Suboxone Taper Success

Hi I'm writing this because of everything I was reading about suboxone on forums. Most of this was very negative and it freaked me out before I got on the stuff.

My story may not be a help to those who have been on suboxone for many years because getting on it I knew that this was something I wasn't going to try to prolong, so it may help those who are about to get on suboxone.

About my situation. I'm a disabled vet who was prescribed pain meds for six years, like most what started as normal quickly turned into higher doses and stronger meds as they no longer worked, at the end I was just taking them to not feel sick and couldn't go more than three hours without starting to get the sweats, this got old. My dose was about 10 30mg oxycodone and 4 60mg oxycontin daily give or take depending on how lousy I was feeling. I would run out early sometimes and was being upped to 80mg oxycontin. I looked in the mirror realized that my chizzled frame was now fat, 50-60 pounds overweight, lost all my muscle. I was afraid that after 80mg oc what comes next, I will probably be dead. So I never went back to the dr. I did find a Suboxone Dr. I had to wait two days before I could get a appointment because and I stress you need to be opiate free before taking it, or you will go through hell withdrawals.

What I did. I researched alot before taking it. I know that getting of oc should take maybe two weeks. So I didn't want to take this for more than a month, what most doctors don't tell you is that suboxone is about 40 times stronger than morphine and the half life is much longer. So If I take that 8mg strip its more like I took 320mg of morphine, if I take another one the next day it stacks on top of the old dose minus some that passes through your system, so now your on around 500 - 640 mg in your system. Think about this each day your taking whole strips, that number will keep stacking. These number may be a little off but I'm not going to break out the calculator. I was ill in the doctors office waiting, I didn't sleep for two nights waiting, didn't shave, my wife had to take off work to drive me, when I got there the power went out due to a storm, time passing was agonizing, I drank three bottles of water to give a urine sample, I still couldn't do it, another hour later I managed to. The doctor then came out and gave me a 8mg strip, I was worried I didn't wait enough to take it, 15 minutes after taking It I got hit by cold sweats and was freaked out. I told the doctor that I was getting worse, he said " its magic but its not magic, give it an hour and you will be feeling nice" At wallgreens waiting to fill the prescription it kicked in and I felt 100 percent normal. The doctor talked to my wife privately and told her how to have me take these strips. I was to take one in the morning and one before bed. I knew this would be too much based on how I wanted to do this, we fought because she thought I was slacking and not listening to the doctor, I didn't want to fight so I took another one before bed. I didn't sleep that night I had the worse headache that I ever had, that is a sign off too much. Below I will post from my journal of detox how I did this

Day one - 8 mg morning, 8mg at night
Day Two - 4mg morning, 4 mg night (headache)
Day three - 3mg morning, 3 mg night

Felt fine all through this dropping period, the goal was to slowly make my self go through mild withdrawal as I dropped with the hope that when I jumped off it wouldn't be a system shock.

Day 4 - 4mg morning, 0 at night
Day 5 - 3mg morning, 1 mg at night
Day 6 - 2 mg morning, 1mg at night
Day 7 - 2mg morning , 0 night
Day 8 - 1mg morning , 1mg night
Day 9 - 1mg morning, .5mg night
Day 10 - .5mg morning , .5mg night
Day 11 - .5mg morning
Day 12 - .5mg morning
Day 13 - .25 mg morning

During this drop I felt mild very mild withdrawal upset stomach etc, but still could sleep and eat and function normal I could feel that I may feel worse and made this point where I started to workout again, if I waited too long then I might not have the motivation to start working out which is very important even if you don't want to. Your body needs to start making its own chemicals again which have been supressed by years of opiate use.

Day 14 - .25mg
Day 15 - Day 20 I didn't change the dose
Day 21 - 23 I took micro crumbs, tiny little pieces that were hard to see, After this was the jump off

I continued to sleep and eat, went to long horn and had prime rib the first night, I felt a little off but not bad at all. I continued to work out and bike ride at night, Day two came and felt and I felt the same, By the end of day three I was getting excited thinking hell yeah this was easier than I imagined, all those negative forums were wrong. Go the the start of Day 5 I felt like ass, but different than cold turkey, Day 5 through 7 were my worst days, I will get that out of the way now. I didn't know what to do with myself, my energy was gone, I mean zero, I wasn't sweating, I was still sleeping and eating but yawning and sneezing like crazy. These were violent yawns that made my eyes water, this happened about 50 times a day at least and large powerful sneezes in sets of five sneezes.

