Bupe Suboxone/Buprenorphine FAQ & Megathread v3; 2010 - 2022

[Been&Done]

I just got sick for the first time in 10 years as as i using H, but the part i don't get is that i'm currently on 3 mg of Subutex and doing great on my 3rd month, and thought that with Opiates in my body, i won't get "cold" symptoms. Well, i did and taking 2 Benylin gel caps every 4/5 hours. Soar throat is better today, but the cough and that annoying internal headache are still on! Weird that i smoked some weed as usual, but have a little "noddy" feeling i haven't felt in a while; when forcing my eyes closed, this sweet shiver between both my ears reminds me of my 1st few Codeine experimentations many years back! Is that the Benylin and Subutex? or just my wishful thinking?


Edit: We posted at the same time. Yes, low doses are much better of course. Even while wd's from years of daily H, i never exceeded
8 mg/a day, actually, id take 8 or 6 the first day, 7 or 5 the next, decreasing 1 mg /a day till the whole 10 days or depending on how much i had. This time i'm using 2/3 mg/a day for maintenance since i relocated and had the pills already. My next goal is to get off completely, tapering slowly but surely!

 

[Pegasus]

I usually start using Suboxone at around the 2mg level when I first start after coming off other opiates, getting down to around 0.2-0.5mg at the end of the taper... I feel it pretty much the same throughout, though; it seems that whatever dose I'm at will start to only give background effects after around a week of dosing daily and taking more than the minimal amount is really useless. ...And so the dose drops until I quit and start up inevitably some months later...

 

[catcalls]

I've found my sweet spot. It's 4mg. Any less and my stomach hurts, and any more and I get wd from the Subutex daily a few hours before my morning dose. Weird that, eh? Perhaps this is because of the Kratom, but I find that using Kratom in the morning stops any wd from the Subutex dead.

Also, I was using Kratom daily for pain relief. See, I had a molar out recently, and that hurt like a mf. Why? I'll tell you! It was because a small tooth fragment had cut its way inside my gum! It came out last night, and the rush of euphoria I felt when it dislodged itself was immense!

Now, I've got NOT A HINT of pain from my hole. Haha. It was that bloody tooth fragment all along!

 

[Been&Done]

Glad u found it KittyCatCalls

Still looking for an explanation for my "cold", It's my 1st time in ages, but thought that my daily 3mg of Subutex will never allow this to happen, i was wrong! Anyone else get sick on bupes? Is it a normal thing? common? Just trying to learn more on this wonder magicalmysterytour drug.

 

[caseface99]

Why would bupe have anything to do with keeping you from getting sick in the traditional sense?? You are talking about a cold and not withdrawal correct? Because if you are, i don't know what gave you that idea...

 

[5StarSquatHotel]

Did anyone else find that when on a low dose of Subutex you wake at the crack of dawn with very mild wd's symptoms that make it hard to get back to sleep unless you dose again then your out like a light for another good 4 hours. I found even if I took my dose before bed (2mg) I would still suffer the same problem.

 

[catcalls]

Did anyone else find that when on a low dose of Subutex you wake at the crack of dawn with very mild wd's symptoms that make it hard to get back to sleep unless you dose again then your out like a light for another good 4 hours. I found even if I took my dose before bed (2mg) I would still suffer the same problem.

Yes, a good idea is to get out of bed and walk around for a bit. That usually helped me. When I'd wake up at 12am (midnight) and feel like I'm in WD then I'd instantly hit up my Subutex. That left me short for the next day tho. So, I learned, that in time, the WD symptoms ease up a lil in fact the more you are awake. And eventually, you'll be able to sleep again. But, if this problem is persisting, you've got to ask yourself ~ what is my dose?

 

[jamesBrown]

Ive been gone for a couple weeks because ive been in the hospital for the spinal problem that i have been having.
They took me off the bupernorphine even though i havent been taking it in a very long time and put me on opiates....and once again, none of these doctors had even heard of suboxone. Anyway, they didnt believe at first at how high my opiate tolerance was no matter how much I told them. (By the way, they found out what was wrong with my back, I had a spinal infection in the last disc before my tail bone that had been ignored by all the doctors and hospitals I had gone to for 2 months because they thought I was a junky looking for drugs....assholes). Anyway, after several days of me screaming in pain, they eventually upped my pain killer dose to 200mcg's/hr fentanyl to be switched out every two days, along with four 8mg dilaudid pills a day. And that takes away alot of the pain, but there is still alot to deal with. Im just glad I found a hospital staff that acuallt believed me and wanted to help me.

