughing it out!
Click to expand...

Very well said, man. I'm gonna write that down, I think. I am in day 9 (AM) now. I took a couple 5/325 vicodin to help with the back pain (which is the reason I started taking the methadone in the first place) and it has helped. Also, I got my first full night of sleep in a week last night. The doctor gave me cyclobenzaprine as a muscle relaxer and it worked great. Instead of fighting to sleep I was fighting to wake up this morning. I'm still drowzy but it actually feels good to be tired and actually ABLE to sleep for once.
 
Sleep is incredibly important

valiumnocturne said:
Very well said, man. I'm gonna write that down, I think. I am in day 9 (AM) now. I took a couple 5/325 vicodin to help with the back pain (which is the reason I started taking the methadone in the first place) and it has helped. Also, I got my first full night of sleep in a week last night. The doctor gave me cyclobenzaprine as a muscle relaxer and it worked great. Instead of fighting to sleep I was fighting to wake up this morning. I'm still drowzy but it actually feels good to be tired and actually ABLE to sleep for once.
Click to expand...
When I was younger, all the detox staff would say "nobody ever died from not sleeping". They would happily let you stay up all night, night after night. I was lucky to be in a place during my second detox, where they went against the rules and let me sit in the tub for hours at a time. Of course now the medical community understands how absolutely essential sleep is to your body and mind. I believe that the lack of sleep compounds the fundamental issues that create the impulse to "get high" to begin with. So then you are left with your originally fucked up mental/emotional process...and now you can't sleep! It's a long and winding road, and the older and more experienced you become at feeling like shit, the more hopeless you become about your future. Happiness is a naturally occurring drug. Unfortunately it's one that you are either born with the capacity for...or you are not. Getting older will not make anything easier. It will just give you more shit to reflect on. If you can manage to rid yourself of the mental crutch that drugs can supply, then I guess it's best to do this at a young age. I wish I could give you more hope, but I have never been good at finding it. I can definitely tell you that you have to sleep. Try the hot water tub for as long as possible, drink some hot milk and go directly to bed. Get yourself one of those noise machines and try the white noise. Sometimes that will help to shut off your thought process a little. I am thinking of you and hoping you can get to a better place.
 
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