Opioids Urgent help needed! Long QT Syndrome and Methadone problem.

[Etterwonde]

Hello, fellow Bluelighters!

I know I'm not a frequent contributor to this board, but I hope some of you are willing to help me out with this problem that I currently have... It's urgent because I will probably see my doctor in a few hours from now (I really hope he can make an opening for me in his busy agenda).

This is a follow-up on my Reddit thread from yesterday. Link:

To sum it up: my doctor from the clinic (actually, a lot of the staff as well, although not all of them) is corrupt as fuck. I am currently on 100 milligrams of Methadone per day, but I suffer from prolonged QT interval, so I want to get off the Methadone asap. The tachychardia was better in the first days I went down from 110 mg to 100 mg, but it has now returned to approximately the same degree (maybe a little bit milder).

Heart condition runs in my family: my paternal grandfather didn't even get to his 45th birthday because of sudden death due to heart failure. He was walking on the streets somewhere on the island of Funen (located between Denmark and Sweden) when he collapsed and died. Sadly, I've never met him, but that being said: I do not want to suffer the same fate as him.

So tonight I'm visiting my regular doctor. He wrote me (well: my mother actually, I didn't see him myself) a script for Methadone just now, because the clinic fucked up the date. Again. I have an appointment with them tomorrow. I'm sure it will all be an "honest mistake", like mistakes are being made ever since I told the doctor there about my Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asperger's Syndrome by DSM-IV-TR standards), of which he had always said that he was sure I wasn't on the spectrum. He based his opinion on 5 minute visits every two weeks when I came for my Methadone script in the past. So I don't want to be a slave of those satanic creatures anymore and will try to visit my normal doctor this evening.

I am going to try to get my normal doctor ("Huisdokter" in Dutch; your personal physician) to get all of my medication prescribed, including Methadone, although due to the urgency -I am going to try to make an appointment with him this evening; it is already 14:10 where I live- I will open a new topic and also open one on Bluelight.
What should I do?

• Just try to have him prescribe me Methadone at the same dosage for the time being;
• Try to convince him to prescribe me Morphine or Oxycodone off-label in an equivalent dose;
• Have him prescribe me Buprenorphine on top off the Methadone in order to try the Bernese Method; a (link to a) good tapering schedule would be highly appreciated;
• None of the above [please add your recommendation below].

Many, many thanks in advance! Any input is sincerely appreciated!

Best regards,
Odal88

Post scriptum: My regular doctor isn't the brightest of the bunch. I don't even think he knows what Mu, Delta or Kappa receptors are. But he isn't a bad person (just a not-so-educated doctor; although a lot better than the one in the clinic). I have talked him into off-label prescribing in the past, although he is wary because of my addictive personality (which I will admit he is right about: I know I am prone to addiction, but I do want to get off the Methadone!)

Also, I should mention that I am a fast metabolizer. So there's that as well.

 

[mr peabody]

Maybe have a look at the downloadable studies here, under "Methadone and QTc prolongation" :

IBOSAFE™ | Resources

ibosafe.org

 

[CFC]

Really sorry to hear about your troubles OP

You're on a lot of medicines there that have an impact on heart rhythm. I get the feeling that you really need to see a specialist/cardiologist rather than a general doctor to discuss the best pharmaceutical approach, particularly given that you say heart rhythm problems run in your family. It's likely something that's going to take a bit of time iron out, and not something you're really going to be able to get much reliable advice from on any forum, even from very knowledgeable members. If that means sticking with the same dose until you can get to a specialist, then that might be the safer approach for now.

 

[Etterwonde]

Really sorry to hear about your troubles OP

You're on a lot of medicines there that have an impact on heart rhythm. I get the feeling that you really need to see a specialist/cardiologist rather than a general doctor to discuss the best pharmaceutical approach, particularly given that you say heart rhythm problems run in your family. It's likely something that's going to take a bit of time iron out, and not something you're really going to be able to get much reliable advice from on any forum, even from very knowledgeable members. If that means sticking with the same dose until you can get to a specialist, then that might be the safer approach for now.

While I am certainly going to ask for my doctor to refer me to a cardiologist and am on the waiting list for a specialist (although it is a very long drive from where I live; but I have dealt with him before and at least I know that this guy is competent), I would feel a lot more comfortable if I found a decent alternative for the Methadone, or at least a way to lower the dosage without risking Rhabomyolysis like I experienced the last time people kept lowering the dosage while I really begged them to keep the dosage the same for a week so I could stabilize (which Dr. Von Korrupt refused because I refused to get him Propofol).

