20 years of methadone use after disabling military incident

Sleepr116043 over a year ago

I just wanted to add my own story to this website. Everyone's input has certainly helped me work my way through getting off Methadone. In 1988 I suffered a disabling incident while serving in the United States Army. Two of my lower discs were crushed and an operation was impossible because of the danger of permanent paralysis. So after my discharge and several attempts at different jobs and increasingly potent painkillers, my pain Doctor suggested methadone. To be fair, he did tell me that I would be on it for the rest of my life! But at that point all I cared about was alleviating the pain! Eventually, I was on a regimen of 60mg per day. I should also mention that I was taking 1500mg of DayPro (anti-inflammatory steroid), Soma (muscle relaxer), Percocet, and Oxycontin. I only recently learned that DayPro should only be taken for a maximum of 3 months, not twenty years!!! Anyway, I started weaning myself off all my meds three months ago. The DayPro was the first to go, within a week all of the edema I was suffering from completely disappeared! Then the Soma, no noticeable changes. but when I got to the Methadone, that was another story. I foolishly tried to go off of it, cold turkey! I lasted 36 hours before I fell off a cliff. All of the classic withdrawal symptoms erupted, uncontrollable twitching, vomiting, running nose (and eyes?!), unbelievable heart palpitations and sharp spikes in blood pressure, and the inability to sleep (including some horrific nightmares). So after two days of no sleep (my wife took two days off of work as I suffered through this), I reluctantly went back on Methadone and decided to wean myself off. I reduced my daily intake by two and one half mg. every week to ten days. I still couldn't sleep, except for half hour, to one hour spurts. I had no appetite and the "creepy-crawlies" persisted. I spread out my dosage throughout the day but the nights were still the worst, so when I got down to 5mg. per day, I waited until bed time to take it so that I could get some sleep. Eight days ago, I took my last dose of Methadone (I started taking Tylenol Arthritis for pain with some success and I still take one to three Percocet 5mg. each for breakout pain). I still get bouts of nausea and some twitching at night. And I still cannot sleep through the night (I have tried Tylenol PM with little help), I sometimes sleep one to two hours at any one time. Believe it or not, playing video games on my Mac actually helps with the twitchiness, (which can be maddening)! I feel like there is an electrical current being run through my arms and legs. There is no sitting still. I even tried to sit on my hands in order to get my arms from flailing! I suppose when your concentrating on a FPS game your mind is distracted! Anyway, twenty years of Methadone use is way too much. Yes it did help me to function somewhat normally, but it also affected me adversely, i.e. weight gain, decreased libido, blood pressure and sugar problems. There has been significant improvements in micro surgery, so after I'm cleaned up and get in a little better shape, I'll be having surgery to relieve the pain and a fusing of my damaged discs. Hopefully, a new day...soon!

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bluedog114369 over a year ago

Thank you for posting your story and I think it illustrates how very difficult it can be to quit addictive substances. I don't think people understand the physical symptoms and all of the problems associated with actually quitting and how vitally important it is to step off. How is your health now? You seem very happy and healthy now but I'd just like to know.

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Guest over a year ago

I understand exactly what you went through and are probably still having issues with, sleep mostly. I am 70 years old. An RN, BSN for 38 years, hospital work. I was injured on the job at 49, of course an L4-5 huge disk pushing on every nerve. I could not hold my urine, had a discectomy and was relieved of pain hardly any drugs. Two years later the next disc blew, and this was unbelievably horrible. The ambulance techs had to drag me out of my room with a sheet, me screaming. Worse than childbirth. Even after surgery it was bad. It was not getting better, of course I went from 4, 5mg. Vicodin a day to 6-8 10 mg. doses and this went on for almost 7 months. The pain was worse, and meds no longer helped. Finally, they thought I was drug seeking and I felt I had to prove the pain is real, I went off the meds, very difficult, Heeby jebbies, restlessness, no sleep and horrible pain. That was really hard, but the pain worsened, to make a terrible story shorter, after a year post op, I had this huge swelling over the middle of my back, fever and horrible pain. It turned out I had this slow growing infection in my t-spine since surgery. It completely necrosed the T-8 vertebrae (rotted). When they discovered their misjudgments, they all were so sympathetic. I had months of antibiotics, gentamycin which destroyed my vestibular, cochlear, because they neglected one week to test for toxicity. Of course, that required months of therapy to be able to get back some balance. They also added Methadone for pain. I started at 60 mg. Too much, I went down to 30 mg. and finally 20 mg and remained on that dose. Now it is 20 years later. My MD did not think I needed to stop it. The bad news is she is retired as of this week. I just got my last prescription for 2 months. I live in a city where there are too few Doctors, and none that will take a new patient on chronic pain med. I have been weaning myself also, once I knew she planned to retire. I too started with stopping 2.5mg. each a.m. and kept my 10 mg night dose. Now I am at 5mg. in morning. and still 10 at night. I do not think I can go faster, and I hate it. I feel like at 70 this will kill me.

I have been at a very high level of functioning since my back injuries 20 year ago. I went back to work, without any real issues, other than no more floor work. I got training as a wound and skin Nurse. Went back to school and acquired my BSN, I have been active in our community with all kinds of volunteer work after I retired. I have 4 successful children and 11 grands, and I do not know what to do. I am so scared. I have a 2-month supply left but know that already the worms in the arms are here, I rock myself, I have chills one-minute and sweats another. I really do not want to change this. I am just sharing my story after reading yours. I do not know anyone else in this situation. It was great to hear that you have been able to come off of this.

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