Author: pugmommy

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 9:19 pm

I got hung up while I was out of town once, and of course it was right at the end of my prescription. I resorted to take a small dose of methadone and I was hooked again physically in that short 3 days. I felt so bad for taking it, since I had 2 fantastic and healthy years of sub under my belt, it really surprised me and I was really ashamed of myself. This is a really scary situation, I would rather go through sub wd’s. When I got home, I of course got right back to my sub to get back on track, and went through precipitated withdrawal. Please be careful!

Author: amber4.14.11

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:00 am

"I personally think supervised UAs are the best way to go about drug testing"

No matter what, people always figure out ways to cheat the system…..
when I was using, this girl I used to hang with, was on probation, and she’d stick one of those lil ‘5 hour energy’ shot bottles, um where she needed to, put a piece of painters tape on the top of it, and poke a hole in it, when it was time to ‘go’ in front of the p/o.
and her boyfriend had a similar technique with a condom he did.

I think thats why my doc office does blood tests now. thats pretty much it, unless you are being tested for something else, other than a ‘drug panel’

You cant really put in ‘clean blood’ or bring somebody else’s arm with you…..

maybe thats why they do it this way now……
just my two cents

Author: news_poster

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 3:00 am

Conclusions: Participants had a clear preference for a particular medication. Offering a choice of medications to OT individuals might enhance their likelihood of entering treatment. Treatment programs should offer a choice of medications when possible to new patients, and future comparative effectiveness research should incorporate patient preferences into clinical trials. Scientific Significance: These data contribute to our understanding of why people seek or do not seek effective pharmacotherapy for opioid addiction.
PMID: 22242643 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher] (Source: The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse)

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Source: MedWorm Query: Buprenorphine
MedWorm.com provides a medical RSS filtering service. Data from over 6000 medical RSS feeds is collected and output via different categories. This feed contains the latest items on MedWorm Query: Buprenorphine

Author: news_poster

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 3:00 am

(Source: Reactions)

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Source: MedWorm Query: Buprenorphine
MedWorm.com provides a medical RSS filtering service. Data from over 6000 medical RSS feeds is collected and output via different categories. This feed contains the latest items on MedWorm Query: Buprenorphine

Author: hatmaker510

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 7:45 am

Hi Josh and welcome,

First of all, if you are still having benzo withdrawal, I would suggest you go to your family doctor or the ER to request some kind of meds (unless you’re already beyond that). Because you’re right, benzo w/d can be deadly.

As for you having a seizure, well, I don’t mean to be rude or doubt you, but I’ve never heard of a person being aware of having a seizure. They are anything but coherent during and after for several minutes. However, that said, I’m certainly no doctor and my knowledge is limited, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Now, something you may not have considered is something that is extremely common when someone stops taking benzos, whether by cold turkey or tapering – and that’s rebound anxiety. There’s a very good chance you could be suffering from rebound anxiety from stopping the benzos. Now that doesn’t negate the physical pain of your withdrawals. That’s why I suggested you see someone about medications that can help you through the remainder of this.

I do know what you’re going through, because before I started suboxone I was on over 6 MG of xanax PER DAY!!! Yes, PER DAY! I ended up being taken off ALL my meds – including all my opiates and the xanax – cold turkey – while hospitalized. This was in Dec 2008. What they did for me was put me on phenobarbital to reduce the chance of seizures from the xanax w/d. I was a real mess at that time, so I can’t really explain how I felt, but it was nothing major or painful enough for me to recall it.

What I’m saying is you WILL get through this. Consider seeing a doctor to make sure your risk of seizures is past, or they might want to put you on something like phenobarb. But at least let a doctor determine if it’s necessary or not.

You sound damn determined and that will help you get through this immensely. And your post will help many many people. You said you’ve been reading Suboxone TalkZone….Do you recall reading his blog about "Are you anxious? Are you sure?"? That’s a great blog post of his. If you haven’t read it and you’re interested in his take on anxiety and benzos, especially as it relates to opiate addicts, you might be interested in tracking it down. If you have any trouble finding it,let me know and I can get you the link.

Sorry for the long-winded post. I wish you the best. And thanks for sharing what you’ve been through with us.

Author: jonathanm1978

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 8:46 am

I think this ‘area’ of the site would be used for things like what I did when I first began Suboxone treatment back in 2008…

I had heard of the so-called "drug" that took away withdrawals…but being high at the time, and not really caring much, I paid little attention to people who tried to tell me about it — or the one person who tried to tell me. I had been Oxy’s with her for 4 or 5 months, and suddenly, my friend was telling me to try this miracle drug that I’d never heard of, because it would make me not want Oxy’s anymore. Well, I wasn’t game for that, because I wasn’t ready…so 4 or 5 months passed, and I kept doing what I was doing, of COURSE it was getting worse..more and more to get the same effect…

When I finally decided that I had gotten my fill of the problems, the pill chase, the never-ending drama and soap opera that surrounded doing my drug of choice, I started trying to read up on Suboxone. But keep in mind, I was still doing my drug of choice, so I didn’t have a serious tone about it…but I did your basic "Google Search = Suboxone" and read a little. (Oddly, I must’ve not found this site, or didn’t pay attention..)

