Fentanyl Withdrawal Symptoms (Page 4) (Top voted first)

I'm trying to wean myself off the Fentanyl patch. I went from 75 micro-gms to 50 now I'm on 25. Having a problem and not sure it is related to the decrease in the med. It's been 20 days on the 25 micro-gm and I'm going crazy. I need to keep rocking, moving in any way b/c my body is very restless. Is this a symptom of withdrawal and what do I do? I cannot take it any more.

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Hi Jemmy,
at one month off, I was like a ragdoll... Still, get checked out.
Wow- 8 years and now u r off the patch- be proud of yrself !!!
I found swimming helped build my strenght again. Easy on the back and joints..Post again to let us know yr progress

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Pat
we make a great team! You have wisdom and a different outlook. I think people will gravitate to what they need-
you are a good voice for responsible use of drugs for pain management.
I champion non drug pain management for those of us who want free of medical control..
and yes, we do agree on a lot of
things!

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Hello everyone,
I'm 1 1/2 months off patch. The muscle weakness continues and some restless legs at night, but overall I feel well. Hang in there if you're still withdrawing...it does end. I'm using ibuprofen for back pain. And not very often. I just wanted to give some hope, like Hawaian Born...thanks.

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For all of you with withdrawal problems, don't believe want most people have to say,here is the easy way. I was 100mcg for 1 year and now off. Here is how it's done...
From 100mcg, drop to 75mcg for 6 patches. After the 75 go on 50 for 6 patches, then drop to fo for 6 patches, then drop to 25 for 6 patches, then drop to 12.5 (yes they make them) . After the 12.5 start cutting the 12.5's in half (Mylan brand only!) this will put you at around 6mcg wear the 6's for 4 patch changes. Then you're off. It is not that hard to taperI I waited a month because of all of the horrible stories read, I was dreading the withdrawal that people explain here. Sure if you go from 100 to 0 it will be hell! But tapering properly, I never felt any withdrawal syptoms.

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Big Ben, Have you quit everything or just the Fentanyl?? I feel that your post was directed at me concering a friend of a friend..I have gone through opiate withdrawl many times. So I am speaking from experience. Now, if you are taking all of your meds except the fentantyl that is why you feel ok. but if you quit everything and are feeling as good as you claim you are, then you haven't even begun true WD's yet. Take this from a chronic pain sufferer who has been on opiates since 1972. And no, not EVERYONE can do this. You are giving out medical advice that can hurt people. U can share your experiences but you have no right to tell people that going CT is a snap...What about people who have died from WD's in jail? What about people who have seen no other way than to kill themselves. Stop talking for everyone.Speak for yourself only..And Please let everyone know if you have quit all drugs. I know in Canada you can buy codeine OTC, 12 days off of everything. You haven't felt anything yet.And BTW, why weren't you dreaming? Opiates don't have anything to do with dreams. And sorry for your heart problems but I am very curious, what opiates cause your heart to fail?? I haven't ever heard that unless you had a bad heart to begin with

Pat

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Tessie..Prescription medication is harder to kick than heroin,especially benzos, but make no mistake although it is rare opiate WD's can kill you. My friend went into shock from fentanyl WD's and yes she almost died. This isn't a second hand report, I was there, so don't downplay any kind of WD's. Also why should anyone have to quit taking their benzo medication once they taper from opiates? Some people need benzos to function, me included. I don't take xanax everyday, but b4 I was diagnoised with a panic disorder I couldn't leave my home for weeks at a time because I would be afraid of having a panic attack, and this was b4 anyone knew what panic attacks were, I thought I was agorophbic.You can't give out advice like telling people what to take, how to taper, it can kill them. To anyone who is suffering from opiate WD's, for whatever reason Please don't do anything until you go to your doctor and get a complet check up and tell him/.her your history. Especially if you are a pain sufferer there are a lot of complications that can happen..I just don't understand people saying this won't kill you or take a valium that is BS..WD's are hard enough on a young healthy person, but if that person is like me 50+ years old with chronic medical issues, that can be deadly..

