Too Good to last

[janet19]

I have been on suboxone for about 2 months and I had no pain at all until yesterday. Now my back is aching again, I am not craving at all but if I had something I don't know if I could say no. It's really scary that just a little pain could make me take a few steps back. I know that sub is not for pain control. Why would it work so well and then suddenly all the pain come flowing back? I was perfectly fine until yesterday. I started using the vic's and soma's because of back pain. I am really worried now.

[ColleenToQuit]

Janet, I'm guessing that there are 2 possible causes for your back pain. One you have mentioned and that is the strips may not be dissolving all the way under your tongue. Suboxone is designed to be dissolved under the tongue and not by means of ingestion. This is for a couple purposes as the naloxone in the medication can make you withdrawal if ingested through your stomach; so yes you may not be receiving the full amount of buprenorphine in the Suboxone. The other reason may be because you are becoming tolerant to the medication, which is designed to happen in a matter of weeks depending on how much opiates the person was previously taking. And because Suboxone is a partial opiate agonist, it has opiate qualities such as minor pain relieving qualities until tolerance is met so the pain relieving qualities disappear and a feeling of "normal" is supposed to be achieved while on the medication. I hope this information is at least somewhat helpful, but because I'm not a doctor I'm not sure exactly what is causing the pain to return. Please keep me posted! :)

[BrentD]

I had a similar case while I was taking suboxone and I always just figured my tolerance was going up and my body was just going into a mild w/d without a higher dose. About the strips I think if you ingest something its going to hit you whether you placed it directly under your tongue or not, its still in your system. By no means am I a Dr. just my take on it. Best of luck.

[janet19]

Something else that I might add is that when I went to get my refill for the suboxone last Monday they switched me from the pills that dissolve under the tongue to the strips that dissolve. The problem is they are hard to place because as soon as they come in contact with any skin they stick there whether they are directly under the tongue or not. Once they stick you cannot move them and I read that the 2 main blood vessels under you tongue are the only ones that absorb the medicine. Could this possible be why they are not working as well? Maybe I am not getting the full dose of medicine,