23 hours

[Brian4040]

was on 4 a day of 10mg percs for 42 days.................ive not taken any in 23 hours.......really all i feel is feverish.......and my ac is out so that may have something to do with it(its still 90 here).  Ive read symptons peak 48-72 hours.  Could i have less time in each stage cuz i didnt take a lot and for  a very long time?  Just curious what u all think, cuz really i dont feel bad.  Like a very minor case of the flu

[Brian4040]

ok i forgot to mention the last week i tapered down to around 3 a day.

[slowlybetter]

Well, I am at 83 hours and doing pretty well.  The first day was completely fine, no problems at all.  The second day, I woke up (I guess that would have been 42 hours or so after the last dose, but Dutchess Golden says the time begins from when the med last left your system which does make sense) and I felt listless and had no ambition, frequent trips to the bathroom (but not extreme), then I developed leg cramps last night and slept with heat wraps on my legs.  Today I had to actually do stuff again and couldn't just lay around focusing on my aches and pains and misery (I did taper slowly, down 5 mg or so of percocet a day) and I did hurt (from my original pain) but then around 8 p.m. tonight all of sudden some "normal" energy and ambition just hit me and I started posting on here and got some housework done!  My pain even feels better.  I did take tylenol and aleve though.

Did you take Percocet for pain?  If so, how are you handling that?

Keep up the good work and try to keep busy to keep your mind off of it, it works a lot better that way.  But if you need to, give yourself the room to rest.  And drink plenty of fluids.

And think happy thoughts.....you got that job!  Way to go!!

SB

[Brian4040]

WEll inthe beginning i needed them for pain, but not any longer.  

[slowlybetter]

Your withdrawals probably won't be as intense as someone who took the same dose you were taking for a year or two.  But you did basically go c/t from 30 mg a day that your body was consistently getting for a month and a half.  Don't be discouraged though.  You are better off to stop at 42 or 43 days than to keep going.  It is just that 30mg is a big leap.  Percocet is some strong stuff and really messes with your brain and your body.  It is good to have when you have severe pain but you don't want it if you don't have to have it, that's for sure.  For one thing when you do need it, it won't work so well if you have been taking it.

Try not to anticipate the next two days but be prepared.  Since I am a little ahead of you and although I had to take medicine longer, I tapered to a lower dosage so we may have similar w/d's.  I didn't feel flu like though, just absolutely no ambition.  That and the leg cramps were pretty much the worst of my w/d's so far.

SB

[Brian4040]

WEll if i have your type than i will be fine.  I dont really have anything to do the next 3 days anyway, just a phone interview on monday.

[Brian4040]

Oh i do have a question though. Can percs cause depression?  See in the end i was really depressed and when i would take one i would feel better.  But now that im a day off them for some reason i feel more "hopeful" inside.  Does that sound weird?  I think its possible.

[slowlybetter]

Hey, that's great that you have three full days of not worrying about responsibilities.  It did help me to get out and go to the store today though.  Had I not had prior obligations for my children I probably would not have gotten out of the house.  But I know it did me some good.  Just make sure you don't have to be near a bathroom constantly before you leave. :)  If yours are like mine that would happen tomorrow.  And it really wasn't that bad, I just wouldn't have liked to have had to be in public and have that hit me all of a sudden, if you know what I mean.  And I have Immodium but I didn't have to take any, it wasn't that severe.

You are fortunate that your pain is gone.  I wish mine was gone that quickly.  I wouldn't wish chronic pain on anyone!  Does your doctor know you are quitting?  Does he/she know your pain is better?  Is it completely gone?  I am sure if you don't have your original pain anymore those aches and pains you are feeling are just from your body building up your pain receptors making you more sensitive to pain than you would be otherwise.  That's one of the bad things about pain med, they make you have MORE pain!!!

[Brian4040]

Well i have been walking outside a lot so i make sure i stay active cuz yeah the more i think about all this, the worse it will feel.  Im guessing.  I had an old bottle of lortabs  that i started using because of neck pain.  After that i didnt get them from a doc, so getting a docs help really wouldnt do much good.

[slowlybetter]

Yes!  I most definitely think that percocet can cause depression.  It really messes with your emotions all around.  It makes complete sense that you feel hopeful now.  Percocet messes with your neurotransmitters in your brain and causes your natural endorphins to shut off and I personally think our natural stuff is better than the manufactured stuff.

I am not anti-pain meds.  I have needed them myself and wouldn't have been able to make it through my chronic pain without the help of pain medication.  But I definitely thought it made me depressed.  Percocet wears off pretty quickly so it has lots of ups and downs with it.  Did you notice that?  So it is kind of like a roller coaster ride.