Anyway, I also have to have a PICC line whcih is basically a premanent IV that has two tubes sticking out my left arm for me to administer my anti-biotics and to draw blood, and to do whatever else is needed. Its intersesting because the PICC lines has a catheter tube thingy that goes all the way from my left arm up my shoulder and across my chest and stops right before my heart. It was kind of scrary when they put it in.
So every 8 hours I have to give myself some IV ani-biotics.... which is a tennis ball shaped thingy that I keep in my fridge(there are alot of them since I have to use a new one each time). The tennis ball shaped sphear has tubes coming off of it that connect to my PICC line and I have to use all these special techniques taught to me by an at-home nurse....like using alcohol swabs at certain points, and a whole bunch of shit I had to learn.....it gets kind of complicated.
Annyway, as long as I got my 200mcg per hour fentanyl pathes and all my dlaudid ill be happy, they say it might take up to 12 weeks to fix it with my anti-biotics because of all the doctors that refused to help me for so long. I smell a lawsuit coming on. Maybe ill make a shitload of money. Thats another story anyway.
Anyway, I hope you all are doin well.

 

[SubDude]

^It really depends why you're taking it exactly.

Few will get any stronger EFFECTS above 4-8mg but it will produce a stronger and longer lasting blockade which is beneficial for some and one of the reasons many doctors prescribe these doses.

Thats a good point that many around here fail to consider. The higher dose is a good deterent to abusing other opiates. I agree that a lot of dr's know this and use this reason for prescribing higher doses. I was on a prescription of 2mg with my prior dr and told her I was doing fine... irregardless when she left, my new dr [program director] increased me to 4mg and wanted me to go higher. I accepted the 4mg but don't take it.

 

[OEandricearoni]

Ive been gone for a couple weeks because ive been in the hospital for the spinal problem that i have been having.
They took me off the bupernorphine even though i havent been taking it in a very long time and put me on opiates....and once again, none of these doctors had even heard of suboxone. Anyway, they didnt believe at first at how high my opiate tolerance was no matter how much I told them. (By the way, they found out what was wrong with my back, I had a spinal infection in the last disc before my tail bone that had been ignored by all the doctors and hospitals I had gone to for 2 months because they thought I was a junky looking for drugs....assholes). Anyway, after several days of me screaming in pain, they eventually upped my pain killer dose to 200mcg's/hr fentanyl to be switched out every two days, along with four 8mg dilaudid pills a day. And that takes away alot of the pain, but there is still alot to deal with. Im just glad I found a hospital staff that acuallt believed me and wanted to help me.

Anyway, I also have to have a PICC line whcih is basically a premanent IV that has two tubes sticking out my left arm for me to administer my anti-biotics and to draw blood, and to do whatever else is needed. Its intersesting because the PICC lines has a catheter tube thingy that goes all the way from my left arm up my shoulder and across my chest and stops right before my heart. It was kind of scrary when they put it in.
So every 8 hours I have to give myself some IV ani-biotics.... which is a tennis ball shaped thingy that I keep in my fridge(there are alot of them since I have to use a new one each time). The tennis ball shaped sphear has tubes coming off of it that connect to my PICC line and I have to use all these special techniques taught to me by an at-home nurse....like using alcohol swabs at certain points, and a whole bunch of shit I had to learn.....it gets kind of complicated.
Annyway, as long as I got my 200mcg per hour fentanyl pathes and all my dlaudid ill be happy, they say it might take up to 12 weeks to fix it with my anti-biotics because of all the doctors that refused to help me for so long. I smell a lawsuit coming on. Maybe ill make a shitload of money. Thats another story anyway.
Anyway, I hope you all are doin well.

That pain must suck man, but at least they found out what was wrong with you. Probably took a load of stress off your shoulders. That would be badass if you could make some bank off a lawsuit lol. Hope you feel better bro

 

[caseface99]

@JamesBrown - That sucks man but glad to hear the problem is finally being fixed. Can't tell you how often i have come way to close to being seriously injured while on suboxone, then couldn't get the thought out of my head "what if the doctors don't believe me about my tolerance!". I was also told the last time i went to a dentist that i need to get my wisdom teeth removed, which im going to blow off completely until I've been off of sub for like 4 months. They don't hurt whatsoever so idk why i need them out anyway, might even have been an attempt at getting more business by the dentist so im gonna get a second opinion once i've been off bupe and my tolerance is down.

Anyway, don't wanna get too far off topic, glad to hear you're doing better though.

 

[Pegasus]

Thats a good point that many around here fail to consider. The higher dose is a good deterent to abusing other opiates. I agree that a lot of dr's know this and use this reason for prescribing higher doses. I was on a prescription of 2mg with my prior dr and told her I was doing fine... irregardless when she left, my new dr [program director] increased me to 4mg and wanted me to go higher. I accepted the 4mg but don't take it.

