Tapering from 440mg oxycontin a day and feel sick!

[deRosa]

Hi,
I was a member back in 2008-2010 when I was tapering from a 160mg oxycontin dose.

Here I am again. I had four years without any opiods but had four more back surgeries and now I'm tapering from a 440mg oxycontin dose daily for three years!!! My GP kept increasing the dose instead of sending me to a pain clinic :-(

I'm now down to 140mg and though I only cut 10mg every other week I'm sick as fuck from withdrawal symptoms. Why is that? I've decided to cut 40mg from my daily dose (day two today) and I know I'll get very sick. I have 10 benzos to get me some sleep.

I'm glad to have found this place. BL was a huge support last time. I don't what I would have done without.

Sorry for any grammar or spelling errors. I'm danish and my brain isn't really working the way it used to.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Mafioso]

Simply put, your body has attempted to adjust to the very high levels of opiates in your body by adjusting the chemicals it produces naturally. The WDs or dope sickness is caused by an imbalance related to the change of chemicals entering and being produced by your body. It will take some time for your body to readjust to having fewer or even no outside opiates being introduced, this is referred to as acute withdrawal.

Staying hydrated will really help you out. Pedialyte really helped me make it through some nasty withdrawal when I couldn't eat and was losing fluids very quickly. Also having someone or people to talk to who understand what you are going through can help with the mental symptoms like loneliness or depression. Exercise helps, but probably isn't practical until you are mostly through the acute withdrawals.

Opiate WDs are pretty rough and beyond tapering, there really isn't too much you can do but ride them out. Things will get better if you stick it out and push through. You can be happy and feel good again without drugs although it may be hard to see it now. Your brain function will come back too, just takes time. Eating healthy will allow your body to repair itself quicker. Having the essential nutrients is key to recovery and can speed things up, but that might be hard as well until you can really stomach food and aren't spending all day in the bathroom.

 

[Lost_Vet]

Hey deRosa,

I started out on a huge dose of opiates like you from a doc who over prescribed for back pain. I am now down to one 12mcg fentanyl patch, tapering to nothing in a week. I've been through it and it was one of the harder things I did and its still hard every day. But, I'm no one special and if I can do it, so can you. Hang in there and we'll talk you through it. Thinking good thoughts for you.

LV