Pat

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Pat, why is it you seem to feel the need to attack everyone on here that wants to quit or stop. I DIDNT say she HAD TO TAPER BENZO's, I said IF YOU WANT TO QUIT THEM THEY ARE TO BE TAPERED BECAUSE IT IS WORSE WITHDRAWAL THAN NARCOTICS, been there done that!!!! AND I DO STILL OCCASSIONALLY TAKE a xanax and I have same panic attack problems!!! If you READ THROUGH ALL PREVIOUS POSTS starting with 1 there are all different ranges of people with different goals, if I recall there is even one where I tell you MY OWN BROTHER IS ON METHADONE and benzo's etc and I UNDERSTAND CHRONIC HEALTH PROBLEMS I AM 43 AND HAVE HAD DIAGNOSIS OF LUPUS AND RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS SINCE 6TH GRADE!!! I Just offer opinions and support like anyone else on here and you seem to get mad if anyone wants to BE PRESCRIPTION DRUG FREE. Calm down I'm not giving medical advice any more than you, just expressing opinions thats what this is for. Tyger, hang in there YOU WILL FEEL BETTER, especially if you are stubborn and pray... I was just advising you to be careful with benzo's if you hadn't had them before. I've taken them off and on over last 15 years. I also found chiropractic made me worse but relaxaton therapies and massages, etc, stress relief is better way FOR ME. I TOO FOUND that my pharmacist was MUCH more helpful and knowledgeable with drug interactions than my doc of 20 years was!!!! Ask you pharmacist about the Benadryl, it is a histamine with I THINK enhances effects of valium a little but thats from what I've read and studied, I do take an occasional benadryl at night with my xanax if I'm having a bad night but ask pharmacist....GOOD LUCK AND HANG IN YOU're on the RIGHT TRACK!! I'm glad you found some benzo's early, I tried to cold turkey the patch and my benzo's at the same time, landed me in the emergency room for six hours thats how I learned about the tapering of the benzo's IF YOU WANT TO QUIT later. LOVE AND PRAYERS FOR ALL!!! BE PROUD OF YOURSELVES!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS

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Also...Tessie...what do you use for nerve damage? I have damage in both sets of toes (some from the back injury, some from diabetic neuropathy) that drives me crazy with pain & cold. A heating pad a night helps some, but the days are torture. I noticed immediately that for 6 whole weeks I didn't have that while on the Fentanyl, but its back with a vengeance, Any suggestions?

To If I would have known.....obviously I didn't have a clue what I was talking about when I said you should be ready to quit cold turkey!!! You just keep on doing what works for you and ignore me!!

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To all...does anyone experience a distinct body odour coming through in your sweat when you get the hot flashes? I swear I can SMELL the Fentanys still oozing out of my pores! Am i going insane? My daughter says she smelled it too...but is it the Fentanyl?..or something else entirely? It drives me crazy on top of the rest of the hell!

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Pat, this is MY LAST POST ADDRESSED TO YOU...SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT ME AFTER THAT. I feel good, I pray, I believe in God and I feel better off the opiates that I have in 25 years, I NEVER SAID I WAS TOTALLY DRUG FREE, I still take an occasional antianxiety medication and have been off and on different anti-depressants throughout my life. IF YOU DID LOOK THROUGH THE PREVIOUS POSTS YOU WILL SEE YOU ATTACKED AND FOUGHT WITH MANY PEOPLE....ALL OF WHOM WERE and are just trying to help OTHER people. THAT IS WHAT A FORUM IS. I never said others couldn't go to WEB MD or other sites and I am not ASS U MING that they are too stupid to know there is other information out there. ALSO ONLY IF I HAVE BEEN ASKED A DIRECT QUESTIONS by a person have I GIVEN WHAT YOU MIGHT CALL MEDICAL ADVICE. Some doctors are freaking idiots just like some people. I only want to support and HELP ANY WHO ASK ABOUT THE PATCH and MY EXPERIENCE WITH IT. Sorry you have such a hard time with your health and your life but I'm not going to bring OTHERS on this site down by arguing with you about stupid crap!! You are only right about one thing EVERYONE HAS OPINIONS, but everyone has ATTITUDES and AGENCIES and SMARTS and I PREFER to let OTHERS decide if they want my advice or not. If they address YOU then I WON'T BOTHER THEM.

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to If I would have known....I know exactly how you feel about putting a little tiny piece of a patch back on! I have been sooooo close to doing it, but I listened to Tessie! I think it will only prolong the agony. Do you have anything else at home? When I just couldn't STAND it, I broke down and took a tiny 1/2 Hydromorphone...only 2 mg...but its a fast acting fast disappearing opioid...it got me over a real rough spot! Just too afraid that even a sliver of a patch will last another 72 hours in your system....extending this misery by another 3 days again! The other day I took a couple Motrin...not an opium based thing, but it also seemed to take the edge off....along with the Benadryl, valium etc. My recommendation...follow Tessie's advice....do NOT touch even a smidgen of Fentanyl, and find anything else that is short acting short term that will carry you through....even if its a very occasional very small opioid of some sort like 1/2 a 5mg morphine if you can beg or borrow one from a friend.I only took 3 valium today..no opioids at all...it was hard..but I'm getting there. I really think I just MAY be at the 1/2 way point. You and I ditched our patches on the same day...but I think you were on it longer than I was...it may take your body longer to rid of it all. I will keep you in my prayers, and hope it gets better soon. I am actually looking forward to see what tomorrow brings me......hope I'm not disappointed....I'll let you know!