While this is the rationale, I don't recommend anyone to stay on a dose that is giving them effects that they do not like. With the higher doses, side effects are absolutely going to be more pronounced and to go through this just because the doctor is trying to prevent you from using other drugs is ridiculous, IMO. It really doesn't take that long to get the blockade dose out of your system so that you can abuse other opiates if you want to anyways.

 

[caseface99]

While this is the rationale, I don't recommend anyone to stay on a dose that is giving them effects that they do not like. With the higher doses, side effects are absolutely going to be more pronounced and to go through this just because the doctor is trying to prevent you from using other drugs is ridiculous, IMO. It really doesn't take that long to get the blockade dose out of your system so that you can abuse other opiates if you want to anyways.

I agree, when i was on 12mgs of sub i could wait 3 days totally withdrawal free and then get high on heroin easily.

 

[Pegasus]

^Yeah, I have found that when you're on a drug like this that makes you wait to use other opiates, after waiting usually comes an extended binge... You know, because you don't want to have to wait again, you'll go ahead and abuse the shit out of the drug for a few days before switching back to maintenance. With lower doses of Sub, if I want to get some heroin one day, I just don't take my morning dose and plan on using that day, then I go to sleep at night and am free to go back to Sub the following morning if I am so inclined (and I usually am).

 

[Been&Done]

Why would bupe have anything to do with keeping you from getting sick in the traditional sense?? You are talking about a cold and not withdrawal correct? Because if you are, i don't know what gave you that idea...

Because i almost never caught a cold while on H for 10 years. Opiates are strong analgesic and this is my 1st time to get sick on
Subutex too, so was just wondering if this is the way my immune system is getting back at me. After years of codeine addiction, a friend
of mine decided to quit but he got sick multiple times in that 1st year of sobriety, but that was way before Bupes.

 

[caseface99]

^^Thats interesting, i would have to guess that either you have an unusually strong immune system or i have a week on, because i got at least 2 chest/lung infections while using heroin over a 9 month period and i once i had one that developed into mild bronchitis while on suboxone. However when i was addicted to heroin i was sniffing it not shooting it so maybe that had something to do with it, getting powder into my lungs and what not. with the suboxone i mostly took it sublingually but if it wasn't sublingual it was usually intranasal. Although i did get into a phase where i was shooting h and sub (among other drugs) for a while too. So i don't know, either way the point is i have gotten sick while on bupe and heroin a few times, although almost always a chest infection never anything involving a fever or anything like that. Another variable may be that i have mild asthma, but i don't know. I think the most likely scenario is that you are lucky?

 

[Been&Done]

Well, i have always been in good shape before even starting the use of drugs, eating healthy and playing sports were behind this i'm sure. I just skimmed through old threads about opiates and the flu, and remembered a forgotten fact; yes i didn't get sick in those 10 years, but the few times i had started to feel any symptoms, mostly as soon as i have woken up, the 1st thing to do was to go score of course and after my 1st few lines of the day (I smoked the H the first 2 years then sniffed the rest..up to 2 gm/a day!) and the symptoms would disappear by 90%. I'll be taking H the whole day and then the next morning, i might or might not have any more symptoms, but with my vicious dark cycle, life went on for 10 long freaking years without any real sickness.
So, getting sick while on Subutex made me question my body strength and my immune system over all. Congestion, cough, internal headache and a soar throat, plus no real urge for food, i'v been forcing myself to eat 1 small meal/ a day for the sake of survival.

@Darkinthepark: Yes, this happens to me if my dose is lower than what my body needs at that moment. Weird that if you take 2 mg and sleep, you still wake up! My explanation is that you need more, but also depending on what have you been taking, for how long and since when you quit....So these are some variables that might affect you body reacting like that. You can always consult your doc, that's why they're here for Good luck

@James Brown Welcome back man, glad you identified the problem, wish you good luck in your recovery.

 

[muvolution]

JamesBrown, that's serious shit man, I'm glad they got it sorted out. I hope you are feeling better and got that shit under control.

Ok, so some of you may know this, but i have been on Pain management for like 2 years, mostly on oxymorphone. I got switched to a new doctor recently who halved my dose for no reason, even though I am a model patient (other than some shit that the states need to sort out with the FDA because in lots of states cannabis is medicine, and I didn't know you couldn't do that during PM.) but you can't. Noted .

and I moved on and was a model patient for years, but when I got switched this new doctor had a terrible attitude, apparently because of this and who knows what else. I was over the pain management bullshit, as I'm sure so many people are. So I scheduled an appointment with a sub doctor, who was totally rad and understanding, and got switched to suboxone for long-term PM and opiate maintenance. It's been working fairly well at doses of around 2-3mg 2x a day, sometimes even making me feel pretty nice with some occasional euphoria and nods... and added bonus.

