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I applaud your husband for trying to find relief from the pain without having to use narcotics. Often times it is a trade off between managing the pain and being physically dependent on the medication that can give you some quality of life. I hope that everything works out for both of you.
Thank you, I am just hoping my husband can keep his positive attitude he has now. Can't wait for the pain clinic appt. Has anyone ever had to help a loved one go through withdrawal and can you share that with all of us ?
My DH no help doc did tell us that Methadone stays in your system after you stop for 59 1/2 hours !!He looked it up on his little palm pad thingee. DH is going through the day pissed at everything to things on TV or traffic speeding down our road or somebody sitting at the traffic light when it is green and they could go. It goes on and on and on. I know this is really not him but I want my man I married 41 years ago back. 6 more days till the appt. Please make God hear you in your prayers for us.
Well, we finally got to go to the pain clinic today.. Mind you my DH has been on 5mg of Methadone for a few weeks. This visit we did not see a doctor. Just went over medical history and was given a script of 75 Methadone pills and told to come back in Dec. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So now does he take them to help with his pain or stay at 5mg until his next appt??? I guess I should be grateful for the Rx but for the love of God how long it this going to take before we can talk about other pain options ?????????
Well, we finally got to go to the pain clinic today.. Mind you my DH has been on 5mg of Methadone for a few weeks. This visit we did not see a doctor. Just went over medical history and was given a script of 75 Methadone pills and told to come back in Dec. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So now does he take them to help with his pain or stay at 5mg until his next appt??? I guess I should be grateful for the Rx but for the love of God how long it this going to take before we can talk about other pain options ?????????
waiting is always the hardest part. As you said-at least he has medicine for now. Now more withdrawals and he can eventually stop the methadone. Give it time.
Can someone please advise. I will make this short. My husband is tapering off Mehadone with no help from his doctor. He won't Rx for ANYTHING to help him. He has the shakes and everything that goes with it. He was given this 8 years ago for chronic pain and he is tired of taking it. His family doc will NOT give him ANYTHING to help. My question is what can my husband take for the pain he has. He needs hip replacements and rotator cuff re-repair. He is 65 years old. What does a person take for chronic pain when they stop Methadone or other pain meds? I need help please. My husband is down from 250mg+ to 10mg once a day.
I tell you a thing or two. Opiate whitdrawal in itself ain't gonna kill let's say an otherwise healty bizman working on Wall Street but this dude who you're a describing might very well suffer from a heart attack because his not young in years anymore, unlike me who is young and fit and have a nasty benzo addiction which might take me to the kingdom come where 200 arab virgins are waiting, if I stop cold turkey, so to say.
And to answer your original question there are alot of other opiates avaible then Methadone that are going to take care of both mental and physical pain for your hubby.
Well, we finally got to go to the pain clinic today.. Mind you my DH has been on 5mg of Methadone for a few weeks. This visit we did not see a doctor. Just went over medical history and was given a script of 75 Methadone pills and told to come back in Dec. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So now does he take them to help with his pain or stay at 5mg until his next appt??? I guess I should be grateful for the Rx but for the love of God how long it this going to take before we can talk about other pain options ?????????
I'm still half asleep but can you tell me what dosage he is prescribed now as compared to when right before started to go off the methadone, please? When did he start to taper? How did he decide his dose down schedule?
It's possible he tapered too fast which in and of itself can be dangerous especially for someone who has been on it so long.
I only speak from my experience as being an utter moron. Years ago, I nearly killed myself by playing doctor and "tapering" (basically stopping) an addictive medication.
First, our doc suddenly transferred to another clinic where they don't write pain RX. That left us hanging. We called and begged the clinic where we went and FINALLY, one doc wrote an Rx BUT it was for a step down Rx and we were leaving for vaca in days...Now you tell me, can anybody do a taper while on vacation ?? Some days we were very active, walking, sightseeing, that's very active for him anyway long story short, he couldn't do a taper like the directions said but he did cut down. Mind you, we had no idea where we would get an rx when we got back home. So he did without his 150mg a day to tapering as much as he could. We already had a house rented and a deposit in case anybody says we should have stayed at home. SO, we got back and found a doc in the same original clinic so previous posts describes that. But to go from 150mg a day for 8 years in PA and 4 in KY that's why it was so long. And as I said he needs rotator cuff repair on both shoulders, both hips replaced and a redo on his broken arm, yada yada. Heart disease, kidney disease, pacemaker, stents,,,I know he sounds dead but he isn't. Dec 12th he has an appt with a real pain doc and then we will discuss neuro-stems and other options. I thank my God you all are here for support and for letting me vent. Oh, by the way he is taking 5mg a day now and suffering some. Onepositive thing, his jitters have stopped but yesterday he had a bad Atrial Fib. They say they won't kill you but it scares the h--- out of him. He takes 1mg ativan for that and lays down.
