So this is full day 8 for me on the taper or whatever we can refer to the substantial lowering and changing of my meds. What I can say, and with absolute happiness, is that if the morphine sulfate IR is NOT lasting 8 hours (and everyone says it isn't) then I have natural endorphins kicking in and making me very happy and contented right now
I almost want to cry tears of joy because I feel so freaking normal. As a rule I am happy, busy, helpful to others, silly and humorous just to name a few traits. The opiates took some of that away from me but it may have been the severe pain that initially kept me from walking too. I guess I am over this hump for sure. Day three was a turning point for me (for the better). I am a bit scared to do the next drop but it can't be that bad since I am on so much less now!
Thats rather odd that you lowered your dose as much as you did and actually feel happy. In terms of how long it lasts, I would do the math with a half life of 2.5 hours, which I personally think is the most accurate.
You take 30mg at 12noon, by 2:30 you have 15mg, by 5:00 you should have around 7.5mg, by 7:30 you can guess around 3.75mg. Anything after that will just be residue and the half life becomes more exponential at that point then linear. Because if it didn't even 3 weeks from now you should still have like .000125mg in your blood, which obviously isn't true.
Now in terms of active doses. 30mg of morphine most people can barely feel as it is. In 2 1/2 hours you have half that, EXTREMELY weak. I could only guess by 5-6 hours most of its affects would be gone. But then in terms of wds starting its much harder to predict. I'd think around hour 10-12 you'd have your first hot flash or chill, and it would slowly escalate all the way to around hour 48 at which point you'd be nearing the worst of wds. Obviously a lot of this is a guess, but I'm just trying to give you some numbers to work with. I'm also sure you have a pretty good idea of the timeline already, but you can compare it with what I wrote and see what you think.
Its said the strongest alkaloid in pods is morphine too, but it exists in many different forms then just the sulfate. Those forms also have a higher bioavailability so not only are you getting more morphine, but its also lasting longer due to the other 48+ alkaloids keeping the receptors busy. I STILL feel with the longer half life of pods though, that after around 10-12 hours is usually when I get my first hot flashes, same as I think it would be with morphine. Just that you don't really peak in wds with pods till day 3. What I find interesting, is are you dosing morphine every 8 hours? Because if you're tapering, just because it loses most its affects after 8 hours doesn't mean you can't dose every 24 hours. Because you won't be in real wds till the end of day 2.
I just figured I'd mention that encase you plan on stopping completely. If you're just trying to lower your dose then its fine to dose every 8 hours. But if you're gonna jump off you're really gonna have no clue where your bodies at untill you start delaying your doses. And I'm thinking part of the reason you're as happy as you are is BECAUSE you're dosing every 8 hours (if I misinterpreted anything you wrote then just ignore all this obviously). Even after doing a large drop, when you dose that often you're body can bounce back in a matter of days. But if you were dosing once a day doses theres a chance you could be feeling pretty shitty right now. Just remember if you DO plan on getting off completely, you should aim for dosing only once a day. I'm just saying this so you don't dose 3 times your last day, then your first day off get slammed with wds and wonder "what the hell happened?".
But either way you know your body better than me so good luck!
@Draigan
You are right stopping for 48-72 hours each time will break me down fast. But even doing it over the weekend won't help, because if I jump off friday, I'd technically be peaking by monday, not getting better. Thats IF I get bad wds though in the first place. I have NO IDEA really how a taper affects wds.
The most obvious fact to me is that it would lessen the intensity alot, but I'm not sure if tapering changes the actual timeline of withdrawning. Like instead of having 5-6 terrible day, I'll just have 5-6 not so good days. But I don't know. Its likely that just because I've already been withdrawing slowly for weeks, that I COULD bounce back by monday like you said. I think ultimately though no matter how much I plan for it I'm just gonna have to see what it happens. It pisses me off because it seems you can never win with opiates no matter what. No matter how much math you do, no matter how much on point your timing and taper has been, its still completely unknown how your bodies gonna respond.
As long as the wds are minor though thats all I really care about. I'm def gonna have to stop driving myself crazy about the jump off I think and just roll with the punches when it happens.
And HELPMEPLEASE you asked how I was doing with the taper but since I have to update my taper thread I'll just mention it in there. I'll go do that now actually...
edit: fuck I just realized HELPMEPLEASE another reason why you're prob feeling good. You're on 30mg doses of morphine and taking a clonidine patch. Even if you lowered your dose of morphine in half, at that dose the clonidine is owning any remote withdrawal symptom that you're getting. What I mean is w/out the clonidine you prob would be getting VERY minor wds to begin. Maybe a hotflash or 2 but at that low a dose of opiates your on, the clonidine will be GREAT at keeping you 100% stable. To be 100% honest, if I had clonidine, at that dose of morphine you're on you can prob stop right now and not even feel a wd. So no wonder you're feeling good lol. Not only are you completely stabilized on the dose of morphine your on, but the clondines not even being used for wds. So any feeling you get from it is prob increasing your mood. Not in a euphoric type of way but it would make you feel extremely calm and relaxed, which in turn I think is whats making you so happy right now.
I was coming off a MASS opium habit at one point a few years back, I prob easily had a hundred times the amount of morphine in my blood then you, and I cold turkeyed in a detox. That was the first time I got clonidine and even though at high doses of opiates like that the wds are horrific, I was amazed at how well the clonidine held up against them.
That def explains why you're feeling so good. You can most likely stop the morphine completely, just keep a clonidine patch on and you wouldn't go through much of anything as low as you are.
Those patches are a bitch to get sticking. I am going to wait and see what the dr says. I am going to bring this post with and compare to his ideas. Since I am either alone or with my 4 year old grandson so much I need to be 100% sure before I do this. Seeing me go through what I did last week could really mess with the boy's head. I need to plan for when I know someone will be here with me. Can't thank you enough though! If you ever need anything, find me. I wish you well. I want to keep track of your journey too.