But I finally took the plunge. Something HAD to give, and it HAD to be the habit of pills that was costing me ENORMOUS amounts of money to continue funding daily…so phone calls were made, and I talked with people at this methadone clinic. The psychiatrist / therapist said that I sounded like a perfect candidate for suboxone and began naming off the cost. Oh my….the cost. I had already tapped out every resource I had using my pills…so there wasn’t any "emergency" money.
But I managed to scrape up the $290 or $260 for the first visit, which also covered my 2nd visit the following week…and made the dive. Told the therapist, "yes, I want to do this…" and she put me down to come in. This date I was coming in to them was 2 weeks away though, and she informed me that I HAD to test positive for opiates when I came in for the initial visit. Then I would leave, come back in 48 hours without ANY use in that 48 hour period, and be in withdrawal while the doctor administered the Suboxone to me in his office.

I agreed, and started the countdown for the 2 weeks I had to wait before my first appointment.

Everything worked out, I got on Suboxone..first week was ok…second week was already paid for by the first weeks cost…so I was good for those 2 weeks. Now, this doctor wanted to see me EVERY week for 2 months before putting me on a monthly plan…and the cost of that?? $160 a visit. $160 per week, to come in, and he would ONLY give me a week’s supply to insure that I came back the next week. How was this any different than what I was doing…the way I viewed that was I was NOW depending on a professional drug dealer instead of a drug dealer on the street…this new drug dealer had a Ph.D on his wall…and I was forced into a VERY costly plan for becoming opiate-free.

Well, after the 2nd week, I couldn’t come up with the money to go to the third visit. I made 3 or 4 phone calls to the methadone clinic, practically begging for SOME type of assistance..but they only cared to get the money and THEN they would talk with me. I asked could I come back in another week, and pick-up where I left off, and the therapist that was on the phone with me said "yes, but the doctor will only allow you to miss 2 weeks before you have to be ‘excluded’ from the suboxone program.. I explained the financial difficulty..but the doctor wasn’t willing to cooperate or do anything except keep asking me for $160 every visit. So I skipped an appointment. Knew what was coming, even though I had never been on suboxone before…and I prepared for it by purchasing my drug of choice again. 2 days after my last suboxone, I began feeling the misery..and snorted an oxycontin.

But the following week, the 4th week since I had gotten in the Suboxone program…I had the money ready, and I went back. Got my Suboxone, and I felt GOOD! YES…I was OK again.

I would worry about the future week’s visit when the time came.

The time came, and I didn’t have the money, yet again. So this was my 2nd missed appointment. If I missed again, I was out..so I had to go to the 6th week visit, or I wouldn’t be allowed back and would have to start over with $260, the whole "new patient induction" and all..all over again.

April 18, 2008, I went to my Dr appointment. Had a trip planned for a family reunion..was leaving and headed to Louisiana to see my dad…and I was going to make the appointment come hell or high water. And I did. I had my Suboxone, and the following week I knew I wouldn’t be able to go, and would be thrown out, but I couldn’t help it.

There for about 3 months, I was on/off/on/off suboxone. I didn’t "want" to be that way, just financially, I could NOT afford it. But I finally managed to find a doctor in another town, about an hour away, who would see me for $110 first visit, because I was already a suboxone patient. AND…he would let me come monthly, starting with the first visit….I had FINALLY found my relief!

So July 7, 2008, I had my LAST oxycontin. That was IT. I haven’t touched one since, and I don’t plan to. And now when I think about it, I have this "eww" feeling in my mind..like "eww, I don’t want to be that kind of person again."

That’s the messing around that I still did…It was by choice, of course, we all make our choice..but then again, it wasn’t by choice. Physically speaking, I was dependent. Still am, but on Suboxone….but I didn’t want to be messing around. But since when can someone who’s addicted to opiates show ANY sort of moderation in their drug use???

Does an opiate addict EVER have moderation…or do they just lie to themselves and convince themselves that they are in control…If Oxycontin dictates my entire paycheck and where it goes..then I’m not in control.
Now, I will admit, I have my vices about being on Suboxone…I don’t want Suboxone to be in control…but I feel differently about taking it. I’m the one in control of it. I don’t run out early, or sell my meds..I take it AS prescribed, and I have always took it as prescribed. I never took ANY opiate I was prescribed like it said I should, or as the doctor directed…that I think is the BIG difference.