Another option is the RC Opioid market. There are a lot of Opiods available at the moment that I can get that will keep me from getting sick. I rather opt for this route than the route they suggested at the clinic last time: going to a rehab facility. I live in Backwards Land and once you're in, it is hard to get out (if you are there on a voluntary base, and you want to leave, they just have the psychiater admit you because you are "endangering yourself". I have seen it happen multiple times with other people! I have even shared a room with an old guy, who couldn't talk or swallow anymore one morning. I think he had a stroke or something. The nurses asked him if he spoke Dutch, they spoke to him in English, etc. I told him he spoke Dutch and spoke normally the night before. They hadn't even known the fucking language he spoke if I hadn't told them. They acted in a very degrading way towards him as well, saying the poor guy was "acting" and shit... And that he was a baby for not wanting to swallow. I don't know what happened to him, because I left the hospital the same morning, but the local saying about that hospital (to which I am regionally connected, which means they send me there if something happens to me because it is the closest hospital in the area) is the following: "once you step foot in that place, you are likely to come out in a coffin". The nurses drew blood each morning. Guess how many times they desinfected the puncture site! I'll give you a clue: it is a round number, value lower than one. I have lost family members "because of MRSA" on more than one occasion.

I once got diagnosed with HIV; which I apparently was able to walk off. That's right. And that was in "the best hospital of the country"! No false positive (like I suggested) or shit like that. I walked it off in three weeks!

Do you understand my concern here?

 

[Ignio]

In my opinion, you need to ask yourself a few VERY important questions - and you need to find the answers to these questions FIRST before you consider staying on methadone or switching to morphine or something like that:
- How normal a life do you wish to live?
- Do you wish to live numbed up on methadone risking cardiac issues or live numbed up on morphine that is alternatively prescribed (and something that is alternatively prescribed you always risk to loose if your doctor changes job, or you get a new doctor some other way who will not do what your present doctor may be willing to?
- How addicted are you to your methadone? (I ask you this because THE most important thing for me in 6 years was when the clock hit 9 AM and I could get my methadone. Nothing was more important. And that is a horrible way to live).

I ask you these questions due to my own history:

I myself have been on 120 mg methadone in 6 years and then made a mader of 10 mg methadone down to 60 mg methadone. Seven days after I reached 60 mg methadone I switched to buprenorphine (suboxone). I reached a total of 20 mg, but I was given 2 mg every half hour and when I got up around 16 mg suboxone I actually felt pain go away from some places that I have had during the methadone withdrawals.

I had moderate withdrawals when the switch was made. It was done while in the presence of doctors because a few can react very badly when the buprenorphine clears the methadone from the receptors. But according to my doctor - a doctor specializing in the treatment of addicts - he have only witnessed two persons in his 10 years that reacted so badly that they had to be taken to the hospital. And to be honest, I feared that I would need to have much worse withdrawal symptoms than I had. It was not funny of cause, but it was a dance in the park compared to the withdrawals I have experienced in my life. I made the switch a thursday and got a presciption for muscle-relaxants and the following monday I had it better than I had had when I got 60 mg methadone. No "antzy" feeling, no muscle pain, normal stomach - a general well-being. Not 100%, but nothing to complain about. During thursday. fridag, saturday and sunday I managed a minimum of 6 hours of sleep each night (though I woke often the first couple of nights). But I slept. During the day my legs was very restless, but I got one muscle-relaxant 3 times each day.

That thursday the switch was made I felt so strange and I could not place the feeling. The next day I found out the reason. The reason I was feeling strange was because I wasn't high anymore. All of a sudden I could feel my feelings so much more again which resulted in a much closer relationship with my family and with my friends. The relations in my life became the important thing. Not 9 AM when I could get my methadone. I will not lie though, it was hard psychologically. I needed to learn to feel again. But that goes both ways. I felt joy so much more. But then I also felt sadness hurt more. But I faught and in the end I felt a lot more joy and love than I felt pain. My cognition functioned so much better and I was more clear in my head. The first thing most people that knew me said was how much less I mumbled when I spoke.

Do you wish to try to take the chance and see if you can improve your life quality? I myself realized how addicted and numb the methadone had made me. I felt like I had wasted 6 years. Because I was a completely different person on 120 mg of methadone than I was on 20 mg of suboxone.

Today though I am back on a lot of opioids, but that is due to severe chronic pain. So even though my pain specialist know I have been an opiat addict he know I need a quite large amount of opioids to be able to function. Otherwise I would be crippled by pain.