Opioids Suboxone Question

[lawyergirl]

Hello All,
I'm a longtime reader, first time poster and I couldn't really find an answer to this question so I was hoping for some help. Here is a little background....
I am a long time heroin addict who has not shot dope for three years now. I did detox by switching to oxycodone (15mg 2-3x per day). I have now progressively tapering down on the oxy (from 15mg 5-6x a day to 15mg 2-3x a day). I still get sick when I haven't taken anything for four to eight hours. Anyway, I went out of town, ran out of medication and then cut a 8mg/2mg Suboxone strip into 8ths and took that as needed for two days (I still have almost a 1/4 of the strip left). I was VERY careful to feel sick and then only take a SMALL amount of the sub strip to test if I would be thrown into withdrawals. I wasn't and was shocked at how little of the sub strip I needed to feel good. When I got home yesterday, even though I wasn't sick, immediately took a 15mg. oxy. There wasn't much effect (which is fine, I really only try to take the oxy to not be sick...I don't care much about being loaded anymore, but the habit of taking the pill and the mental relief I get from knowing I have it in my body is as strong as the physical sickness. Honestly, 15mg 3x a day isn't enough to get me loaded). After everything I've read I know that I should wait 24-72hrs before I can feel the full effect of the oxy.
So, my question is...after taking the oxy when there was still Suboxone in my system, does the oxy attach to my receptors? I am now worried that I will get sick later today (because I'm out of pills for the day - I ration them out to be sure I don't run out before the end of the month). Would I be able to eat the rest of the Suboxone if I start to feel sick or will it just make me sicker because I have eaten a few oxy's already?
Thanks ya'all I look forward to participating in the forum.

 

[cook]

Hi and welcome to BL,

When you dose very low on the suboxone (less than 1mg) it will act kind of regular opiate and not saturate the receptors. Unless you have very large tolerance you wont get PWDs with very low doses. So basically with that low dose you have both buprenorphine and oxycodone attached to the receptors. Im not exactly sure if you would precipitate the withdrawal by taking larger dose of suboxone, this depends on your level of physical dependency. Just take that small dose again when needed and you should be feeling fine.

 

[lawyergirl]

Thank you!!

 

[cj]

If you start getting withdrawals that means you have unoccupied opiate receptors and it would be safe to take either oxy or sub to relieve withdrawal. The danger of PW comes from taking sub while your receptors are occupied by a different opiate.