Summarizing these were the worst of the days, I'm now on day 40 without anything and I can say that I'm about 90 percent back to me. I started eating every couple of hours higher quality foods, working out and eating right will help you get back to normal. My energy levels are getting better, slowly but getting better, The yawns and sneezes are declining and probaby about ten yawns a day, and sneezes are now in sets of two sneezes. My stomach hasn't recovered and has still been torn up. I've been taking imodium ad for two days on and three off this seems to make it more bearable. Being a guy I had blood work done and found out that my testosterone is that of an 80 year old man and I'm only 32. I started replacement therapy to try to get a boost. I've been working out daily whether I want to or not. I had my mind made up that I was never to look back and for this to work for you, you need to be in this mind state before getting on and off suboxone. I can say that my limited time on it really really helped me as I only experienced about 10 percent of withdrawals, My ongoing fatigue is due to being on these pain meds for many years, I imagine someone who hasn't used long will probably avoid these post withdrawal symptoms, every day is getting better, I can tell with each week a slight improvement in how I'm feeling. There is hope you need to slowly drop. My doctor was really surprised that I was able to do it so quickly, he told me mind over matter, and too an extent I agree, I still have 21 strips left in the box which is in the medicine cabinet as a reminder of how lousy pain meds can make you feel.

If anyone has any questions as I wrote this in a hurry and left out alot of details, this is pretty much a summary. It can be done

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That is how you should take Subs. I feel sorry for the people prescribed high doses and been on Subs for a long period. A person will always need to deal with the mental aspects regardless of how long your on Subs. So use the Subs to help curb the withdrawals and quit. Then it is the mental battle. If someone is determined to stop Subs can be a great tool to help but only a tool not an answer. Great job and I would recommend anyone starting Subs to follow your advice. It is solid. You must taper and feel some withdrawals -mild, compared to cold turkey. If you don't taper all you did is replace one drug for another. And Subs can increase your tolerance. Good job Gil, stay healthy

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I've been on sub for about 8 yrs now. I have a really bad back but started taking it for opiate addiction. My doc wanted me to use opioids for my back. After a lot of reading I found something called BUTRANS patch. They have different dose size, I'm on the 15, with NO PAIN! All I can say is it's a miricle patch!!!im serious, just try it. No messed up drugged up feeling, just no pain, I was SHOCKED. If you don't want to go the pill route try the Butrans, it was the best thing ever for me!!!

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Hello. I am 22 years old. My fiancé and I decided to randomly try Percocet at the beginning of 2017. About 3 months we were on them. We abused it more than we should.. we wanting to stop taking it because it was way to expensive so we tried to stop and had hardcore withdrawals. So he went to the doctor and got perscribed suboxone. So we both took the suboxone. For 4 months.. well now I don’t want to do it anymore and I’m down to .50 milgrams and I’m trying to taper off because I tried cold turkey at about .75 and it was horrible. Restless legs, no sleep, sneezing, angry mood, etc. so I’m trying to taper it out. Went down to .50 for 6 days then going down to .25 for 5 days then .13 for 4 days an then I jump off. Does this sound like a good taper? I hope the tapering withdrawals aren’t to bad. Help need advice

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I've been on Suboxone for 10 years now (following a 4 year Oxycodone habit). Started on 12 Mg of Sub qd and within a few months I was only taking 8mg qd. I was always too scared to try and taper till the last month. I've gone from 8mg qd down to 2mg qd with very very little discomfort over 4 weeks.

I'm stoked but concerned the hard time is coming. But I'm emboldened from my recent reduction and big time surprised and amazed. Please give me some input...We can get off this stuff... You can do it and I can do it!!

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Re: Slim (# 4)

How are you now?

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