20-30mg a day

Hi, I take 20-30mgs a day of methadone for fibro. and I had a huge surgery this summer. My question is what can I do about the constipation? I just had a bowel obstruction (from some big cysts I had) My Dr. told me once you have a bowel obstrution, you usually get another and another, so I need NOT to be constipated. I take Miralix now, any comments would be great. Thx

[KiaKaha]

hi, drink plenty of water and eat fruit everyday. Prunes are good. Water is key though.

[Holliee]

Two things one i sent you message check your inbox also Methadone cause bad constipation I mean I have went week with nothing when did go like pass soft ball and hurt . There is vitiamin  called vitadone and helps with using bathroom
about 30 $bottle and you take daily made for people who take methadone.

[quadracersteve]

I can't believe that I just joined this forum and pretty much found the same question I joined for, and very close to the same dose. Long story short, I detoxed from 125mg to 18mg quite slow, (1mg every 3 days), and when I got to 18mg I got so sick I had to go back up. Now I'm @40mg and hate the direction I'm going. My problem is just the opposite from 100% of everything I read. I just can't go, period. I drink plenty of water, like 5 or 6 12oz glasses and all I do is urinate.  I eat plenty of oat meal and rasin bran for fiber.  Bananas, Flax Seed Oil pills, 390mg a day, Gatorade, chicken and fresh, but steamed, veggies, and for laxitives I have tried Senacot, which is a stimulant, and kinda worked but the gas and bloating were so painful I needed something else.  The pharmacist recomended Miralax, which took care of the bloating and gas, but no BM Magnesium Citrate, which just made my stomach gurgle, and now have a full dose of M.O.M. in me, which I can feel in my stomach.  Everyone of these which said," will have BM in 1/2-6hrs, 6-12hrs, etc. all took an extra few hours but now I get help from nothing.
Also for meds, I take Klonopin, Clonidine for high BP from methadone, multi-vitiman and smoke a little pot.  Seems everything can cause constipation. When I did/do go, it was 3 or 4 times in an hr, but not a lot, and it was normal, not hard or soft. Even w/lots of food in me from yesterday I got out almost nothing this morning.  Miralax worked almost immeadetly when I first used it, but only the first couple times. Same w/ Mag. Cit. Again , Senacot made my stomach hurt. I called CVS and they said I could go to 2 full cap-fulls of Miralax which only made me pass gas, just air. I know your stomach and both intestines pretty much fall asleep when on opiates, (I hate them), I thought 40mg and eating healthy would work, but no such luck. Do you think my dose increase is causing this? I told my coulcilor I wanted to go down next week and his answer was, " you just went up"! It's MY money, but @ 5am, I don't want to fight. I need some help from people who actually went through a meth detox. Is any of this normal to anyone. It seams constipation means hard BM, so I don't know what to call this. My stomach is not distended and was wondering, if I can get something out, but not a lot, is it still possible to have an impacted intestine. I see my dr. but have no ins. I had bloodwork done about 1 mon ago and came back fine. I'm getting nervous.

[HenryS354]

Methadone has caused some of the most horrendous constipation that I have ever endured in my 12 years of opiate use.

While I was on methadone it was nothing for me to go two weeks without. I paid dearly at the end of those two weeks, and landed myself in the ER a few times with near obstructions.

A few things helped for me.  Increasing my water intake to obscene amounts, walking every day, and a daily dose of miralax.

Stay away from anything with senna in it, as it is a bowel stimulant, and repeated use can create bowel dependance.... not being able to use the restroom without it.  It can also cause severe cramping.

If you were impacted, you would know it... and Ill just leave it at that for now.  I would definitely talk to your doc about this at your next appointment.

Henry

[quadracersteve]

It's nice to actually get a response, so thank you. I joined another methadone website and have dozens of ? in there with no responses. It's like, after 30+yrs of this stuff being legally made, no one has done any studies? How about just giving us a certain % range, so we know if things are normal or not.
That being said, I was wondering, if I skip my dose tomorrow, (I have some Phenergan pills which I don't take, but helps w/ the nausea), would one day be enough to go? I know it has a long half-life, but it would be more than 36hrs before getting dosed again. My last option is an enema. I'm sorry, but I think that would give me nightmares.

[gnarly_1]

Hi and welcome to the forum....your problem is very common with methadone the mirolax is probably your best bet just go to 2 capfulls a day...and stay at that and see if it dosent help...if you truly want to get off the methadone im here to tell you it is possible...I dont know what it is about the 20ml dose give or take a few mills but that dose was shear he!! for me as well as many others that I know have tryed and or have gotten off methadone
it took me 6 friggin weeks for my body to adjust to 20ml...I finely got there and then my taper went smoothly till I got down below 10 ...and if I wasent rushing it ..it probably wouldn't have been as bad but so goes 20 20 hind sight....this forum will be extremely helpful to you if you want to break the methadone ball and chain...I have been there and know just how difficult tapering can be...but it is doable...with support and God I broke free....if you want to give it a try again you will find plenty of support here..and let me be the first to tell you it is so so worth it..keep posting and reading the posts...it will encourage you to try again..good luck and God bless....Gnarly      

[quadracersteve]

My god, do I want to get off this. You are right, the 20mg # is awful.  I'm not sure if I can name names of dr's here, but I got the only helpful info from this man, and said I should be able to detox, cold turkey from 21mg.  I made it 2 days, before returning to the "clinic", but I did not have the Miralax, which helps with the gas, bloating that I couldn't get over, but now that I know of it, again let me know if I need to post this to a Dr, is 21mg too high a dose to walk from?  My first detox, I walked from 9mg and didn't know the difference. I can handle the insomnia, in fact it feels good not to want to sleep @5pm every day. I'm a big Red Sox fan and NEVER saw a whole world series game cause of this junk in me. Also, is there anything out there to wake up the G.I. tract?

