How long off oxy to get Neg. Tox Screen

[Larch51]

My girlfriend has suffered from severe pain caused by MS (Neuropathy and other MS-related pain symptoms) as well as serious L4-5 disc problems for several years. However about eighteen months ago, she went into a total tailspin from the pain. She could not drive, eat, sleep--do about anything but cry from the agony she was in. She has been getting oxycodone from the Internet now for about 7 months taking about 60 - 75 mg a day. She is still in a lot of pain and sleeps about 4 hrs and then is up in terrible pain until she can afford to take more pain meds to keep her going through the day. She went to a pain clininc that promptly told her they don't write scripts for opiates. She tried all the MS pain meds with no lessening of pain and terrible side effects. Anyway, she tapered off the oxy for about three weeks before going to this pain clinic and took no pills for 4 days and they STILL found a trace of oxy in tox screen. Still they referred her to a new clinic that does write for opiates. I see no evidence that she is high or spaced out on these meds and she DOESN"T WANT TO TAKE THESE BUT she has no life without them. I realize you folks are trying to get off meds, and apologize and hope I am not offending anyone to ask how to get on them, but I do not see her having any life without some kind of strong pain med. She has tried everything imaginable from natural remedies to acupuncture to yoga to meditation to lyrica, neurontin, baclyfen, etc. NOTHING works. So Question: She started tapering off 6 weeks and is now on no opiates. Then she has 18 days to get through drug free before she goes to new state-of-the-art pain clinic that does give opiates. Does anyone out there know if she will still get a positive tox screen? How long do you have to stay off the meds before you don't show a positive? I cannot believe they found a trace in the first screen. For at least a week before the 4 days she took NOTHING, she was down to about 10 - 5mg/day and STILL they found a trace. This is her LAST chance. Does anyone know anything about these sophisticated tox screens they now have and if she has a chance of coming out clean in the time frame I have given HELP PLEASE. I cry with her every night and sit up with her. It is agonizing to watch. She is so sick of playing games and wants MEDICAL HELP, to do this the right way under supervision of a pain clinic and pain specialists and is tired of this lousy way of dealing with her problems. She hates herself and feels horrible guilt. But if you could see the level of pain she is in, even with the meds, you would know that despite the negatives of this path, there really isn't another choice for her. Please if you have an answer, let me know. Thanks, Larch51

[GA Guy]

By the way, there is a pain management forum on this site. You may get better answers there. Here's the address...I don't know how active it is..
http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Pain-Management-Support/wwwboard.html

[GA Guy]

Try Googling "opiate testing" or "drug testing". there's lots of information out there. Just be sure to take what you read with a grain of salt. Some of it is published and is on websites trying to sell "detox" agents. None of them work. Time is your best friend. If I were you, I'd see every general doctor around the area and get someone to write her a script. Nobody should be in that much pain. What about the ER? If she gets a script for it then it solves 2 problems. Her pain and the positive test.

[Larch51]

Thanks for your help. She is really suffering so much now I am in tears. I cannot tell if it is partly still some withdrawl or just the pain, but she is just a mess. I wish a had a definitive answer. She still has some pills because even IF she is allowed to go through the whole battery of tests demanded by the clinic (such as seeing a shrink for a two hour interview) it could be months before she gets ANY help. BUT we have to be safe this time. She was on so little leading up to the 4 or 5 days she took NOTHING my mouth is still hanging open that they found ANYTHING--even a trace. I wish I could tell her, go ahead and take at least a little. The appt. isn't until Oct. 7 and she says she doesn't think she can make it. My take on this is--get the damn stuff out of your system once we find out how long is safe and call them and scream on the phone--PLEASE HELP!!!!! I cannot take it anymore. And then I think of what Johnny Kelly said, and they are certainly going to wonder how anyone in that much pain as she will present could have gone 18 months without any strong narcotics no less no narcotics. BUT we are both afraid she will get arrested or something. This really stinks. Thank you for the advice about the forums, and Sunday and the button. I am new here. I was looking up "tox screen" and this page popped up or else I had no idea where to turn. I mean, what do you do, call a doctor and ask? We are really in a damned if you do, damned if you don't mess.

[GA Guy]

Larch, I know this may not help, but unless she has a hair test done, which I very seriously doubt, she will test negative. There's really nothing she or you can do now. Just have her drink tons of water and she will be fine. You may actually want to concentrate on stuff to make her comfortable during the 18 days that she will be detoxing. There's some information on my profile page that can help with that. Just click on the blue Ga Guy link to the left of this post. By the way, did she EVER have a script for the Oxy? An old percocet script?

[IBKleen]

Hello!

My goodness...I truly feel for your girlfriend. I do live with chronic pain, but certainly not to that extent.

I know of a few people who could help with your question, but it is Sunday and a very slow day in the forum. Please check back tomorrow or later tonight. As people come on, they do check through and post.

It is  shame for someone who is truly in "legitimate" pain not to be able to get relief, but these medications are abused..thus the reasoning for the crack downs. Abuse of these meds is at an all time high in this country and the DEA is working over-time.

There is a green button at the top left on this page..you can add this post to your "watch list" and that way you will be able to return to it.

In the meantime, I will send a message to someone I know can answer your question, and you hang in there.

Take care.

[Larch51]

Thanks for such a rapid response. Oh God. I am now extremely anxious they WILL do this because of the first positive one with the "trace" of oxy in it. She explained it to her PCP when he told her about the screen by saying a friend who visited a couple of days before the test felt sorry for her and gave her a pill she had gotten from her dentist for a tooth extraction. But I don't know. This pain clinic may not even consider her with a positive tox screen even with a "trace" or may do a more extreme test. Any thoughts?  If she had taken a pill from the friend, would it still show up in a hair sample?  Or do you have to be on the meds for a while for this to happen. Any advice? She is not a drug seeker. She is seeking to help her pain. I know from all I have read these two very different people can look the same to a doctor. I just don't know. Given where we live, she really has no more hope to find relief and I am afraid she might do something awful if she feels that her situation is truly hopeless. Thanks again. I never imagined such a quick and thorough response. Larch51

[johnnykelly]

A week at most. The prior post by GaGuy is accurate.I can understand the reason for a drug test say for employment, but for a clinic that will prescribe narcotics, you would think a positive find would be a prerequisite.

[GA Guy]

Larch..I'm so very sorry about your girlfriend. These things can very well destroy lives..but, they can help people as well..and, this is something a lot of us forget sometimes. The half life of Oxy is about 3-4 hours. So, that means that after 4 hours half is gone, then half more in 4 more, etc. UNLESS they do a hair test, she should have no problems passing a urine screen in 18 days. 4-5 days is pushing it. A week is safe. 18 days is most positively safe. Now, if they do hair analysis, then it can be detected at 90 days. That is very unlikely.