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Need Advice On Detoxing from Percocet

Lovecraft

Lovecraft

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 20, 2013
Messages
284
Long story short, I have been on Percocet 10/325 for about 2 months for pre-shoulder surgery pain and then for post-surgical pain. During that time, I generally took around 2 - 4 pills at 2 - 3 times a day at the beginning, dosing higher (around 8 pills), for a couple days directly after the surgery, which was on September 17th, then slowly weaning down to about 3 per day. This last Monday was my first day sober and I was hurting. I have about 120, 50mg of Tramadol and took 300mgs on Monday, then have been weaning down on them to where I'm at now, 4 days later, which is 250mgs. I know the dangers of Tram addiction and don't plan on staying on them. My hope was that since it has such a low opiate effect compared to the Percs, that it would help me out with the first few days of the Percocet detox and then around day 5 or so I'd start weaning off the Tramadol over the course of another week or so.

I'd appreciate any feedback from members who might have some similar experiences about this. Does my plan sound like it could work at reducing the pain of the detox or am I only making things worse? Should I continue on this plan or stop the Tramadol now and just cold-turkey the rest of the way?

Thanks.
 
Hey love welcome,

Honestly I would stop the Tramadol. You have only been taking percs for 2 months. Being a short acting opiate, meaning it's out of the system in 6-8 hours, and the fact that you haven't used synthetic or XR opiates, your withdrawal will be short compared to many others, maybe 2 at most 3 days. Then it's over for you.

Go to your primary care, and ask for clonidine, this will help with the sweats and a few other symptoms. Plus it's non-addictive. Most hardcore opiate users consider this drug a godsend. Then get some melatonin, and a sleep aid and tough it out for a few days. Basically your going to feel like you have a bad flu.

I'm glad you're making this choice now and not a year from now as it would be much worse.

Congratulations,

Bob
 
Hi,

Welcome!

How is your shoulder?

Ime cold turkey is doable although painful without otc and/or specific withdrawal meds for a couple days. I weaned down then did that. Weaning isn't easy. Congrats on moving towards making a change for the better … sooner than later.

Pick up some Loperamide. If you can get into a clinician for some light withdrawal meds it would be very helpful. Hot baths and menthol ointment for the legs helps with RLS, especially before sleep.

Best,
Smoky :)
 
Tramadol is more hardcore than people think /thought and that's why it's a controlled substance in the US now.
If you think you can wean, or have someone wean you off of it, you can try... but if you know for a fact you're just going to crave it and if you feel its prolonging your withdrawal, stop it immediately. The SSRI effects are severe after long term use, so you wont just be dealing with normal opiate W/d.
After a few weeks of tramadol you'll be dealing with opiate withdrawal AND anti depressant type of withdrawal. It's opiate withdrawal with extra anxiety and depression. I'm not telling you this to scare you. I say this because I abused tramadol, and even took it in LOW doses for months and the withdrawal was severe. You havent been taking it that long. You're ok. Consider consulting a doctor or discretely get a friend to "give" you a weeks worth of a benzo. ONLY a week. a low dose of xanax or klonapin etc, just enough to take the edge off and help you sleep. Also, clonidine can help. Your opiate withdrawal will hurt no matter what but the goal is to take the edge off and NOT get hooked on anything else. Fight this properly and you will win. Own your withdrawal. Keep your head up when your depressed. Go on walks even though your legs feel like lead. <3 beat this shit...
 
Hey love and welcome to BL. Sorry your feeling rough. <3

To get detoxed of opiates we need to stop useing drugs that interact with the opiate receptors. Its necessary to have all the opiates out of your system and then add three or four days. After this time period we start to feal better, and remeber opiates have different half life times so the time in acute withdrawls will differ between them. Every time you redose an drug that stimulates the opiate receptors you feel a little better but restart the clock to zero.

You can do this. Just accept the fact that your going to feal rough for awhile, but this will pass and you will feal better and be free.

Here are some medications that can make a BIG difference, still wont feal like rainbows and winning lottery ticket, but they really help. You can and will do this!!

NSFW:
medications for acute opiate detox

The medications I would explore the use of for detox would be:
>Clonidine< DOSED EVER FOUR HOURS..

one of either
>NEURONTIN< >HERE< >HERE< >here<
OR >Lyrica<
OR >phenibut<

>A BENZO BUT JUST AT NIGHT<
>a nsaid<
>melatonin<
tylenol
Senokot S is a stool softener and laxative. If you do not want the laxative you can go for strait stool softenerDioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate.

(Opi Withdrawal) what is the best comfort meds for opiate w/d?

Your Personal Opiate Withdrawal Arsenal
 
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BTW:

I took tramadol for a while. I agree - I felt like I was injected with caffeine back on paxil and opiates all together. Awful! (ime). :)
 
What's a good detox dose/regimen for immodium?

Shoulder' good Smoky, thanks.
 
I'm not planning on taking it long term, just another week or while I wean down off my starting dose. I do know how hardcore the SSRI w/d it causes can be.
 
It takes awhile for the SSRI to make the switch in the brain needed for them to work. Until this happens people feal wacked out for sure. So you are adding just a little bit of opaite which does what it does, but then you will find yourself right back where you were trying to avoid. Plus you are adding the crap feeling SSRI's give people untill the change in the brain happens which takes a while.

