5 Drug Cocktail + Subox. for Oxycodone Detox

These are the drugs they put me on to get off of Oxycodone...and the Suboxone will also be, I guess, my new long term pain med.

Suboxone 8 mg-2 sl # 90 filmstrip 3 x day (I guess it’s 2mg a strip)

Xanax 0.25 #21 3 x day for 7 days

Cyclobenzaprine 10mg #90 3 x day for 1 month

Clonidine 0.1mg #60 every 4 hours for 10 days

Promethazine 25mg #60 every 6 hours as needed for nausea for 15 days

I know he also spoke of Ambien for sleep, but it wasn’t in with the cocktail for Oxycodone replacement when they were picked up yesterday.

1... Is Suboxone used as a long term pain med? Will it even really work as a pain med?

(Even if the neck injection works, I still have bad discs in my low back that I’ve taken pain meds for YEARS for. I’ve had injections, but they didn’t work very well.)

2... Is that cocktail good to get off of an average of 120mg a day of Oxycodone? I’m going to try and get down to 90mg a day in the next 1 ½ weeks when I start on the Suboxone.

3... I can’t see exchanging one addiction for another, so how hard is it to get off of the Suboxone?

(As far as I know the Xanax is just to use to switch over to the Suboxone…so not much worry about addiction with that.)

Here’s some info why the drug switch.

Here in Florida my primary care doctor can no longer write scripts for Oxycodone, or I guess any schedule 11 drugs. Then MOST pharmacies won't fill scripts for Oxycodone any longer…in fact, most pharmacies aren't going to stock Oxy, or so little you can't get a script filled anyway.

I did find a mom & pop pharmacy last month that refuses to follow the BS and filled my script of Oxycodone. To do so they wanted my records about pain, MRI reports, etc. from my doctor why I needed them. Once they got it they had no problem filling it! They also don’t have a problem filling any future Oxycodone scripts as long as the ever changing Florida law permits it.

I've been playing the insurance game for 11 months now trying to get into a pain clinic so I can get an injection in my neck to stop the "I WANT TO KILL MYSELF HEADACHES." I changed insurance on 1-1-12 and I'm now setup through a pain clinic to get the injection on 1-10-12.

The pain clinic wants me off of the Oxycodone because how dangerous, toxic and mainly how addicting it is. They wrote me all of the non-dangerous, non-toxic and non-addictive drugs listed above. I asked what about something for pain. I was told the Suboxone is a pain med and will replace my Oxycodone.

I asked about how long to wait before taking it to avoid precipitated WD. The nurse practitioner had never heard of precipitated WD. After I explained it, she said maybe 12 hours. After reading up more on it, there were other things I caught she didn’t know about…or if she did know, she didn’t know the reasons why or why not. I kept asking how addictive Suboxone was. All I got was the medical side step shuffle not really answering my question.

Thank God that I ran across Blue Light before that clinic!!! It’s just like I’ve read here MANY times that we know more about the drugs than the doctors scripting them.

BTW, this all sounds like a bunch of BS…kinda like they have open spaces to fill on their Suboxone program. Their main concern was how addictive Oxycodone is. Oh yeah, so I guess Suboxone and Xanax are not and I get to trade 1 for 2.

Thanks,
Leaping Gnome

Is there any particular reason your doctor wants you on buprenorphine, besides the fact that he can't write for Schedule II? Did he lose his Schedule II privileges somehow? Are you abusing your oxycodone?

I don't understand why they can't just switch you to oral morphine, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, tapentadol, etc. From what I gather Florida is most concerned about oxycodone, because it's been widely prescribed.

This is not ADD material really

-> od

Suboxone can be a good painkiller but not in everyone. Also: You're not going to be doing any oxycodone once you start Suboxone - it blocks the effects of other opioids pretty strongly and will actually put you into withdrawal if you have opioids in your system when you take it.

Read up more in the OD Directory. The Xanax is probably just for anxiety you'll get when you're in withdrawals. Don't abuse it!.

Here in Florida the laws changed on 1-1-12 where for chronic pain only a pain management doctor can write scripts for pain meds. So now my primary care doctor can no longer write for anything more than something like Tramadol. It has nothing to do with abusing them. He was happy with how I was doing on them for the last 3 years. He's also not the type that just writes scripts lightly!

The doctor that didn't want me on them was the new one this week when I started at the pain clinic. I think by law there is a cut off how many patents a pain management doctor can write for. That's one reason I figured he put me on Suboxone.

I've wanted to get off the Oxycodone for some time now, so if the injection next week works for my headaches that will be great! I can probably get by with my low back by limiting how much and what I do.

Sekio, yeah, the Xanax is just short term while switching over to the Suboxone. As far as abusing it, I tried one yesterday and didn't care for it...but I got my answer that it should help a lot with the WD's.

My average Oxycodone a day is 120mg @ 30mg 4 x's a day. Would it make much difference dropping down to 90mg-105mg a day for a week before the Suboxone?

So with all of the meds I listed how bad should the WD's be and for how long?

How long should I be on the Suboxone before I tapper and stop?

Is it easier to get off Suboxone? You know, less physical, but no mental like panic/lost/etc?

Thanks,
Leaping Gnome