Author: jonathanm1978

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 6:43 am

It does sound to me like she didn’t wait long enough or deal with enough withdrawal before trying suboxone, and when suboxone WAS administered, it wasn’t enough. You have to take more the first (give or take) week, sometimes 3 to 5 days, to alleviate the withdrawals. It’s not going to work properly if you don’t take enough Suboxone. You’ll feel like using, and cravings will overcome you. You’ll think that you need the opiate (Percos or Roxys) and that’ll bring you back around to using again. Make SURE that you take the Suboxone PROPERLY!!! There’s a VERY thorough method of taking it, and when you are preparing to dose Suboxone, do so AT LEAST with 30 minutes to spare. You should place it under your tongue, making sure to SWALLOW BEFORE YOU DO IT. You don’t want to have excess saliva and swallow a lot while you’re holding your suboxone. THIS does make a difference! And just because you can’t feel the medicine under your tongue anymore doesn’t mean it’s not still working. Don’t swallow any remaining or rinse your mouth. Look at the clock and judge about 30 minutes from the time you put it under your tongue, and allow that time to pass before eating or drinking anything at all! And if you do have to swallow, which obviously you will within 30 minutes, try to swallow from the top of your mouth only — this is a bit of practicing, but I have been on suboxone long enough that I can swallow without moving my tongue around and displacing the suboxone …

Suboxone use is a routine. Practice comes with taking this med, as we’re used to taking thing orally and just having them work via entering our blood stream from digestion or other methods…But suboxone is similar to the old LSD and acid users…under the tongue because a main blood vessel is there, and it gets into your bloodstream within minutes of placing it. This is why Suboxone should be allowed PLENTY of time to be administered when used sublingually.

I remember my induction when I first started Suboxone. The very first time I tried this drug, I went to a methadone clinic. Wasn’t the doctor/patient setting in the privacy of a doctor’s office that you can get now, granted, you can STILL go to some methadone clinics and be prescribed suboxone….things have changed though…
Anyway..
The doctor made it VERY clear how I should take Suboxone. I was brought into the methadone clinic on Wednesday, prior to receiving Suboxone on Friday. I HAD to test positive for an opiate in my system on Wednesdays UA test…so I had to continue using until that time. Once I left the clinic on that day though, I could not TOUCH anything else…and was to return EARLY Friday morning to receive my Suboxone (or so I THOUGHT). This was the LONGEST 2 days of my life! Wednesday wasn’t that bad, but by Thursday PM…I was in agony! By 8 or 9 that night, I was so restless…just BLAH. I tried to sleep for most of the 2 days between going back, but that was impossible. I couldn’t stretch my legs enough, I couldn’t yawn enough…tears in my eyes every time I wiped them…it was awful. Friday morning FINALLY came around, and I was at the clinic at 5:45am, waiting. I thought to myself "maybe by 8am this will be over."
BLAH! It wound up taking them ALL day to get me my Suboxone. It was around 2pm that evening when the doctor told me to place the 1/2 of an 8mg-2mg pill under my tongue. We waited, and about 5 minutes after doing that, I still had visible withdrawal symptoms, so I was told to place the other 1/2 under my tongue. 5 more minutes, feeling MUCH better, but still some chills, one more 1/2..and that was my dose. 1 1/2 suboxone, per day, and 7 days worth.

Now things are MUCH different…as I go to the doctor and get my 3 month supply …75 / month. Doctor office settings are a LOT more one-to-one with the doctor+patient being able to have a private setting..unlike the clinic, where the nurse and psychiatrist were all present with me during my dosing.

I MUCH prefer going to a doctor office and being seen rather than going into a methadone clinic..but if that was my only option, I’d still do that…and gladly go once a month. Now the once a week crap where they charge you $160 a visit each week..that’s just the doctor’s way of cleaning your pockets to make sure you don’t have ANY money if you did want to jump off of Suboxone (I THINK).

In fact, I asked the doctor at the methadone clinic before I quit (or was "discharged") if he was doing that so that people couldn’t afford to do ANYTHING but come see him, and should I direct my power bills and such to his office since he was taking everything I had, LITERALLY. He wanted me to come see him 1x week for 2 months, and pay him $160 each week that I came. Of COURSE I couldn’t afford this, and fell off the wagon..but within 4 months, I was in a doctors office and doing the same thing, except this time it was MONTHLY, not weekly, and the doctor was writing me a month’s supply, NOT A WEEK. Doctors know they are dealing with someone who has a disease, and this disease will dictate their lives, and they take advantage of that. There ARE some good doctors out there, and they do help their patients..but there are some that just don’t care..and they treat the disease, not the patient.

The doctor I see now, when I explained to him my income situation, was VERY understanding. Of course, this was 2 years ago and things for me have changed DRASTICALLY…my wife got a job with the power company here in Alabama…so we’re doing pretty OK…and now have insurance. But when I went to my current doctor, I had NO insurance, and was receiving Unemployment. That was IT. He really did what he could to help me stay in my treatment, and said that he could allow me to come see him 1 time every 3 months, and write my Suboxone for 3 months..but that was as long as he could write the prescription for. He asked would that help me, and I jumped out of my seat saying "yes"…
Lots different than going once a week, at $160 each week, or even once a month, at $110 each month. Now I go once every 3 months, at $190 each, but insurance picks up on some of that.

3+ years suboxone user..so I have many experiences to share if you have any questions.