If you want to tapper the lope is the way to go. I would flush the tram no matter what as its going to do you no good and will increase your cravings if you leave it around. Loperamide (Immodium) Megathread v. 2
 
Tramadol/ Ultram was what I got started on, at first it was great, I could take 2-3 50mg pills, and suddenly I was energetic, sociable, not feeling much pain and could work long days, but eventually tolerance built up and I was taking 8 to start the day and kept wondering where all the good feelings went...then a couple times, after popping too many..honestly expecting the good feelings to return after so many pills, I never even kept track of how many I was taking, I would just take 3-4, then wait 40 minutes, if I didnt feel good, take another 4, and so on...on 2 occasions after taking god knows how many I woke up on the floor, and had paramedics asking me who the president was...and I could not answer them, didnt even know my wifes name for about 30 minutes, this was very scary, I didnt know where I was, who I was, it was bad, of course my memory did come back and I had to have staples in my head from hitting it on the floor.

I would never take another tramadol now, even though at this stage in my opiate addiction, no amount would do anything for me!
 
Well then, I guess I'm going cold-turkey, with the exception of some Immodium maybe. I just talked to the wife about what's she's going to be seeing me go through the next few days and we decided we'll tell people I have the flu. I'll will blame my shoulder recovery for skipping off work tomorrow and a few days next week. Since my habit wasn't that large/long, I could probably get back to work life by Tuesday (day 5 clean) of next week if I play my cards right. Anyhow, wish me luck, I'm going to need it. Thanks for all the info.
 
Good luck Lovecraft … :)
Sending healing thoughts your way.
 
Thanks Smoky. Actually not feeling as bad as I thought I would. Maybe the Tramadol is still in my system. Or maybe it's the immodium. Not sure. We'll see what tomorrow feels like as it sometimes it takes a full day before total WD sets in. Maybe it's just that when you finally decide to bite the bullet, the bullet ends up not being as bad as you worried it would.
 
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I really would like to know why it is that at times like these, I decide to start thinking about how my wife needs to organize her side of the closet... Immediately.
 
Yes, good point! For me a lot of it was projection… about the bullet.

Also, when opiates were no longer my main focus… I could easily focus on others and their issues.

1) This is common as the brain needs to attach to something, it's not getting its usual endorphins from medication. Also, there are underlying frustrations that have been suppressed or put on the shelf when using medications, that will begin to bubble up - usually emotional ones. ime/o.

2) One's partner may need to get help also.

Although -- one can't control, change or cure another loved one… but can, at least speak their concerns to their partner about how they feel. I would wait and keep bringing the focus back to you and your health at least for the detox period.
<3 :)
 
Well day 2 and at least I can say I'm not worse than I was yesterday. Which is a relief because sometimes that happens, even with short acting opiates. Did get some sleep with the help of a benzo.

One thing I will say about the lope is that it does appear to just take the edge off so that you're not a complete mess, just mostly a mess. I was feeling really bad towards the evening last night and took 20mg and an hour later felt noticeably better. Not great but better. I was then able to eat something where previously I had no appetite. It does constiipate but so did the percs so nothing for me to complain about there.
 
Good advice on the waiting until detoxing is over to focus on larger life issues. The problem for me is that part of W/D is having anxiety over work, relationships, etc. I have to keep reminding myself to leave all that other shit alone until my head's in a better place. Easier said than done.
 
Your doing great Lovecraft=D

I agree, great advice. In early recovery our emotions are often really strong so it can be very beneficial to keep it simple. Keep our thoughts focused on the present instead of worrying about the future or mulling over the past. keep our thoughts positive by identifying the positive in our lives.

PAWS LINKS
 
neversickanymore said:
Your doing great Lovecraft=D

I agree, great advice. In early recovery our emotions are often really strong so it can be very beneficial to keep it simple. Keep our thoughts focused on the present instead of worrying about the future or mulling over the past. keep our thoughts positive by identifying the positive in our lives.

PAWS LINKS
Click to expand...
Thanks. One question I have is about the lope. I've been reading about people doing more damage than good trying to kick with it. Now I'm wondering if I should stop taking it. On the night of day 0, I took 40mg. Then on day one I took 12 mg in the morning and 20mg at night. I never felt "good" by any stretch of the word but it did help somewhat. This AM I took 20mg and obtained some relief again. Where should I go from here as I don't want to stab myself in the foot here? Thinking about stopping the lope altogether as it kinda scares me I might be stretching this whole thing out.
 
I would try tapering off. Many people find they can taper it as it does not cause a high. I usually don't recommend lope unless someone is just going to crash from a huge dose. I have seen quite a few people just end up dependent on the lope. But I think it was a better temp option then the tram.

The deal is that if we want to heal we need to stop stimulating the opiate receptors and allow the brain to return to homeostasis without the drug being present.

The conclusion I have come to about tapering is that it prolongs a person's misery .. some people spend months trying to taper off and feal pretty crummy the whole time and then find out they still have to jump off at some point. I just jumped right off, its was pretty rough, the only thing I could ever taper of was a taper.. lol. Everybody pays the piper in the end.

But you're making progress.. why not try a short taper. If this seems to just keep you in endless misery, accept the fact your going to feal rough for a few and jump off. You'll make it through. Your doing great and in a short time you will feal mush better:)
 
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