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Your husbands story sounds so similar to my own. I got hooked on pain pills(hydrocodone),I was taking them for pain. At my peak I was taking 160mg to 200mg a day(4 or 5 10mg pills 4 times daily).I did this for approx. 3 years. It felt like my life was spinning out of control,so I decided to quit cold turkey.This was a bad mistake, I have never done heroin,but I felt and looked no different than what I have seen on T.V. about heroin users.Then I found out about suboxone, I went to a doctor who prescribed me 8mg. film strips. I was told to take 1/2 strip 4mg. in the morning and the other 1/2 strip at night. My withdrawls from hydrocodone went away immediately,I thought this was a miracle drug at first,but I found out this too was a narcotic. I decided to start tapering down from suboxone(I was taking 8mg. a day for 2 yrs.) at first I cut my dose in half, 1/4 strip 2mg. in the morning and 1/4 strip at night. I did this for 2 weeks(I felt no withdrawls at all from the reduction). Then I cut my dosage in half again 1/8 strip 1mg. morning and 1/8 at night.When I went back to my doctor to refill my prescription,I told him that I had been reducing my dosage and thought he would be happy about this. Boy was I wrong,he was pissed he yelled at me and told me to stick to the program(8mgs. a day). The first thing I did after this was refill my prescription, then I went home and got on the computer to learn more about suboxone and I found out on this site and several others that tapering down was the right thing to do(I was so mad at my doctor,apparently he was more worried about money than he was worried about me) I never went back to him after this last prescription!!!! That same day I cut my dosage in 1/2 again,I took my 1/8 of a strip in the morning and skipped my evening dose(still no withdrawls). I stretchted this last prescription for approx. 7 or 8 months. I just took my morning dose 1/8 strip for around 2 months, then I cut in 1/2 again to 1/16th of a strip once daily .5mgs.(at this point it was starting to get hard to cut my pieces).I stayed at this dosage for approx. 3 months. Then I reduced again to 1/32nd of a strip(very difficult to cut that small),I stayed there until I ran out. I suffered no withdrawls through this entire time I was cutting back!!!
My first day I went without suboxone I had no problems.My second day after I jumped off, my lower back was in extreme pain,my disc in my spine swelled up, I went to see my family dr. he gave me lidocaine patches to put on my lower back. They were worthless,no help at all. Then I went to the drugstore and bought some icy-hot patches,I do get a little relief using these patches but not nearly as much as I need(around 20% reduction in pain)but I will take it because I refuse to take any narcotics again!!! I heard about the flu-like symptoms I was supposed to get,I thought I was free and clear, but they showed up after 1 week of my jump off point. I have been off suboxone for 3 weeks now and my back is still in extreme pain,and hot and cold flashes are still affecting me. I can't wait for this to be over!!!
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