[Brian4040]

EXACTLY.  See what would happen is i would take one, and all my daily functions would be easy, then i would become VERY depressed, but i really thought it was because my life situation sucks right now.  So i would think HEY the pills make it go away!  So it was a roller coaster and its why i kept using them.  BUT, maybe this will help ONE person, and if so thats great.  If you are having personal problems, and dont absolutely HAVE to take pain meds, DONT!  I was so depressed it was unreal.  I could give a ton of examples but heres one.  I was filling out a resume the other day, sorry an application lol.  Anyway i left my pen in the car.  HELLO thats it!  I felt TERRIBLE!  I was like, umm brian you are a manager by trade, you wouldnt hire someone cuz of that!  THEN!  Im filling out the app and i stretched a date slighty of when i worked with a company.  I am not kidding this made me feel like a criminal.  The reason i use these examples is because those two things would NEVER phase me in the past.  ALso even when i got a job offer i had dreadful thoughts. When i went on interviews i had dreadful thoughts like omg what if i do this or do that........again things i wouldnt ever think.  Then ........ah never mind you get the point.  I REALLY think this depression and these paranoid thoughts were, if not caused, helped greatly by the pain meds.  Its one of many reasons why i know i wont be taking these ever again.  Then i was just sitting here before you responded thinking dang!  i feel kinda blah, but i feel HOPE within my chest which hasnt been there for weeks!  I know that sounds weird, but its the best i can explain.

[slowlybetter]

Yeah, I definitely think that is the percocet doing that to you.  If your mind feels this much better now just think how much better it will feel in a week, in a month.  So did you not have a problem with depression prior to taking the percocet?  Or did it just make it worse or did it all originate with the percocet.  I know someone that was going through a horrible, horrible physical situation and in extreme pain but refused to take the pain meds because they made her so depressed, she hated it.  She said she would rather deal with the pain!  Now I know there are people with chronic pain who can't even walk without pain meds, I really feel for them.  But there are different meds for people who have chronic pain.  I was prescribed an extended release morphine and it had absolutely no effect on me mentally at all.  No ups and downs, just lowered the pain.  I tapered off of it and did just fine.  I had to get off of it a while back because it is meant for long term pain.  I am sure if I took it long enough it may have done the same but I couldn't tell mentally when I took it, just the pain was a lot less.  Just so you know you are not alone in feeling that this stuff messes with your head!

I didn't feel the hopeful feeling immediately like you did, but it did hit me this evening.  I finally have ambition.  Before that I didn't want to do anything then all of a sudden I felt better, not sure what happened.  Because before that I came home from a full day of being busy and laid down.  But I got up and I felt kind of like the old me.  I kind of forgot who that was!  It feels good.

I hope your leg cramps get better.  That starts coming on around bedtime.  My legs are feeling okay right now and it would be really nice not to sleep with a heat wrap on each leg since it is already warm.

Hopefully, you will be feeling pretty good for your phone interview.  And it is a little easier to fake it on the phone (how you feel, that is) than in person!

[Brian4040]

Ive had mild depression before sure, but nothing like this.  I had a dream job once, and got fired, and lost my girlfriend at teh samer time, and didnt feel 10 percent as depressed as i felt a week ago.  So NOTHING even close to this.

[Brian4040]

Oh hey how about sleep?  are you sleeping fine?  And when do you think i will feel completely myself again?  Like day 5?

[sdtrooper]

Hey Brian--glad to hear you're giving up the pills. I started taking them for "back pain" and a year later, I'm addicted. I'm on day 4 of going cold turkey off vicoprofen and vicodin, but I'm feeling a little better. Hopefully your w/d's won't be as bad because of the time you've been taking that stuff. Good luck!

[slowlybetter]

Yes, actually I am sleeping great.  In fact I had to quit posting because I got so tired last night and went right to sleep.  Last night I didn't really even have leg cramps to speak of....just a touch of them.  But I really did a long taper with my doctor guiding me.  I am on day four, well maybe I am at day five now because of the time I took the last med.  Anyway, I feel pretty normal.  I may take a nap and rest, even though I tapered it still takes its toll on the body.

I am not ingesting tons of caffeine and I personally don't like how l-tyrosine makes me feel.  The people around me can tell that I am starting to feel like my old self, I have had a few comments.  I am not getting a bunch of stuff done but I am starting to feel the initiative to do things.  Last night I did get a surge and it felt great.  Hopefully the same thing will happen today at some point.

I am not experienced in withdrawals after long or short term duration of taking meds.  But I just don't see how you could be "back to normal" by day 5 after quitting at 30mg of Percocet a day.  I actually was wanted to stop sooner (although I had a lot of pain and the doctor told me not to) and I was pretty sick.  I learned my lesson.  I had to be patient.  I am not by any means saying get back on the meds.  You don't need them, you already stopped them, but be patient, it may take a week or ten days.  Duchess probably would know better than me for sure!  I just say don't expect a miracle by day five because I don't want you to give up if you don't feel great.

Do you have a family doctor?  I do know of someone who went off pain meds after a deadly illness and recovered and their doctor gave them an antidepressant to help them through.  Since you said you are depressed maybe you could see about that.  But you said you aren't working so you may not have insurance and antidepressants are expensive but there are generics now.  Just something to think about.  There are people that swear by some of the herbal stuff, maybe someone could post what helped them.

I hope you post today and let us know how you are doing.  And was that 23 hours from your last dose or from when it wore off?  I am 98 hours from my last dose.  So four days and 2 hours.  Feels funny counting that.

SB