methadone,hydracodone withdrawels

gayle · Newbie Joined: 01 Jun 2006 Posts: 1

I have been taking 20 to 40 mg of methadone & right now 40 to 60 mg of vicodine a day. I stopped the mdone 2 weeks ago and im down to 40 vd a day after 8 years. I feel terrible. How long will this last & what can I do to get thru this. I have 3 elementry kids at home & Im a nurse that has to work. I need help. This come from a car wreck 8 years ago not a herion user.

Miia · Gold Member Joined: 21 Sep 2005 Posts: 389

Hi! Considering you are a nurse, you know that different people would react differently to withdrawal symptoms. I can’t tell you how long the withdrawals may last but I don’t think you should be doing this cold turkey or without a doctor’s help.

Although you did not take heroin and were not a drug addict, methadone would cause the same physical dependence and you may suffer withdrawal effects as much as anybody else. Eight years is a long time for taking this drug regularly.

I would suggest you found a doctor who would help you in choosing proper nutrition that may help or other ways to combat methadone withdrawal. Considering you have three children and have to think about them too, you would certainly need a support both from your family and friends as well as professional. I would suggest you got help.

duece74 · Newbie Joined: 25 Jun 2006 Posts: 1

I'm an addict and take 90mg of methadone following years of opiate addiction and abuse. I make no excuses for my past or present actions. At first it was like being touched by the hand of God, but eventually I got bitch slapped by the same decieving hand. Wow.you have got to be one sorry excuse for a nurse. Why don't you ask your boss(doctor) how long you'll feel like shit. Since your not a loser addict like me you should not be afraid to ask your doctor. I'm imagining (and I may be wrong, if so, all apologies) that you are one of those pompous nurses who thumbs up your nose at every addict that comes into your office. Welcome to addiction babe. Pay very close attention to how you feel right now. That is how countless addicts feel daily only to be judged by a misinformed and largely ignorant medical community and a for profit national drug policy . Sorry for the rant, but when it comes to the subject of addiction, many doctors in this great country of ours are still in the dark. As for your question, the answer is this: you will feel awful for what will feel like a lifetime to you. As for how you can get through this, I reccommend that you go back to a tolerable dose of methadone and quit the vics all together. They can really wreak havoc on the ol' liver. Methadone is far less toxic to vital organs. I would stay on the methadone until you no longer feel the urge to get on the internet and ask stupid questions that you most likely already know the anwers to. I'm pretty sure that asking questions like this somehow aid in the denial of your own addiction.

DSLDAW · Newbie Joined: 03 Sep 2006 Posts: 4 Location: FL.

Hey Deuce,I'm right with ya on this.I was an addict for 8 years,went to
rehab and got clean.After only 2 months clean,I developed Avascular Necrosis and had to have both my hips replaced.Haha.Now after 3 years
of being on high doses of Oxy and wethadone,I'm feeling just as bad as being an addict.I can't get off the Methadone for my life.The Coke and Alcohol,which I was formerly addicted to were a "Walk in the Park" compared to the Methadone.I take hundreds of mg of Oxy a day and can stop cold turkey on a dime,but not the Methadone.I loved the way you bashed the nurse,Duece.LOL.You'd think she would know better,but
the reality is,that all addicts get shuned upon by doctors and nurses who
have no idea as to what being an addict involves.Yet they somehow
disrespect addicts altogether.I just met a male nurse who was on his way to rehab from doing about 100 mg of Dilaudid a day.Addiction is not
just for us so called"Losers"these days,is it.It can consume anyone,anywhere,at anytime.

Guest · Guest

No help for the helpers I guess. I'm a nurse as well. I am also a human being just like you. So F%^& yourself asshole. How do you like that smart ass?

