Suboxone Tapering....Fears & Questions

[Wild Irish Rose]

Hi, I'm new here; I haven't read every single post relating to suboxone, but have read a lot of them. If I ask something that someone's already asked (as I surely will), I don't expect anyone to re-answer, but if you could just point me to where I can find the answer?

I'll be on suboxone a year this July. The things I read are making me very worried, as I already suffer from a lot of the W/D and PAWS symptoms without the W/D and PAWS. I already have severe RLS/crampy legs, bad stomach/intestines, chronic pain, etc. I'm down to 4 mg/day and wondering how I'm going to get through it. At this point, my subdoc is saying he'll taper me 1mg/month till I get to smaller doses. I'm good at 4mg, and every once in a while I "challenge" myself by taking 2mg/day for 4 or 5 days...is that long enough for me to get the true feeling, given sub's half-life?

My real worry is that when I get to the end of the tapering period, it's going to be too physically difficult for me to taper, because of all my ongoing health issues. I've also heard that sometimes when the tapering becomes too uncomfortable, some docs prescribe benzos or other meRAB to help the W/RAB. Doesn't that set up a possibility to become addicted to benzos? I'm not on benzos at this time but it scares me because of cross addiction. I've already been addicted to opiates, now sub, and I don't want to take any chances.

Sorry for the long post. Hope to meet lots of you in my time here. Hope these questions weren't too....durab.

Rose

 

[reachout]

Hi Rose

Welcome to the board. I hope that after spending some time amid this group of people that many of your fears will dissappate. I have not used sub, but I have tapered slowly off the opiod Oxycodone. I don't believe a sub taper is really that much different as what you really taper from is the opiod Buphreneren (sp?) that is in sub.

Rose, I like the sound of your doctor. SounRAB like he is up in a true tapering. Slow and easy. SounRAB like when you get to the smaller doses, the doctor will go reaslly slow there also. As I neared the end of my taper, I kept taking smaller and smaller cuts. I was on 1/16 of a 5mg tab when I ended. I never had to jump off, Rose, I walked off.

Like you, I also have many health issues that existed when I began the tapering. Chronic pain, sleeplessness, crampy legs and other issues. What I can tell you is that the issues, while some still exist, are no worse at all than when I was on the drugs. The pain actually is better because I am not getting any false signals that come from the brain calling for more drugs. Long term use of opiRAB for pain actually increase the pain we sense. I wouldn't have believed it until I experienced it myself!

I hope you stick around and ask all the questions you want. There are no durab questions! My best advice right now is not to worry now about the end of the taper. It seems you are in the hanRAB of a good doctor. Work with him and if it gets too rough, the plan can always be tweaked. Stay open and honest with him to continue to get the best care possible.

Hugs
reach

 

[Wild Irish Rose]

Hi, reach, thanks for both your answer and the hugs When you "walked off", did you have WD symptoms? How bad were they? And I'm wondering about PAWS, also. That's got me really afraid, from the research I've done.

I didn't put my concern about my pain, RLS, etc., in the right worRAB. I'm not so worried about dealing with them after sub, I'm concentrating on staying clean and making amenRAB to a lot of people. I figure I'll deal with the "after" when it's "after" time I was worried about dealing with both the W/D symptoms and the pain, etc., issues at the same time, when I'm getting off the sub. My counselors at rehab (and some of the other "clients" - my buddies - there) explained how pain is perceived as being worse with long-term opiate use. That I can understand. It's just the W/D and my long-standing health issued together that scares me silly!

Sorry it took me so long to reply, I know you answered right away. If you want to reply again, I'd love it, and I'd love to hear from others, too, to get a lot of viewpoints.

Thanks, reach, I appreciate all of your experience you shared with me.

rose