Author: Doober

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 11:59 pm

Wow, thank you so much for all the helpful advice Amy, and Rule and Romeo as well. You are all awesome. I have some good news, finally – I managed to find a handful of my meds that I didn’t realize I still had, there was two days supply left… thank god for that. I know i’m going to have to take WAY less to make it to my next refill, but that I think I can deal with, and still goto work everyday, maybe with some minor discomfort. Much better, I’m quite relieved.

Option 3 btw was never an option for me, I cannot relapse – I know I won’t survive it if that were to happen, though I’m always mindful that its always possible, and do everything I can to keep that from happening, and I have a good support group around me to help keep me in check.

This experience has certainly jolted me a bit. I didn’t realize just how badly my body has become re-wired to work with suboxone, not until I stopped taking it for a couple days. I also forgot how long it actually takes to get into your system – it took over an hour before I felt any level of normality after taking it this evening.

Now hopefully my doc isn’t turned off by this whole ordeal, and maybe it’s time to think about taking less and.. Maybe.. Quitting altogether some day.

Author: Fiveseven15

Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2013 1:11 am

really just gotta prepare yourself, and stay positive and come to THESE forums to talk about it. just talking about things helped me so immensely.

update: after an hour or so with the kava, anxiety was completely gone, little tired, but no drunk feeling like others have stated. it supposedly acts on the same receptors as benzos but for some reason benzos have NO effect on me (even with booze, and i have no tolerance to BEER) but kava, from walgreens, took the anxiety away completely for a few hours. havent tried it for sleep yet. gonna do that now lol

Author: BoneZBxtch

Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2013 1:47 am

Need a good Suboxone doc in Metro Detroit MAcomb co area.. went to one and he gave me weeks supply, made it last over 2 weeks cuz of the price… well now have finally got the cash to make a new appt (only 2 days of meds left ) and that doc wil not be in for another 2 weeks!! WTF!!! Uhhhh I need a sub doc that can see me ASAP!!! ive got 2 days left .. .. i heard th walk in clinic on hall rd n mound does suboxone??? anyone know… MESSAGE ME I am desperate!!!! I dont wanna have to go to the city next week and relapse if u know what I mean!!! HELP!!!!!!!!!

Author: AnabeloftheSouth

Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2013 1:06 pm

EXCELLENT NEWS!

I have captured the little kitty! Last night when I went out to feed the strays, I brought a pillow case and cat nip ( I know – hypocritical to use drugs on a kitty!) So Karen, I used the kitty equivalent of whiskey! Cheating, I know, but he needed a home and in the end it is worth it. And wow, does this cat like her nip! She is sleeping in a pile of it right now…Anyway, it worked. Ha ha ha… Romeo, you were not too far off the mark with your vision of the great cat capture of 2013!

So there we go! I have a little cat I have rescued. She is SUPER sweet… Or he – not sure actually. Wow, this marks a new beginning for me! For an entire year I wanted to get a pet but was such a mess I could not commit… And now I have one! He/she is doing great too. There was about 2 hours of hiding under a bed and then out he came and it is like he has always lived here and he owns the place! Wow, I am in a good mood now!

Aside from that, not much news to report… I am still on my same dose of .75. I think maybe tomorrow I will try to cut it down just a tiny bit and see how that goes. Not sure how much to cut it by though. I guess the easiest would be to go to .50mg, in terms of cutting the strips.

Ok, THANKS for being so sweet and supportive Karen and Romeo!

Karen, RLS – just looked up what that is. I had that the day before I first took suboxone when I had to be off the pills for ages. Miserable thing RLS is! I don’t think I have had it since though. Is it the reduced dose that causes that Karen? I have to reduce my dose again soon. It is so easy to drift on suboxone – well for me it is. I have about 8 or so strips left, and I DO NOT want to go back to a doc, so I can’t drift. BUt beside that -I really don’t want to stay on this stuff forever. I guess on some level I am just a little scared – but I have extra motivation now in cat form!

Ok, I better go out and buy some treats for my young friend here! THanks all for sticking with me on my get clean journey! I will post again later!

Author: rule62

Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2013 1:53 pm

Hi Tammy and Welcome to our forum! Sounds like you have a solid plan now and will be alright. Just up your dose a bit. You can always taper back down in the near future.

