I'm currently taking 100 mg Methadone A Day...

[strictlyforpain]

I am currently taking 100Mg of methadone per day. My doctor wants me to taper down to 60Mg of Methadone a day over the next 20 days.

I'm going to a really cool pain doctor who I think just might have my back pain zeroed in for the kill. He doesn't want me to reduce my pain medicine as he doesn't want to have rebound pain cloud the results of what he is doing.

I would still love to come down on the meds though especially since my doctor lowered my dose. I could ask her for more but if I do she will think I'm doing better and am ready to taper off completely and while I'm getting benefits I'm a long ways from being pain free so I don't want her to think or do that.

So what is the best way to go about this? Should I just take the 6 a day CT and hope for the best? Should I slowly go down and keep going down until I am at zero? I'd love to do that but I doubt I can do that in 20 days. I hear methadone has more kick than that.

Thoughts? Oh yes, I'm worried about addiction too. So I cycle off meds every 6 months for 8 weeks but I usually plan for that and I'm not ready for that at all. I need 2 months to slowly phase off stuff and I have 20 days.

[mr.lucky66]

you shouldn't be too bad for too long. Because as your names says"strictly for pain" , and you don't take it for a high,it's not as hard to detox. You should also try the pain mgt. board. all the best.

[strictlyforpain]

The MD wants me to taper and the Chiro that is doing the treatment that is actually working wants me to hold it steady so he can have a clear picture of pain and not rebound pain. So I think I'm SOL unless the MD will change her mind. I'm still SOL. Ugh. If I had known the MD was going to do this I would have done this a while ago and more slowly. I'd easily have set aside the extra 100 or so I need to make this comfortable. Last night... not so much fun. Sleep? Didn't really need it. :o(

[mr.lucky66]

the people here have all said good things that make sense. The difference is that we, (myself for sure) are addicts and you are a pain pt. That makes detoxing or tapering different and usually much easier. When I was on methadone is was always hard to get off because I was addicted, mentally and physically addicted and loved methadone. If you are taking it for pain and not not most addicts, you shouldn't have near as much problems detoxing.

[kimbraveheart]

I agree with both the above. It is a lot to ask and will definately confuse your pain doctor. But i think you should taper a bit as this is quite a big dose to be on. Over here our drs taper you down about 5mg a week for about 4 weeks then stabilise you for another couple of weeks before they start the taper again.You could maybe explain to your dr what your pain dr is saying about it too. Good luck you will be able to do this.

[gnarly_1]

Hi and welcome to the forum.....dropping from 100ml to 60ml in 20 days is a lot to ask
the best way to taper is at about 10% ever 72hrs if your on pills break them into 1/4s
and drop a 1/4 pill every 3 days till your where you want to be any faster and the withdrawals will be ruff....you could try 1/2 pill a day at first your dose is high enough for that and that will work also but you will feel it more but 1/2 a pill is doable in the higher doses 40 ml in 20 days is going to be ruff to do and your dr should know this if she knows anything about methadone but defently drop doses by tapering off C/T would feel like you got ran over by a truck.....good luck and God bless

[vicki595]

So...which doctor wants you to taper? The chiropracter??  The pain doctor wants you
to stay on the current dose??

A little confusing(for me at least). I tend to agree with the pain doctor who's concerned about the rebound pain masking the whole picture...Chiropractors don't prescribe,right?

V.

[strictlyforpain]

My pain doctor and my prescribing doctor are two different doctors. One is MD and the other is Chiropractor/Accupuncture/Mackenzie/Etc....