Author: jonathanm1978

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 9:28 am

This really depends on your doctor. Only you know the attitude he has, whether he can be understanding and forgiving, or whether he’s a hard-ass and doesn’t play around or allow his patients to have any variation. I know my doctor, and just because he’s a suboxone doctor, I can’t take what I know about mine and say that stands true for your doctor. Each doctor is different…but they are also human. Some of them are in it for the money..and they aren’t really interested in the patient’s well being, but are more interested in their wallet. Sad to say, but just like drug dealers on the street, you have those professional drug dealers who went to med school and now are professional dealers. They have no qualms about throwing their patients around or giving them the boot, not thinking about what suffering the patient will go through.

I have the perfect opportunity right now to chance doctors. My doctor is out-of-network on my wife’s insurance, and it would be a great help for me to get into a doctor who accepts my insurance. The doctor I currently see, they file my office visit as a specialist doctor visit, plus out-of-network, so there’s MUCH more cost involved. I have managed to go as far as making a phone call to ONE other doctor…and this doc that I called last week is IN-NETWORK..plus, instead of filing the visit on my insurance as a specialist, he files it as a regular office visit…which means that I would ONLY pay the $25 co-pay that BCBS requires of me. I would be SO much better off, financially, to go see the doc that I called. When I first talked to the receptionist, she told me he wasn’t taking new patients…that I could be put on a waiting list…but soon as I mentioned having insurance and that being my only reason for changing, because I was already ON suboxone, and had been for a while, she changed and started talking about me coming in…being an "already inducted" patient and having experience already with suboxone means less work for them, less worry for them, and less medical necessity on my part..basically, I’m less responsibility for a doctor to bring in because I’m already a patient and already taking the medication in a responsible manner. He wouldn’t have to go through the ropes of teaching me how to NOT be an addict, and getting me out of that mind-set that I need opiates to survive. All-around, it makes sense to me that a doctor would be more willing to see an exisiting suboxone patient than to bring in a new patient and start from scratch with them…

Did I schedule an appointment when she asked if I wanted to come in? NO. I did NOT. WHY?..doesn’t make sense does it. Do I WANT to pay more for a doctor that is out-of-network and files it differently, as a specialist visit instead of a regular office visit? No, I would prefer NOT to do that…

But the thing is, I KNOW my current doctor. I’ve been seeing him for nearly 2 years. September of 2012 will be 2 years that I’ve been with my current doctor..and I have this "comfort" zone with him. He’s a good guy, we mostly just laugh and talk when I come to see him…yes it’s costly, but I like the guy and he’s someone that I’m comfortable with..and I don’t like disrupting my life in the manner that I would have to do in order to change doctors. Not to mention that my current doctor sees me once every 3 months, this new doctor that I called told me that I would have to come in monthly…
so 4 visits to the doctor per year, or 12 visits a year. Both doctors are about an hour away (both are opposite directions though)…but about the same in mileage…
Sure, I could try and weigh it out and get a precise cost "analysis" of the pros and cons..but it’s not that big of a deal. The main thing, I know my doctor..and I know what he’s like.

The first office-setting doctor that I saw..things were a little different. So far, this is my 3rd Suboxone doctor in the 4 years that I’ve been on Suboxone. I started with the Dr at the methadone clinic..only saw him a couple of months…then a doctor in an office-type setting…saw him for nearly a year..and now, my current doctor..going on 2 years.

If you’ve seen your doctor enough, then you know their attitude, and the type of person they are. You know what they’ll go along with, and what they’ll be strict with.
My neighbor..who also went to my doctor for a little while, got thrown out of my dr’s practice. My neighbor was "dismissed" as a patient of his…so my neighbor was forced to find another dr. Why? Because he tested positive for suboxone and wasn’t supposed to have anything in his system except opiates. The doctor I see is considered a neurological / fibromyalgia doctor…and also is known as a Pain Clinic. So that’s the Specialist part…but he doesn’t deal with people taking meds they aren’t prescribed, at all. I’ve never had ANY problem with a urine test ….except for when I first started at the doctor I was with my first year…I had ONE test that came back with opiates. I had drank some cough syrup, knowing it had opiate in it, but figured I’d be OK. I even explained this to the guy…
This dude made me come see him for 7 weeks straight, $110 each visit. Up until that point, I had no problem…but that’s when I started searching and found my current doctor. Once I got in with him, I haven’t done ANYTHING dumb, or anything even remotely questionable. NO mess-ups at all..and I won’t either. I’m not risking it..there is NO amount of hardship or emotional issue that could make me.