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If I would have known: have recounted & today is day 8...and its as if the SUN has come out to shine once more! I am FREE!!!!(I HOPE)
THREE YEARS!!!... I cannot imagine...I was only 6 weeks!..I did sort of deal with a tiny bit of depression....more like extremely vulnerably moody...started crying at anything...but I'm positive that the Valium helped with that. Have you managed to get any yet? It for SURE helped me! I am so proud of you for not giving in!!!
Spoke to a neighbour today who I discovered is a drug & addictive substance counselor...she says Fentanyl is one of the absolute WORST things to get off from....and many many people can't handle it and give in and put on another patch. If you can possibly do it...keep hanging in...it will only get better day by day considering how long you have been off now. KEEP IT UP....WE ARE ALL PROUD OF YOU I'M SURE.

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So I went and spoke to my doctor today. He is so awesome by the way. I broke down in his office. I told him about the episode I had, and he just shook his head, and said he was afraid that would happen. He says that everyone on the Fentanyl patch for any length of time will have the w/d's if they take it away too quickly. He also explained to me that taking the Oxycontin was a smart idea because the w/d's would have gotten much worse. SO we built up a plan to wean me off of the Fentanyl. I am so thankful too. I can't wait to be free of drugs. The only problem is going to be dealing with any pain, but I think by weaning me off of the Fentanyl slowly, we can figure out just how much pain I am going to have and how much medicine I will need to counteract it. So the plan is, starting Monday. 75mcg + 12.5 mcg for 1 month. Then 75 mcg for 1 month. 50 mcg +12.5 mcg for 1 month ect..reducing the 12.5 patch. I can do it faster if I want to, depending on how bad the w/d's are. He said that if I don't really feel too much of the bad w/d then just skip the 12.5 patch all together and go to the next 25 mcg dosage. But, he said that most will feel something by decreasing 25 mcg at a time. I thought that was a great plan. I just am so thankful that it won't be as bad as I thought it would be. It gave me hope that there is life after all of this. My accident happened on July 23rd, and I feel like ever since the accident there hasn't been any normalcy in my house. My babies have been through enough with almost losing their Mommy, and being without me for so long. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who is so supportive. Happygirl and Tygerlily, thank you so much for talking to me about this. I felt very alone, and very scared. I had no clue how powerful this drug was, and seriously thought I could just take it off and it wouldn't be an issue. I am so glad that you both are off the strong stuff. It gives me so much hope that I can do it too. Thank you so much for listening, I hope that we can keep chatting this out. It is so helpful to talk to others who have been there. God Bless you both! :)

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I discovered a way to get off fentanyl without withdrawals!

I was taking about 40mg of oxycodone a day and was switched to fentanyl. I was on, at my highest dose, 50mcg of fentanyl with the patch changed every 72 hours.

Well, I went down to 32.5 and was on that dose for 2 weeks.

Then I was on the 25mcg for 2 weeks (not noticing any withdrawal symptoms at all)

Then I've been on 12mcg for about a month. With my last patch, I put it on, and just left it there for about 10 days.

I took it off and never had any withdrawal symptoms!

Slow and steady really wins the withdrawal race!

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Cindy, how long was he on patch? I did have some weird what I term kinda out of ordinary feelings, thoughts, said stuff to my husband that didn't make sense or he didn't understand HOWEVER, I did notice and do know that I ended up in ER because I had tried to quit other medications as well, if he's on any other meds YOU HAVE TO MONITOR THEM REALLY CAREFULLY because with the fentanyl withdrawal you go through a hypersensitive mode and any little change in other meds can really mess you up, mentally and physically. I do know from the rehab doc as I stated in previous post that the patch, especially the Sandoz one which is based in alcohol and is the one that can't be cut, it has gel like stuff inside it, stays in your system up to 27 days. Also what you have to remember is that AFTER REMOVING PATCH the stuff is STILL IN SYSTEM FOR 72 HOURS, although you have withdrawal symptoms during the 72 hours, they got worse for me after the 72 hours as it was finally gone and then full blown withdrawals hit and last for about another 5 days, by that I mean 5 BAD days.....after that it got SLOWLY better but I really can say I didn't feel semi ok or normal until after about 12-15 days after FIRST TAKING OFF PATCH. That being said, it gets worse before better, maybe if he knows this he will talk to doctor. I wanted off this horrible patch and pain meds, however, the others are right about valium and or xanax helping with the sleeplessness, spasms, etc,. Hope this makes and helps, keep us informed. Praying for you, Tessie.