What confuses me on your post and also many others here is the use of the decimal point. In your first post you state that you were taking .5 to .7 of Suboxone. Saying that means you are cutting a 2 mg strip (assuming) in half (1 mg) then half again (.5 mg) How do you get to .7 mg’s? Are you using the metric system for measurement?

My guess is you and a lot of other posters are misplacing the decimal point. Do you mean 5.0 and 7.0 mg’s? Or am I completely off base on this one? You could also be using the liquid taper measurement and that would make sense.

Just trying to clear things up in my head on how much you are taking.

Congratulations on getting down to a low dose whether it be .5 or 5.0 mg’s.

rule

Author: rule62

Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2013 7:02 pm

I am one of those who had an addiction to both Hydrocodone and Tramadol. Well, add in Soma too if I’m being totally honest. By the time I had had enough, my intake was roughly 14-18 Norco 10’s + 10-12 Tramadol 50’s + 1 Soma for every 3-4 Hydros to get what I considered the best high. Enough chemicals to kill a normal person with no tolerance. Oh yea, a script of Xanax which I used in 2 weeks instead of 4. Forgot about that one. How the hell did I live through all that?

Anyway, here I am on Suboxone still. When I had my induction, I was given two 8 mg pills at once to dissolve under my tongue. In twenty minutes I felt really weird but in a good way. Just to make sure, my Dr. gave me one more pill to = 24 mg’s.
That amount took care of most everything. I walked around in a semi daze for a few days until I went down to 2 pills per day. I took both pills at 10 AM like my Dr. told me. I am one of those who do well taking instructions from a doctor.

No cravings, but my mind was all depressed and not firing right. It took about a week or more to feel normal again. So yes, Suboxone worked well for my Tramadol addiction. What it didn’t help with was the Soma or Xanax withdrawal. But it really wasn’t all that bad. Went to work everyday and called my doctors nurse almost daily for support. A great team, just very new at Suboxone prescribing. My side effects were not what the RB rep told them at all. I kept saying it made me tired. Over the next 12 months I tapered down to a nice low amount where I felt almost perfect.

So just like you’ve been told, you may need just a little more to stop the cravings. Your Dr. should be asking you that every visit so he has you on the best dose.

I will say that I am surprised that you would need so much Sub given that you really weren’t taking all that many Hydros. Don’t take that wrong. 8 pills a day will kill you eventually. Your liver will go out. And I too was flat out addicted when I was taking 8 a day. It just took me longer to hit bottom, that’s all.

We’re glad to have you with us and I wish you the very best in recovery.

rule

Author: rule62

Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2013 7:09 pm

Hi abj77,

For once we get a side effect that has been proven. So many people come on here claiming all sorts of side effects they heard someone else had and claim it as factual. It’s good to know that the swelling is a fact with 7%. What I’d like to know is if the Naloxone is causing it or the Buprenorphine is. From what you’ve said so far it sounds like the Naloxone is the culprit. But do please let us know for sure.

Hope all is well and it’s good to have you with us.

rule

Author: rule62

Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2013 7:14 pm

I would love to delete this thread and all the ones that were created by one of the past trolls or trouble makers. It is not our policy to delete threads unless there is a good reason. Me hating them is not a good enough reason.

Whenever I see Dmack’s name or you know who’s name come up I cringe.

Yea, I’m in a pissy mood after seeing this. He won’t even get 2¢ out of me. Make it 1¢

‘Nuff said. That’s my rant of the day.

Author: subloverforlife

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 11:22 pm

This Zubsolv, it doesnt sound like its generic. It’ll be another brand name I think. Therefore I find it unlikely it’ll be a preferred brand over Activas and Amneal. I am currently on Activas tabs and I almost prefer them to Sub tabs. Most days I don’t notice a difference between the 10mgs of Sub and 12mgs Actavis bupe/nalox. My doc tacked on 1 more 2mg because I told her it seemed to be slacking a little. I’m stuck on them forever so I’m glad they at least taste better. I’ve heard bad reviews about Amneal bupe.