We work under extremely stressfull conditions and shit happens. I bet you didn't wake up one day and say "I'm going to become an addict today" did you?
Won't be back. Question

Guest · Guest

3 days ago i started the soboxone therapy with a doctor. i just lost 5 years of clean time, after using almost 12 years. i started using about 6 months ago...alittle here and there and then (of coarse) it turned into daily. i tried buying meth and using it to detox but as soon as i had a few days, i use again and then buy meth again and so on and so on....i just was terrified i got myself back into this hell, than a friend told me about soboxone and while i waited a month for my appointment i used 10 mil of meth a day...now i started on the subx. 3 days ago, i started with 1/2 pill, which my doctor and the bottle don't say how many mils. it is? it's an orange hex shape pill? i been getting terrible headaches and nausia after i take it. any suggestions on how long that lasts? and since i've only been on it a few days, any suggestions on if i stop taking it, how long do you have to be using it before you feel withdrawls? i'm thinking after reading all the post i don't want to be addicted to sobx. i'm not sure what to do. i would like any advice.....thanks and be well Question

Guest · Guest

I tore mt ACL 2 years ago and tore up my knee cap. i was in alot of pain. The doctor gave me hydracodone 10/650. i used it like it was prescribed for the pain. then after the pain was gone i started having withdrawls. i would find it anyway i could. one of my buddies takes it for his broken collarbone (he is not addicted). i was clean for 2 weeks, then i saw the bottle, the withrawl symptoms were subsiding and i didnt want or need any, but seeing that bottle made me relapse, now i am worried because i am having my hip replaced in a month and i know i am going to be in pain, i am just worried about controlling the pain without becoming addicted again.

Guest · Guest

I just started as well. I suffered the same things. You need to increase the dose a little as I did, and it will help out tremendously. Also, I take 3 otc ibuprofens whenever my head aches. It hasn't affected the subutrex at all. And, on the nausea issue, try drinking 8oz. of H2O just after the medication is finished melting under your tongue. Then, pop a peppermint in your mouth just following that water. Good luck! I'm told this shit is a miracle drug once you've been properly titrated. POLO

ItNeverEndsinRI77 · Newbie Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 2 Location: RHODE ISLAND

Finally a group I can participate in! Where to begin?! I guess what they say about eyeryone being different when it comes to withdrawels is true, but with me I wish I was someone different! This whole nightmare started for me 10 years ago and I am only 30 years old. In 1997 I was in a bad car accident and fractured several disks in my back, as most know with young people they will not do surgery, so instead the wonderful doctors gave me the perscription to become the addict I am today! It started with Vicodin, then percs, then up to OxyContin. then upping from 10mg Oxy to 20 mg Oxy, and each year pretty much increasing until I was taking 4 80mg OxyContin per day, and I was still in pain. I then started to snort the pills to get that immediate realease. So basically I would eat one whole pill, and snort 4 more throughout the day.

The doctor finally tried to decrease my dose and get me off of them but I just started buying Oxy off the street, which drained my bank account, ruined my life and I had to file for bankruptcy due to having $58,000.00 worth of credit card debt!

One year ago last month I saw the light, or so I thought....... My mother was dying of cancer, and her last words to me were "I love you, and I will watch over you, but go get help, you have a problem with drugs and you will end up dead" I tried to kick the habit cold turkey, but the withdrawels were so bad I went a week without eating, I was drinking water just to have something to throw up beacuse the dry heaves were so bad. Once I started vomiting pure burning bile and blood I went to the emergency room. As I am sure you all have experienced, they treated me like a peice of trash, and just the looks I got hurt! I remember the doctor telling me right after they put me on a IV because I was so dehydrated "I hope you dont think we are going to supply you with Narcotics just because you have some of the worst withdrawels I have every seen"

Well long story short!.... I went to my local Methadone clinic for help. It was like all the horror stories most of us addicts have heard, they dont care about us, we could take Methadone forever as long as we pay! I could not beleive how quick they brought up my dose! I went up 10mg per day until I was at 70mg. I was feeling great, but I was high for the whole day and I told them. But they told me with the extent of my usage and ammount of Oxy I was taking I needed to be up that high, that quick!
Here it is almost one year later and I have tried to come off the Methadone 2 times. I am pretty sure I am going to have to take it for the rest of my life, or it is what is goint to kill me! The agony I felt for the entire week I tried to quit the Oxy cold turkey was NOTHING compared to the withdrawels I had just being brought down 10mg of Methadone!

