Author: Romeo

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 11:37 pm

Tinydancer, yes it is amazing to me how well Advil works now that I’m off all opiates. I tried and tried Advil or Tylenol or Aleve while on opiates and my body basically laughed at me and said, "give me the good stuff Romeo!" LOL

Truthfully, I’m amazed at how well most any over the counter medicine works for me. A long time ago, early in my opiate career, I had to take Restoril (Temazepam) to help me sleep. Nowadays when I have trouble sleeping, I take half a Unisom and within half an hour I’m out like a light.

I seem to be pretty sensitive to a whole host of things now. Caffeine is another one of them. On opiates, I would drink 8 to 10 cups of coffee per day, if I tried that now I’d be bouncing off the walls like a madman. I drink 2 cups of coffee per day now and that’s it, anymore than that and I push the envelope of looniness.

I feel like a "drug virgin" again!!

Author: chubbybaby82

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 11:50 pm

Yes Romeo she works with alot of addicts. Said she worked with two people coming off of suboxone and one of them had withdrawal symptoms for 12 months. She doesnt necessarily believe in the traditional approach to addiction which is go to 12 step meetings, but she believes in starting a new foundation for your life which is what we are trying to do.

Author: chubbybaby82

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 11:50 pm

Yes Romeo she works with alot of addicts. Said she worked with two people coming off of suboxone and one of them had withdrawal symptoms for 12 months. She doesnt necessarily believe in the traditional approach to addiction which is go to 12 step meetings, but she believes in starting a new foundation for your life which is what we are trying to do.

Author: Romeo

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:00 am

Hey BabyLove,

Welcome to the forum!!

I wanted to mention that Buprenorphine is the active ingredient in Suboxone. Buprenorphine has been around for a long time, but it was mostly used in small doses (.2mg) in Europe for pain relief. High Dose Buprenorphine, aka-Suboxone, does come in 2mg/.5mg and 8mg/2mg (the bolded numbers represent the Naloxone content). I mention all of this to give you an idea of how much Buprenorphine your fiancee is ingesting and to maybe give you a little bit better idea of how to taper her off. Think of Suboxone in MicroGrams instead of MilliGrams.

You’re going to give her 4000mcg tomorrow, which is perfectly fine. When it comes time to taper, instead of thinking, "I’ll cut her down by 1mg or 2mg" think instead in MicroGram doses…..you would be cutting her dose by 1000mcg or 2000mcg….that’s a LOT!!

After reading NUMEROUS taper threads on this site and following those folks over the 2 years I’ve been here, I’ve found the most successful taperers cut their dose (once below the ceiling of 4mg) by about 10% or so and a lot of those people wait a MINIMUM of a week or two at the new dose before they attempt their next taper.

Suboxone is a powerful drug, especially at the levels we addicts have to take. You want to remove that drug from her system slowly, this is the best way to minimize wd, in my opinion.

As far as supplements to help ease wd, I would wait until she was a lot closer to jumping. I’ve seen people start taking Clonidine weeks and weeks before jumping and it didn’t do that much to help them. I took Clonidine after I got off Suboxone and it helped me a lot. Clonidine is non-habit forming, so no worries there, but she does need to get her blood pressure checked first because, like tinydancer said, it is a blood pressure medication. I’ve heard good things about Neurontin too, but I never used it myself.

Best of luck to both of you!

Author: Romeo

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:00 am

Hey BabyLove,

Welcome to the forum!!

I wanted to mention that Buprenorphine is the active ingredient in Suboxone. Buprenorphine has been around for a long time, but it was mostly used in small doses (.2mg) in Europe for pain relief. High Dose Buprenorphine, aka-Suboxone, does come in 2mg/.5mg and 8mg/2mg (the bolded numbers represent the Naloxone content). I mention all of this to give you an idea of how much Buprenorphine your fiancee is ingesting and to maybe give you a little bit better idea of how to taper her off. Think of Suboxone in MicroGrams instead of MilliGrams.

You’re going to give her 4000mcg tomorrow, which is perfectly fine. When it comes time to taper, instead of thinking, "I’ll cut her down by 1mg or 2mg" think instead in MicroGram doses…..you would be cutting her dose by 1000mcg or 2000mcg….that’s a LOT!!

After reading NUMEROUS taper threads on this site and following those folks over the 2 years I’ve been here, I’ve found the most successful taperers cut their dose (once below the ceiling of 4mg) by about 10% or so and a lot of those people wait a MINIMUM of a week or two at the new dose before they attempt their next taper.

Suboxone is a powerful drug, especially at the levels we addicts have to take. You want to remove that drug from her system slowly, this is the best way to minimize wd, in my opinion.

As far as supplements to help ease wd, I would wait until she was a lot closer to jumping. I’ve seen people start taking Clonidine weeks and weeks before jumping and it didn’t do that much to help them. I took Clonidine after I got off Suboxone and it helped me a lot. Clonidine is non-habit forming, so no worries there, but she does need to get her blood pressure checked first because, like tinydancer said, it is a blood pressure medication. I’ve heard good things about Neurontin too, but I never used it myself.

Best of luck to both of you!

Author: Barelyboxed

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:17 am

Just wanted to post a very brief intro.
I’ve participated on the forum before but couldn’t get logged back in. Fresh starts are usually good anyway!
I’ve been off & on (mostly on) subutex for around 3 1/2 years. For the vast majority of that time, I’ve been on doses ranging from about 1mg to 3-4mg a day, with a few short lived periods of abstinence & a few (or more) brief lapses with my drug of choice.
Anyway, I’ve gathered a good bit of experience along the way. This place has helped me before, so thought I’d give it another visit.
Thanks.

Author: Barelyboxed

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:17 am

Just wanted to post a very brief intro.
I’ve participated on the forum before but couldn’t get logged back in. Fresh starts are usually good anyway!
I’ve been off & on (mostly on) subutex for around 3 1/2 years. For the vast majority of that time, I’ve been on doses ranging from about 1mg to 3-4mg a day, with a few short lived periods of abstinence & a few (or more) brief lapses with my drug of choice.
Anyway, I’ve gathered a good bit of experience along the way. This place has helped me before, so thought I’d give it another visit.
Thanks.

Author: Susanne

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:22 am

ok, he cut down my sub two 2mg three times a day unless my withdrawl start, although that is what I was already doing. He also gave me riddilin once I explained what I do in my job and my responsibilities… very heavy stuff. Then for the fibro pain he suggested trying Savella. He had a 2 week starter pack that I am going to try. If I can get rid of the pain and the rest of the side effects I think I will be golden. We will see. I did take the riddilin today and I could concentrate and I wasn’t in a fog… so that was great especially at work. As for the Savella I just took my first dose, I will keep you updated. I checked and blue cross does pay for both.

Author: Susanne

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:22 am

ok, he cut down my sub two 2mg three times a day unless my withdrawl start, although that is what I was already doing. He also gave me riddilin once I explained what I do in my job and my responsibilities… very heavy stuff. Then for the fibro pain he suggested trying Savella. He had a 2 week starter pack that I am going to try. If I can get rid of the pain and the rest of the side effects I think I will be golden. We will see. I did take the riddilin today and I could concentrate and I wasn’t in a fog… so that was great especially at work. As for the Savella I just took my first dose, I will keep you updated. I checked and blue cross does pay for both.

Author: Virtualoklahoman

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 1:58 am

Funny, buprenorphine makes me need about 12 hours of sleep for some reason. Even 10 hours can make me feel like I didn’t sleep enuogh, it’s weird.