Hi all and I want to extend my thanks and appreciation for all I have read so far. I must say I can agree with, understand, feel, et.al. as to what you're going through and/or been through. Go figure I end up the same.....
Just as most, this started as legitimate and even current treatment, however my objective of stopping the use of these is to TRULY get a feel for how much pain I am in and what the minimum is to control it. I have Fibromyalgia, Degen Disc Disease, and peripheral neuropathy. There are worst days than others, some better days than others - however the doses of the extended-release remained the same and I simply took less of, or more of, the breakthrough.
I take 40MG Oxycontin twice a day and Percocet 10's up to 4X/day for BT pain. Again, the BT med "depends". Well, all this 'depending' has gotten ridiculous. I already have this 'fog' and what-not from the diseases themselves and I don't need to be in a medicated fog.
Nevertheless, in the last 3 days, I have cut out the Percocet altogether, and am now only taking 1 of the 40MG's in the AM. I will say I now know what W/D is - and that happens almost every early AM, around 3AM, and lasts until about 2 hours after taking the oxycontin, so approx. 6 hours of the wonderful W/D's. Some days it was worse than others, some days better. However the symptoms appear EVERY time like clockwork. This AM, I decided to half the dose - as I was reading about the tapering - and seems that was enough to 'stop the madness' at least for the time being. The bigger question of the century is How in the heck do you get to the end? I've spoken with my 2 physicians who are willing to RX lower-dose meds and the other wants to RX down to a Norco, but to me that is defeating the purpose and just 'lengthening' the process.
In all seriousness, I know I will need something but I am just SICK of having to live this way, everyday, dependent upon medications that I was NEVER informed would be so damn addictive. I don't even know if I am an addict or just dependent - and that scares me too. Had I known now what i knew then, i would have NEVER started the long-acting ones - just stuck with what I had - but because of having to increase to due tolerance, I was left with no choice. I don't really blame the Dr's for all this as I DID have a choice, but then again we put our faith and expertise in them. I'm not looking to blame, just looking for a way to get to this "final step" without jeopardizing my healthcare, Medicaid, etc. for an alleged "non-compliance" by failing to take RX'd meds.
I know there are ALOT more serious issues out there and people alot worse off however I hope you understand that ultimately, we all go through the same thing at the end... For what it is worth, I do praise and admire those who turned their lives around, are turning their lives around, and like me are trying to turn their lives around. Like I said I just don't want to keep on living on the stuff, the only way to know just how much pain I really DO have is by stopping these for a while, and if it means some additional suffering for a while, I guess that is the consequence.
Thanks for all who decide to reply; I truly appreciate any/all responses regardless. Take care.