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TO MISSY 08!!
You can NOT go through withdrwl off 200mcgs alone!!! You need to ween plus have the drug I wrote about to Mala: NEURONTIN!! I swear by this I have been on 150mcg for 4yrs and this stays inside your body for sooo long I fear some will never be gone as it ripped my world apart too!!! I lost 4 years with My 3 boys and husband of 15yrs. BUT there is HOPE!!! please understand I also am familiar with drug abuse and Drs. writing out scripts like CANDY!! I have been on all kinds of drugs for about 15 years and know all SIDE EFFECTS!! Trust me I was stupid for so long feeling all kinds of Deppression, anxiety, anger, Fear, severe sweats, hair standing on edge, sleeping all days, loss of apetite,severe constipation, ect..... By the way I found an ALL_NATURAL way to cure your constipation, I am not Kidding I have been severely constipated for the last 10 yrs and blamed it on my genes and a little on meds. But I found this brand called, OxyLife Nutrition Supplements, ROYAL FLUSH Bowel Stimulant ! I am going to give all of you the web on bottle cuz this is ALL Natural and worked the first day!! I would go 3 weeks w/out going and WOW! oxylifeco.com TRUST ME!

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I just took myself off 150mcg fentanyl. 3yrs at 150mcg, then 2 weeks at 100mcg, then cold turkey just 3 days ago. It is very tough. Shakes, sneezing, terrific body aches. I have only slept 2 or 3 hrs of the last 72. I think I got it whipped though. Feeling a little better withdrawal-wise, but the chronic back pain is still there. Hang in there....good luck to all

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I've been thinking a bit about what it means to stick on a patch, and I started at 50mcg/hour. By really rough calculations, that's equivalent to 1.2mg of fentanyl/day which is equivalent to 120mg/day of oxymorphone (which is about what I was on, I was on 130mg/day) which is equivalent to 240mg of oxycodone a day! That is a HUGE amount of opioids.

So someone who's on a 50mcg goes cold turkey, it's like coming off 240mg of oxycodone a day cold turkey! No wonder people have trouble. So even a 12.5mcg patch would be like coming off 60mg of oxycodone/30mg of oxymorphone a day. So you really need to keep cutting the patch down to something really tiny, so 6, 3, 1.5 would be where you need to be to get to the equivalent of 30/15/7.5 or 15/7.5/3.25 mg of oxycodone and oxymorphone/day!

These are simplistic conversions based on the table available here:
http://www.globalrph.com/narcotic.cgi

But it should hold I think given how I was started. If I took the patch off now, I'm sure I'd suffer a huge amount, not because of the patch, but because I'd be coming of 120/130mg of oxymorphone a day!

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We are coaches & patient advocates for those that are disabled and/or have had extreme pain issues. There are many OTC drugs that can ruin lives more than being on a minimal amount of fentanyl. If the right dosage is given, even for cancer patients, they can function close to normal as possible among family & friends. We worry that too many people believe any addiction is bad. Please, find people that deal with pain management & have not only empathy, but have been in similar circumstances. Pallative care is important for the chronically ill no matter what level. It is even cheaper & safer for many if monitored regularly. With computers & 24/7 phone contact with medical staff--we no longer have to suffer unbearable pain. While we still look for new ways to help those that fall thru the cracks, we can work together in finding ways to exchange our stories, ways we deal with pain, how our spouses & doctors can help us thru the worst times. We would like more input from people that are living a more normal life while being medicated, even on the various pain patches.

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Hey listen, weaning is the only way to detox alone.. Here's what to do and what you need... Get a script of Neurontin, (doctors shouldn't have a problem) get a script of Klonopin (doctors will give this for a good reason) get Imodium AD, lots of water, lots of juice. Wean down as far as you can and then take that last jump off. You'll be hot then cold then hot. You'll be out of it.. You'll "have a very bad flu." You'll throw up.. You'll have the runs.. But the horrible part will be the deep hole of dispare.. You can medicate for everything else..the black hole is the real issue. It takes a strong mind to throw this off. As the brain heals and the receptors get use to not receiving opiates..you will feel the improvement. It's like waking from a nightmare. You will get better and better. And when it over you will feel better than you have for a long time. You have to keep being aware that this hole will go away and that this misery is the brain healing. I did it by distracting myself as much as possible...funny movies work..funny friends. Try to find something humorous in the terror.. But keep an eye on things.. If the Klonopin and Neurontin doesn't keep the seizures away, you will have to have medical help. Seizures are the sign that you can't do it by yourself.

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