Last edited by tazymae2010; 11-23-2012 at 07:25 AM..
Reason: ps
First, our doc suddenly transferred to another clinic where they don't write pain RX. That left us hanging. We called and begged the clinic where we went and FINALLY, one doc wrote an Rx BUT it was for a step down Rx and we were leaving for vaca in days...Now you tell me, can anybody do a taper while on vacation ?? Some days we were very active, walking, sightseeing, that's very active for him anyway long story short, he couldn't do a taper like the directions said but he did cut down. Mind you, we had no idea where we would get an rx when we got back home. So he did without his 150mg a day to tapering as much as he could. We already had a house rented and a deposit in case anybody says we should have stayed at home. SO, we got back and found a doc in the same original clinic so previous posts describes that. But to go from 150mg a day for 8 years in PA and 4 in KY that's why it was so long. And as I said he needs rotator cuff repair on both shoulders, both hips replaced and a redo on his broken arm, yada yada. Heart disease, kidney disease, pacemaker, stents,,,I know he sounds dead but he isn't. Dec 12th he has an appt with a real pain doc and then we will discuss neuro-stems and other options. I thank my God you all are here for support and for letting me vent. Oh, by the way he is taking 5mg a day now and suffering some. Onepositive thing, his jitters have stopped but yesterday he had a bad Atrial Fib. They say they won't kill you but it scares the h--- out of him. He takes 1mg ativan for that and lays down.
I'm having a very hard time understanding this post. Again, if you can tell me:
a) When (as in how long ago) he started his taper.
b) It appears he started at 250 mg. How long did it take him to get down to 10 mg?
c) Who scheduled the tapering process?
In your first post you said "He was given this 8 years ago for chronic pain and he is tired of taking it" which lead me to believe your husband decided to go off the methadone. You also stated "My husband is down from 250mg to 10mg once a day". How long did it take for him to go from 250mg to 10mg?
In another more recent post you write "Just went over medical history and was given a script of 75 Methadone pills". What are the mg of each pill? What were the directions for dosing from the pain clinic?
Now, I'm reading this most recent post and you state:
"So he did without his 150mg a day to tapering as much as he could", and, "But to go from 150mg a day for 8 years in PA and 4 in KY that's why it was so long". When did he dose down from 250mg to 150mg and how long did that process take? (as this wasn't brought up in any of your other posts).
Although your husband obviously has some serious health problems, he doesn't sound dead, he sounds like he's in severe pain and/or discomfort (seemingly a combination of his pain and his tapering). As far as tapering and vacation, I'm not sure when the vacation was and where he was in his tapering process.
I understand frustration all too well but I thought I kindly asked some basic questions in my last post in order to get a better feel of what is going on. Being in severe pain and withdrawal from addictive medications can be excruciating AND potentially dangerous if the taper is too quick.
I am not a doctor but I certainly can lend you my experience.
Sorry I ramble sometimes and my math is off...In PA 8 years ago he started Methadone for his chronic pain. 50mg 5 times a day =250mg a day. After 8 years of making sure he would not run short if he had more pain for whatever reason. A couple of times I 'washed" a few that were in his pocket in a pill case. I finally had to "pass them out" . He asked me to do that. This is when he decided to explore other options other than those d--- pills. He was left hanging when his GP transferred around Oct just before we were to leave on vaca so another doc at the clinic she was practicing at granted us a one time Rx ONLY if it was a step down Rx. This was Sept. 24th. He had not seen my husband, he just said he would write the Rx as a courtesy after reading his medical file. We HAD to accept this if we wanted to go on vaca. We did. But it was virtually impossible to taper on vaca. We got home Oct. 22nd. Now this past week we were able to go to the pain clinic BUT we couldn't see a doctor. Red tape time. But they did give him an Rx of 75 pills, 10mg until he CAN see a doc in Dec. The reason they gave him a script first visit is because he was a patient there when we moved from PA to KY. The reason we stopped going to the pain clinic was our doc. (the one that transferred unexpectedly) said she would write the rx for us and it would save us a 2 hr trip once a month. We said ok. So I guess because he had been there before to the pain clinic they gave him an Rx so he wouldn't go into withdrawal until he saw the doc in dec. I hope this makes more sense. If I could just speak instead of type so freakin much, I might make more sense.
Thanks guys.
Last edited by tazymae2010; 11-23-2012 at 03:21 PM..
Reason: ps
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