I am scared to death, dont know what to do! I am now up to 190mg of Methadone per day. I go up to the drive through window....kidding! Smile

......at my clinic and it is the 24hour time release liquid I get, well it is so much they have to give me it in 2 cups and even cut with the juice it is all I can do not to throw it back up! Now it is starting to not work again, I get the cold sweats at my 3rd shift job, it is torture the last 2 hours I work staring at the clock getting sicker and sicker! It is time for my dose to go up the doctor told me this morning, but he dosent know what to do, he gave me this "peak and troff" blood test and did say my body is metabolizing the Methadone quickly. He said even though it is time for a dose increase I am reaching dangerous levels of Methadone. He did tell me he has some patients that take like 450mg of Methadone, but the have been in the prggram for like 10+ years, and at my rate I would be WAY past that.

Dose anyone have any ideas for me, I am scared to DEATH. And now I have been doing my own research I find out that overdosing on Methadone is a VERY painful way to die, its not like with Oxy where you would just go to sleep and not wake up! Should I go back to doing Oxy, try Soboxone, or stay on the Methadone? I just cant take the withdrawels from the methadone!

fluffypurrcat · Newbie Joined: 28 Mar 2007 Posts: 5 Location: EUREKA,CA

I can relate to you, but not to the agony you are going through right now. I am a 53 year old female who hurt my back in 1999 on the job. Workmans comp. ANyway, degenerative disk disese, hernated disks, facet disese, etc. I started on all the regular meds, vicodin, pain patches, physical therapy, etc, etc. Nothing was working and even with norcos. 10/350 or whatever the second half was, the pain wasn't controlled. I tryed my husbands morphine and disn't like it. After 3 years of pain and nothing working, I got my dr. to give me Methadone and I liked it. I got to 90 mg a day with Vicodin ES 7.5/500 for the breakthough pain. one tid.
Anyway, I tryed once to go cold turkey when I had to go down for a medical evaluation at UCSF so the dr. could see the normal amount of pain I was in without the Methadone. Stupid idea totally.
First day was not so bad, still in my system. Day two, couldn't sleep not even on 'Ambien. Day three, chills,nausea, couldnt sleep, aching bones felt like the flu and I was the biggest bitch you would ever hope to see. If I had a gun I would have shot someone, most likely myself I felt so shitty. My husband tryed to warn me but I thought I could do it. I gave in to the withdrawls and took my Methadone. Decided I would never do that again.

Since then, I have had my Methadone slowly decreased over a period of months till I am only taking about 50-60 mg a day. My dr. decreased in increments of 5 mg a month and somtimes stayed there on that dose for two months before taking me down 5 more mg. I don't want to go down any farther. I still have pain but it is manageble. I just had a bunionectomy and the methadone did nothing for the foot pain, but the viocidin helped some.
It sounds to me like the dr. at the Methadone clinic is trying to keep you hooked and is not a good dr. the dose should not be comming up that much, it is dangerous. I think you should look for a Pain clinic if you can find one in your area. Dr. are supposed to help you get on a lower pain dose instead of making it worse. I live in a small area, not a big town, but there is still a good pain clinic in my area. I don't allways agree with my dr, but if I don't I see someone else. My husband was taking Morphine as well as vicodin and quit cold turkey. It took him about 3 weeks for the Morphine withdrawls but longer than that for the vicodin. I tryed to tell him the psychological would last a long time. The few times he took Methadone it was terrible. He has tryed to get me to quit, but I wont and I like Methadone but cant imagine taking the dose you talk about!
I have overdosed on too much before and it is no fun.
I am not some nurse, though I have worked in hospitals before. I was addicted to Meth for years and quit taking it as well as smoking cold turkey. Methadone is a wonder drug and very inexpensive to buy and hell when it comes to withdrawls. I have had many ex addicts tell me the withdrawls are not as severe as Heoin or morphine, but the withdrawls last a lot longer. I wish you all the luck in the world. You need a dr. who is helping you and the one you are under his care does not sound like he knows what he is doing. It is hard to imagine going through a drive though window and getting meds! I have to go get my triplicate form for methadone and my other meds once a month, they won't even phone them in. Good lUck.

methadone,hydracodone withdrawels

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