Quitting Suboxone?
I started taking suboxone in October after spending several years in pain managment where I was on methadone.I used methadone for about 2 years,but towards the end and increasing in dosage-100mg/day of the pain managment. I was unable to get and keep an erection.I told the doctor about this but he said it was meth or nothing.He gave me instructions to taper off the methadone-which I followed exactly.However,I was really going through bad w/d.So I called a subox.Dr and he put me on 16mg of suboxone/day-in October of 2007-way too high of a dose-shouldve been 4.I took this for 2 months.I have cut back to about 3 mg of suboxone on a good day, and 6 on a bad day.I want to get off suboxone all together.I’m scared to death I’ll need an opioid in an emergency, and it will block all treatment for me. Plus, I’m due to have neck surgery this fall and I’m not sure what to do for the pain afterwards.Plus I still have a lot of pain, and nothing eases it anymore.Suggestions to get off suboxone?
When I say good day and bad day, I mean how much subox to quiet the WDs I sometimes have after taking 3mgs several days in a row. I’m more addicted to suboxone than the methadone I was on. The doctor started me out way too high of a dose at 16mg per day- should have been 4-8 mg. I’m just scared of needing emergency pain relief and nothing being able to help. Plus if I have a major surgery, I will need help with pain as well. I tried quitting suboxne from 8 mg to 0 mg for 5 days, but I had terrible WDs. I tried to take a Vicodin ES, and I felt nothing. So suboxone stays in the system quite long- which is why I really want to get this crap out of me. I really should have tapered down with methadone, but the doctor was so arrogant that I hated dealing with him.He treated pain managment patients as thieves or something just trying to get narcotics.The pain doctor really got me screwed by suggesting the “safe methadone” pain managment approach. That stuff and suboxone are a pain!
Thank you both for the wonderful answers. There’s really no way for me to choose who has the better answer- I think you can both agree.
Based on the only pain Dr I’ve seen, and the only subox Dr I’ve seen, it appears by their atttitudes that I would have a very hard time going back for pain treatment with methadone. All pain doctors would want all of my medical records, and the prior methadone pain treatment then switching to suboxone would show up. I’m worried that because of this, I’d be blacklisted from most pain doctors. It’s amazing the arrogance these people have about treating people for pain- I guess it’s caused by a few people looking to get high- I’m not really sure-maybe its pressure from the medical community itself.
FYI, I am probably going to have discs in my neck fused together- which the Drs I’ve met with say there is about a 50% change of success that it will help the pain, but the con is that I will forever lose range of motion in my neck.
Written by Admin on February 8th, 2009 with
2 comments.
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Chas
#1. February 9th, 2009, at 4:02 PM.
You would have been a hell of a lot better staying on the Methadone. I had the same male problem with meth too. I was on 200mg’s a day for pain management and weaned off it complety. I would go back on the methadone. All these new miracle drugs are a joke. I got off the methadone for it’s rapid need of increase to, and do you believe idiots even in pain scenarios say or lie that it does not have to be increased. What a joke. They LOVE jacking you up.Cut the Sub with the meth and I can advise you. GOOD LUCK. These Doctors, a lot of them don’t know DiCK. I had to learn everything myself. Methadone as far as reducing doses is a hell of a lot easier to predict and calibrate than sub. Plus with a remaining 20mg’s of methadone in you, you will benefit from a conventional opiate for pain. I personally think sub sucks and can’t wait till this supposed safe drug starts dropping people just so all these people can lay off Methadone which is documented fact is probably the safest drug on the planet. And for sure the most researched.
And I must agree with this Top Contributor. Methadone in my opinion is not a good long term pain thing. Although it has a 24/36 hour half life, its threshold for pain relief is only 8 hours, thus you must be a real wizard to calibrate these doses so you don’t end up with a boatload in you and drop dead. It is an extremely low peaking opiate, the simpliest in structure and milligram per milligram Hydrocodone peaks higher and offers more pain relief. The Miracle of methadone is that it know exactly where to go and is reserved stored in your liver and replaces receptors as tired meth groups fall off. That is why it is so special.