Author: byebyedopiates

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 1:03 am

Thanks Amy,

I do feel that stalling mid-taper can be just fine, or even crucial to the end goal …especially to gain stability in life, or for the comfort of the detox process. Considering I had maxed out at 2.66mg/day (1/3 of an 8mg strip) I figured that 0.25-0.33mg/per day was a great milestone, being approximately 1/10th of my peak dose.

As far as planning for my future stability, in the last year I’ve changed my social scene and personal habits/outlook a lot. I’ve recently started seeing a therapist thru a prominent college in my area. I have typically been the support system for many around me, so I am actually my primary source of support. I expect I will ultimately join a program to offer support, and to have support as well.

————————-

Financial (or other) stress, as well as poor eating (lack of caloric intake/insufficient fresh produce), poor hydration can really masquerade as, or intensify apparent withdrawal agonies.

At times I’m unusually in tune to my body, and at other times I’m as oblivious as putty. When I have too much on my mind and get spread too thin I become a bit stupid.

A COMMON SYMPTOM OF DEHYDRATION IS RESTLESSNESS:
I tend toward chronic dehydration, and began to realize its effect on my supposed opiate-related "RLS" (restless leg syndrome). It took some time to act on my hunch, but then my research on dehydration symptoms coupled with moderately chugging water worked absolute wonders. Hydration is no cure-all, but I can only imagine how much comfort and rest have been lost, and how many benzos have been eaten trying to alleviate RLS, when simple water may have done the trick……

example:
The other night, I couldn’t get to sleep, then I couldn’t stay asleep, at one point I awoke and stayed in an exhausted fidgety state, too tired to get water……..until finally I got up, got a 20oz bottle of water, and was sleeping soundly before I finished it. Maybe less than 10 minutes.

I do have a prescription for Xanax which I’ve always taken VERY sparingly. Xanax usually works too well or too little. It either doesn’t put me down, even after 2-3 doses, or some days a single dose takes me out for a whole day, still dragging the next day.

I have started depending much more on water to attain physical and mental comfort.
————————————————————–
It’s funny how intimidating the Suboxone dosage reductions can seem before you actually reduce.

Cutting up the portions in advance can help a lot. At the moment that it’s time to dose is not the best time to do precision cuts, so I just kept eating the easy, non-reduced cut in order to carry on. One day I simply diced up a week’s worth of smaller doses and proceeded to consume smaller doses without much issue.

example:
When dividing, naturally some parts will simply be a tad bigger than the rest. Some will be the smaller portions.
I start consuming the larger portions, which compliments the taper idea as I end with smaller portions.

To attain a 0.25mg dose…………….I cut an 8mg strip into 4 parts, 2mg+/- each.
I cut the 2mg’s in half = 2x 1mg parts.
I cut the 1mg’s in half = 2x 0.5mg parts.
I cut the 0.5mg’s in half = 2x 0.25mg parts. (this is not rocket science. The actual sizes will vary a lot)
My dose hovered at 0.25mg for awhile. I finally started cutting a 1/4th notch out of each unit, leaving 0.1875mg (according to the calculator, not the absolute true amount of meds)

The next step was to estimate the cut splitting 0.25mg into 0.15mg and 0.10mg. (3 parts to 2 parts)
I’m dosing at 0.15mg/day now.
****again, not rocket science. Depending on how much the actual cut parts vary in size, you may dose a little more or less often….. tiny piece: dose 20 hours later; larger piece: dose 26 hours later
————————————–

At low doses I’ve been dosing once per day now, steadily for a month or more. For the year I was on Subs before tapering, I dosed twice daily to avoid surges and gaps.

Now, after a reduction, I may re-dose 18-22 hours later at first. Within a few days I’m hitting 26 hours without discomfort.
For me, adjusting the hours between doses helps to ease the transitions. If the reduced amount isn’t perfect, then the hours between doses will bridge the gap.
Trust your body, and cut yourself a small amount of slack.
——————————————————-

I’m going to visit family in 3 weeks and plan to be off the daily doses by then. I will bring some tiny pre-cut pieces with me to ensure that I’m okay for an overdue connection with some very loved people.

………….There’s my update.
I hope the information about my experiences and personal quirks can help one or more people get to a better place.