[quadracersteve]

I finally had some kind of luck in the b/room but am not quite sure what caused/helped it. By yesterday, I was so desprate, I wasn't giving anything a chance to work. I took 2 Senacot pills, which for me, 2 pills does and did nothing. I took 1/2cap if Miralax, but again, that was never enough to make me go, plus, even taking 2 capfulls, 1 in the morn and 1, 10hrs in between, stopped working SO I finally went to the store to get some Mag. Cit. and lo and behold, there's M.O.M., which I decided to buy cause it was on sale and have heard some good things  about it. So, with that, I took a capfull and within 1 hr I felt my stomach gurggling, and figured, great, more gas, but within 3 hrs, I was running to the b/room w, the runs, which I'll take cause it wasn't just water coming out.  I must have gone 8 times, and am up @ 3:30am to finish the job. I'm still drinking plenty of Gatorade and water to replentish any amount I must have lost.
    Out of the three meds I took, how many people have had luck w/ M.O.M.? I am thinking of taking this in the morning, maybe a half cap this time, with a cap-full  of Miralax 10-12hrs after for when the gas and bloating from the methadone start hitting me. I feel so much better, I just need the M.O.M. to finally calm down in my stomach.  It still wants to come out. Maybe food will help. I haven't eaten for a while. Was too afarid of backing up more.

[quadracersteve]

I noticed in your thread you mention fybro, is that short for fybromyalgia, cause if that is, I have that too. I'm the low % male who got it. I'm not sure which site I read this on, and hopefully I mis-read it, but thought I read that w/fybro AND detoxing from methadone, it's like a double-whammy for detox pain.  Seeing you wrote in 2009, I'm guessing you're done with your detox, was it real bad,the pain that is, mostly in the back/lower back area.  Feels like someone went to town on me with a baseball bat. You never realise how powerful a painkiller methadone is till you get off it and start feeling things you forgot were there.

[quadracersteve]

    I went with your advice and am just using the Miralax.  I took M.O.M. for the 2nd day in a row and it pretty much emptied me out.  After that, I gave it a couple days w/nothing in me except for healthy food, then moved to the Miralax,(2 capfulls a day), and seem to be having luck. Thank you for the advice. Another week of this and I think I'm ready to re-start my detox. I feel so much better.  Seeing that I can put in a stop whenever I want, I am going to try 2mg every 2 weeks,(my councilor said that's better than 1mg a week because it takes about 4 or 5 days for the body to adjust to the decrease, and giving it that extra 6 or 7 days will make a big difference in how I feel). Seems to make sense.
     After going through this awful ordeal,(my first detox off this stuff didn't bother me at all, as crazy as that may sound, that's why I used again), and even tho I am going into surgery in one month, I told the dr., give me a bottle of asprin, I want NOTHING to do with any opiate, no matter the pain. There is no such thing as," well, I'll just take 2 Percs or Vicodins JUST THIS ONCE, then I'll go back to the prescribed dose. Unless I break my back or something just as painfull, I can never touch an opiate again. That's sad but at least I acknowledge this and am looking for safer remedies.
   Again, thank you, and I will continue to post from time to time just to let anyone who cares know how I am doing.
    Best wishes to EVERYONE who has the guts to try to detox. Most people @ my clinic are "lifers" and have given up on the idea of detoxing. They also can't believe I am detoxing again. I would like my life to be able to start before 5am. That's the best time to go fishing!

[laurel453]

i wanted to wish also the best to you and welcome here :) feel proud of yourself for what you are doing.

maybe your posts have been overlooked because this is an old post, if you start a new thread you may get more support and help..

[quadracersteve]

Do you know if I can start a new thread and paste what I wrote into that one? Thanks in advance for the advice. I gonna try right now. I'm not the best on computers.

[laurel453]

yeah, it is possible.... i'm not very good either :) but if you don't know how to do it, i will try to help you, ok?

[quadracersteve]

I started a new thread.I was able to paste the questions I wanted the most, but I apologise to the people who spent their time answering this, but I didn't get to paste all of your advice to the new thread.

As of now, this thread is dead, I'm a poet and didn't know it,lol. Hopefully it's at the top of the substance abuse thread.
Again, thanks for the heads-up.

[quadracersteve]

My bad. It should be under the addiction thread.

[laurel453]

hey, you did all right at the right place, do not worry, ok ? :)

[quadracersteve]

Hey, thanks. And it didn't even hurt. I just kinda posted things bass ackwards.