Anyways, my question is: it works well for my pain. it takes it down to the same level as when I was on my last Rx opiates. It works fairly well, But here's the deal. Alot of times after dosing i get terrible pains in my knees, hips, and lower back. Do you think this is an effect of the Naloxone or Bupe? Or do you think this is longer terms Withdrawal from high dose Opiate Painkillers? Daily doe was from 120-240mg Oral/ day. =(30-80mg Insufflated)=(12-35mg IV Oxymorphone) I usually blew them, 30-80mg of IR OM/ day, as I never really got adequate Pain Management from my doctors, That's not the point though.

The point is my legs fuckin hurt so bad, I've done acute OM withdrawals several times, and I was done with that like 2 weeks ago and I felt fine for like a week on nothing, and not I am on the bupe and it's working for the pain, but since i've been taking it I get these fucking aches. Do you think this is long-term PAWS? Why would I have PAWS if I switched to bupe from another opiate? Please let me know what is going on?

I don't want to give up the Suboxone, because the doctor is awesome and I had to wait 3 months for the appointment. I really don't want to go back to PM. The only may I would consider this would to be to go to a different chiropractor, get some regular pain pills in the meantime, and have them refer me to a new Pain Management clinic, where hopefully I don't get treated like a junkie just because I hurt myself skating.

 

[caseface99]

How long have you been on bupe since getting off the oxymorphone? It could be withdrawal symptoms from the opana that aren't being taken care of by the bupe because oxymorphone is such a strong opioid - when i would do heroin instead of my daily dose of bupe i would have minor withdrawal symptoms from the bupe that weren't being taken care of by the H, thats why im thinking this is a possibility.

Otherwise i believe joint pain is also a possible side effect of naloxone, but im not 100% sure so im gonna go look that up.

Edit - with the joint pain i was thinking of naltrexone not naloxone. Though i suppose it still could be a side effect. Im gonna go look up side effects of bupe just to see now. edit - Yeah i didn't find anything for bupe or naloxone that says joint pain is a side effect. Again, it is for naltexone but not suboxone.

So if you haven't been on suboxone for very long since being on oxymorphone, it is possible in my opinion that this is a withdrawal symptom.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

JamesBrown, that's serious shit man, I'm glad they got it sorted out. I hope you are feeling better and got that shit under control.

Ok, so some of you may know this, but i have been on Pain management for like 2 years, mostly on oxymorphone. I got switched to a new doctor recently who halved my dose for no reason, even though I am a model patient (other than some shit that the states need to sort out with the FDA because in lots of states cannabis is medicine, and I didn't know you couldn't do that during PM.) but you can't. Noted .

and I moved on and was a model patient for years, but when I got switched this new doctor had a terrible attitude, apparently because of this and who knows what else. I was over the pain management bullshit, as I'm sure so many people are. So I scheduled an appointment with a sub doctor, who was totally rad and understanding, and got switched to suboxone for long-term PM and opiate maintenance. It's been working fairly well at doses of around 2-3mg 2x a day, sometimes even making me feel pretty nice with some occasional euphoria and nods... and added bonus.

Anyways, my question is: it works well for my pain. it takes it down to the same level as when I was on my last Rx opiates. It works fairly well, But here's the deal. Alot of times after dosing i get terrible pains in my knees, hips, and lower back. Do you think this is an effect of the Naloxone or Bupe? Or do you think this is longer terms Withdrawal from high dose Opiate Painkillers? Daily doe was from 120-240mg Oral/ day. =(30-80mg Insufflated)=(12-35mg IV Oxymorphone) I usually blew them, 30-80mg of IR OM/ day, as I never really got adequate Pain Management from my doctors, That's not the point though.

The point is my legs fuckin hurt so bad, I've done acute OM withdrawals several times, and I was done with that like 2 weeks ago and I felt fine for like a week on nothing, and not I am on the bupe and it's working for the pain, but since i've been taking it I get these fucking aches. Do you think this is long-term PAWS? Why would I have PAWS if I switched to bupe from another opiate? Please let me know what is going on?

I don't want to give up the Suboxone, because the doctor is awesome and I had to wait 3 months for the appointment. I really don't want to go back to PM. The only may I would consider this would to be to go to a different chiropractor, get some regular pain pills in the meantime, and have them refer me to a new Pain Management clinic, where hopefully I don't get treated like a junkie just because I hurt myself skating.

Sounds like it's more likely to be PAWS. There's a host of other things that might help you too, but my opinion is that oxymorphone is a difficult opiate to quit, and buprenorphine tends to have less ability to effectively "hold" you due to its potency.

If you give it another week or two, you should feel better. If not, you might want to get back on oxymorphone.

I would think that this will clear up in a week or two though. I would also talk to your doctor about this so you can make the choice that is right for you; best of luck.