Author: jonathanm1978

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 6:43 am

It does sound to me like she didn’t wait long enough or deal with enough withdrawal before trying suboxone, and when suboxone WAS administered, it wasn’t enough. You have to take more the first (give or take) week, sometimes 3 to 5 days, to alleviate the withdrawals. It’s not going to work properly if you don’t take enough Suboxone. You’ll feel like using, and cravings will overcome you. You’ll think that you need the opiate (Percos or Roxys) and that’ll bring you back around to using again. Make SURE that you take the Suboxone PROPERLY!!! There’s a VERY thorough method of taking it, and when you are preparing to dose Suboxone, do so AT LEAST with 30 minutes to spare. You should place it under your tongue, making sure to SWALLOW BEFORE YOU DO IT. You don’t want to have excess saliva and swallow a lot while you’re holding your suboxone. THIS does make a difference! And just because you can’t feel the medicine under your tongue anymore doesn’t mean it’s not still working. Don’t swallow any remaining or rinse your mouth. Look at the clock and judge about 30 minutes from the time you put it under your tongue, and allow that time to pass before eating or drinking anything at all! And if you do have to swallow, which obviously you will within 30 minutes, try to swallow from the top of your mouth only — this is a bit of practicing, but I have been on suboxone long enough that I can swallow without moving my tongue around and displacing the suboxone …

Suboxone use is a routine. Practice comes with taking this med, as we’re used to taking thing orally and just having them work via entering our blood stream from digestion or other methods…But suboxone is similar to the old LSD and acid users…under the tongue because a main blood vessel is there, and it gets into your bloodstream within minutes of placing it. This is why Suboxone should be allowed PLENTY of time to be administered when used sublingually.

I remember my induction when I first started Suboxone. The very first time I tried this drug, I went to a methadone clinic. Wasn’t the doctor/patient setting in the privacy of a doctor’s office that you can get now, granted, you can STILL go to some methadone clinics and be prescribed suboxone….things have changed though…
Anyway..
The doctor made it VERY clear how I should take Suboxone. I was brought into the methadone clinic on Wednesday, prior to receiving Suboxone on Friday. I HAD to test positive for an opiate in my system on Wednesdays UA test…so I had to continue using until that time. Once I left the clinic on that day though, I could not TOUCH anything else…and was to return EARLY Friday morning to receive my Suboxone (or so I THOUGHT). This was the LONGEST 2 days of my life! Wednesday wasn’t that bad, but by Thursday PM…I was in agony! By 8 or 9 that night, I was so restless…just BLAH. I tried to sleep for most of the 2 days between going back, but that was impossible. I couldn’t stretch my legs enough, I couldn’t yawn enough…tears in my eyes every time I wiped them…it was awful. Friday morning FINALLY came around, and I was at the clinic at 5:45am, waiting. I thought to myself "maybe by 8am this will be over."
BLAH! It wound up taking them ALL day to get me my Suboxone. It was around 2pm that evening when the doctor told me to place the 1/2 of an 8mg-2mg pill under my tongue. We waited, and about 5 minutes after doing that, I still had visible withdrawal symptoms, so I was told to place the other 1/2 under my tongue. 5 more minutes, feeling MUCH better, but still some chills, one more 1/2..and that was my dose. 1 1/2 suboxone, per day, and 7 days worth.

Now things are MUCH different…as I go to the doctor and get my 3 month supply …75 / month. Doctor office settings are a LOT more one-to-one with the doctor+patient being able to have a private setting..unlike the clinic, where the nurse and psychiatrist were all present with me during my dosing.

I MUCH prefer going to a doctor office and being seen rather than going into a methadone clinic..but if that was my only option, I’d still do that…and gladly go once a month. Now the once a week crap where they charge you $160 a visit each week..that’s just the doctor’s way of cleaning your pockets to make sure you don’t have ANY money if you did want to jump off of Suboxone (I THINK).

In fact, I asked the doctor at the methadone clinic before I quit (or was "discharged") if he was doing that so that people couldn’t afford to do ANYTHING but come see him, and should I direct my power bills and such to his office since he was taking everything I had, LITERALLY. He wanted me to come see him 1x week for 2 months, and pay him $160 each week that I came. Of COURSE I couldn’t afford this, and fell off the wagon..but within 4 months, I was in a doctors office and doing the same thing, except this time it was MONTHLY, not weekly, and the doctor was writing me a month’s supply, NOT A WEEK. Doctors know they are dealing with someone who has a disease, and this disease will dictate their lives, and they take advantage of that. There ARE some good doctors out there, and they do help their patients..but there are some that just don’t care..and they treat the disease, not the patient.

The doctor I see now, when I explained to him my income situation, was VERY understanding. Of course, this was 2 years ago and things for me have changed DRASTICALLY…my wife got a job with the power company here in Alabama…so we’re doing pretty OK…and now have insurance. But when I went to my current doctor, I had NO insurance, and was receiving Unemployment. That was IT. He really did what he could to help me stay in my treatment, and said that he could allow me to come see him 1 time every 3 months, and write my Suboxone for 3 months..but that was as long as he could write the prescription for. He asked would that help me, and I jumped out of my seat saying "yes"…
Lots different than going once a week, at $160 each week, or even once a month, at $110 each month. Now I go once every 3 months, at $190 each, but insurance picks up on some of that.

3+ years suboxone user..so I have many experiences to share if you have any questions.