Author: Amy-Work In Progress

Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 9:33 am

Hi Danny! You are welcome here!

I need to ask you a couple of questions to ascertain your situation. First off, did the detox program at South Miami Hospital suggest that you continue to use suboxone after their program, did a doctor tell you to do that because it was relieving your pain, or did you decide to stay on suboxone this past year on your own?

How long has it been since suboxone lost the ability to take away your pain? Some people on this forum use suboxone for both addiction and chronic pain purposes. In order to get the best pain relief, they break their dose up and take it about 4 times per day. So if you’re on 4 mg/day, you would take 1 mg every 6 hours. Have you tried breaking up your dose like that?

I understand the desire to be off all opiates, especially with your background in AA, but could it be that you are going to need some level of pain relief for many years because of your injuries? I have to disappoint you about one thing. You do not have zero tolerance to the full-agonist opiates (pecocet, vicodin, oxycontin) that you used to take. Just because suboxone is a partial-agonist, doesn’t mean that your tolerance to full agonists has gone back down to zero. It doesn’t work that way. For example, I am on 2 mg of sub/day. That is about equivalent to 30-40 mg of percocet. I would probably have to take 10-15mg of percocet per dose to feel any relief.

I know that there are people on this forum who are more knowledgeable about the science of sub, but I wanted to speak up so you didn’t think that you have a low tolerance to other kinds of opiates.

Please let me know what you think about what I’ve said. We will certainly try to find a way to help you!

Amy