Fentanyl Withdrawal Times

Hello all, hope this message/question finds you well! So I've got a question, but before I ask I'll give some background information:

I've been on varying strengths of the Fentanyl patches for almost 10 years for a failed spinal fusion, continued chronic pain due to the fusion degenerating the discs above it, and also for Fibromyalgia. But for the last 3-4 years I've been on 75mcg changed every 48 hours and this has worked super well for me. I am currently using the brand Actavis and it has the gel reservoir.

Anyway, I've been through withdrawals before, but this last time seemed different. I usually start having withdrawals within the first 12-36 hours and I'm talking about severe vomiting (with sweats and chills) that can't be helped by any of the anti-nausea medications and even the ER isn't much help, so when that happens, there is absolutely no oral medication I can take without throwing it up.

This time I didn't start vomiting until 70 hours after a full 3 days on the previous patch (so ALMOST 3 full days without), which I found strange, but I am betting it's not unheard of, it's just very different than what I normally expect to feel. I was finally able to put a new patch on (somehow 1 of my 15 patches went missing and another seemed ineffective and so I put a second one on after 12 hours because I felt absolutely no relief, which ISN'T normal for me and so I was 2 patches behind this month, which is 4 days ahead for me and my mom is the one who controls and doles out my patches.) at about 6pm last night, 6-13-17, and I was expecting my abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea to go away within at least 6-8 hours when the medication starts working, but I kept vomiting all night, almost a full 12 hours of feeling like I was going to die because I couldn't keep anything, even my own saliva down. I normally use medical marijuana to help with that problem, but I had just run out that morning and didn't have time to get more before severe withdrawals started and I naively thought I just got lucky this time and wasn't going to be experiencing any withdrawals since I'd gone SO much longer than what's normal for me start withdrawals.

Of course I had "cravings" the first day with no patch, but that was because my pain was so intense, although the intense pain did let up by the next day, I just felt a light-moderate achy feeling all over the 2nd day, but was still able to walk and do things pretty normally. I'm just curious how "normal" it is to not really experience any of the more severe withdrawal symptoms for almost 3 days, especially after knowing my typical withdrawal start timeframe. I'm also interested in hearing any and all of your personal Fentanyl withdrawal timeframe stories so I can do some contrasting and comparing.

P.S. Sorry if I gave too much background information. I just wanted to make sure I gave as much pertinent background information as possible in order to avoid too many replies asking for more background information. Hope I made this easy enough to read and understand! Thanks for any and all replies in advance!!!

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Ok, so no replies to my thread question yet so I'm adding a few more details. So I didn't have really any withdrawal symptoms for 4 days, but on that 4th night right after I stuck a new patch on (after 4 days without) I became extremely ill. I had almost nothing in my stomach at that point so I was doing a lot of dry heaving. The pain in my gut was SO bad that I just kept making myself vomit trying to make the pain go away. It was like I was exorcising demons from within lol! So that went on for 4 days straight just puking my guts out and the Zofran I have was not doing anything to help. By the 5th day I was pretty much done, but then I was just in extreme pain and discomfort from all the violent vomiting. So it took another 4 days just to recover from all the vomiting and pain. Near the end of the ordeal I was experiencing the gut pain off and on, like it would be bad when waking up so I would sit up and rock back and forth to help it. It is all finally gone and done with, but I'm not sure if I was FINALLY beginning my withdrawal on that 4th day with no opiates or if I contracted some bug because not long after I started vomiting we received a letter from our water board regarding there being a problem with our tap water and not to drink the water until the issue is resolved. But I almost never drink my tap water anyway (I could have gotten some from brushing my teeth) and use bottled water. So maybe I got whatever bug was in our tap water, I don't know and that's why I'm here asking for a little insight. Do you think I was finally having withdrawals or do you think I was just sick from my possible tap water usage? I'm genuinely interested to know what other people think!

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