I guess this is the difference in a long-term suboxone patient, and one who’s not-so-into the suboxone treatment yet. You can still remember the highs…you can distinctly remember what it’s like..how it feels. I, being so long on it, can’t. Whether I’ve mentally blocked it out, or just don’t want to …I don’t remember what it was like to be high. I know that I liked it, and it was something I enjoyed back then, but, I can’t sit and remember. Once you’ve been clean for as long as I have, and others here, maybe you too will be at that point. One day you’ll wake up, and getting high will seem like a VERY distant memory. When I think about the past, whether it’s because of my age or whatever..it seems like YEARS AND YEARS ago…but I’m only 33. The peak of my opiate problem was in 2006/2007..so it hasn’t really been that long…but to me, it seems like that stuff happened SO long ago. I hope everyone will one day get to that point, where they don’t remember why they enjoyed the high like they did..and they ask themselves the questions that I ask myself…like "what was SO good about it…"…
And I answer that question with this: Nothing. There was NOTHING good about it…and there’s nothing good enough to gain from it, or to feel from it that would make me want to try it again…

Even drinking seems like something I did over a decade ago…
Maybe it’s how the suboxone works in the brain..but I can’t remember much of anything when it comes to the feeling of being high on opiates.

Author: reggie13903

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 11:43 am

thank you for the advice. it is the taste that is making me sick especialy when i swallow what i wonder is if i dissolve it long enough if i can spit cause its not the swallowing that makes the meds work right. i have let the doc know we are going to try going back on tabs cause part of the problem was i cant get rid of the taste easy enough cause the strips stick right to my toungue so i have had to resort to eating a doughnut or something as soon as i swallow to get the excess off of my tongue. but we are going to get this to work.i just found outy my wife had a miscariage and she had one of her tubes burst and almost died and i dont do well with loss go figure an addict who cant do that. and i have been having alot of using dreams so stopping my meds is not an option. but im having a hard time thinking of a way to bring it up to my dr so he wont think im drug seeking. i have a horrible track record in my med records were i dont blame people for asuming im drug seeking but i am just a hypocondriac not saying i never drug seeked but most of what was thought to be drug seeking was just mental illness. ive been this way since i found out about my brain tumor i get scared and paranoid

Author: stephent

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:52 pm

I have never taken methadone (surprisingly, but I wasn’t a H user so I had no contacts in that scene) but from what I understand, it is much more potent and as mentioned above is a full agonist. The great thing about Suboxone is that it allows tons of control over your dose. When you get to the lowest doses you can use the liquid method or the strips. I really do not see any reason to use methadone if you have been using Suboxone successfully. Furthermore, you are most likely going to come into contact with people who are not trying to get off when you cop, so that is a whole other issue.

I have heard some people who get off of Sub and want to get high "one last time" when off of Sub. This obviously doesn’t work out very well. I think Methadone can provide this. No offense, but you said you "feel great"… well of course you do. You just took a full agonist opiate.

This doesn’t seem like a good idea, at the very least it is providing your subconscious self with a "reminder" of what full agonists feel like. Not the best way to go into you first days completely opiate free.

Author: sweet16

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 3:45 pm

Greetings,
I started my taper from about 8mg. starting in August. 2011. Once I got to 2 mg I too began to feel the tapering a little more with each drop. I would say, 2 weeks between drops is a good goal, however the lower I would go the longer I stayed at that new lower dose because it seemed to take longer to stabelize. At one point my Doctor switched me from the 8mg strips to the 2mg strips to make it easier to cut my doses. I ended up going from 1.25mg. down to .50 mg. without realizing it. THAT was a blessing in disguise. However, prior to discovering that I had mis-calculated my dose I had thoughts of increasing my dose because I was so friggen tired. But once I discovered my error, I was so excited that I went from 1.25mg down to .50, the symptoms suddenly were do-able…It DID talk longer to stabelize, like 3-4 weeks though. I am currently on .25mg in the morning & .125mg in the evening. I have been here for a while maybe 3 or more weeks. I just cant shake the lethargy.. I think you CAN do it. It is reasonable to say that (for me)the withdrawl symptoms are not painful or horrid, just sort of drawn out. I find the most annoying of them is the lethargy, tiredness, lack of motivstion. DO NOT be scared of the tapering. It is so do-able. Listen to your body. If after you taper & you find that you stabelize in 2 weeks, GREAT for you. Each decreass will be different in terms of symptoms. Some, you may not notice at all. I would start to notice on day 2-3 and the symptoms would subside by day 7-10 and I would give myself a few days to enjoy being stable. The lower ya go the more (I) seemed to feel it. Believe me I want OFF too. I just do not want to be friggen tired all the time… It is the worst (for me) SO good luck and keep posting.. Hope this helps you.