Trying to wean off of oxycontin and percocet

[bbooth]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me. I have suffered with degenerative disc disease in my low back.  I recently has a lumbar fusion surgery (my second back surgery in 3 years) I did not have a problem stopping the pain meds after my first surgery, however, the pain was not as intense and I wasn't taking as strong pain killers.  I have been trying to manage my pain since October, starting with Darvocet, then we tried vicodin, neither of those were effective, so we tried Percocet.  I was taking 2 every 4 hours and still having a great deal of pain.  While we were waiting for MRI results and the wait to see a surgeon, I was put on Oxycontin 40 mg 2x each day (every 12 hours) and 2 percocet every 6 hours for breakthrough.  I ended up still needing to take 2 percocet every 4 to control the pain.  I am 11 days out of surgery and the intense pain is gone.  My surgeon sent me home with 90 percocet only.  The last day I had oxcontin was a week ago yesterday and I have cut my percocet down to 1 every 7 hours for the past couple of days.  My problem is that I feel miserable.  I feel like I am freezing so I layer on heavy clothes but as I feel I am freezing, I am sweating like crazy.  I cannot sleep at night.  This past week I have only been able to sleep for a couple hours at a time.  I have been an emotional disaster, not to mention cranky.  According to what I have seen here, these are common withdrawal symtoms.  I am wondering how long these are going to last.  Today I am going to try not to take any percocet during the daytime.  Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Yoda99]

   I quit cold turkey, not because I was brave.  Probably because I was stupid, but I could never taper anyway.  And like the others said, you won't get thru the withdrawals as long as you are taking opiates of any kind.  Tylenol is ok.  Actually Arthritis Tylenol helps me quite a bit now, I just have to watch how much I take.
   The worst physical symptoms (diahreah, maybe vomiting, body aches, flu like symptoms) will last about 5 days, with day 3 usually being the worst.  However, it is different for everyone.  I stayed in bed an entire week.  Then you will still have to contend with sleep problems, lack of energy, etc. and that will last longer.
   But don't let fear of withdrawing stop you from quitting.  It will be the best thing you've ever done for yourself.  
   And we're here to help.
Good luck to you,
Yoda

[1234betterlife]

welcome to the forum. yes, what you are going through is typical withdrawal and should last as long as you are taking anything with an opoid in it. you are tapering which does work, to some extent, in lessening the withdrawal but it also drags it out. typically, if you were to stop all meds, percocets, darvocets it would be anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks before all of the symptoms to subside, and lethargy would probably remain for awhile longer. you are fortunate, in a way, that you did not know what was happening. i think when people go into detox dreading these symptoms it is much worse. you are almost there and did not even realize it through the worst of it. continue as you are doing, drink lots of fluids to flush your system. take vitamins, eat well and try to move about a bit. i know you are in pain but that should lessen with time as you already mentioned. you can try over the counter sleep aids if there are no interractions with your other medications and no allergies, caution on the ones that contain tylenol. if you need anything please message me. keep posting. some times of the day are slower than others. good luck to you. you will get there.

[hope08]

well first off, good job on wanting to ween yourself off of them despite the pain.

unfortunately, you can't stop the wd's from happening (unless you continue to use like your body will trick you into thinking, but you can't do that forever)...but you can get some really good support and advice here. there are some people that have multiple posts on their profile, regarding the wd part of it, and what you can do to help it not be so bad. look up the thomas recipe, and the natural supplements on amino acids....it def helped me a lot.

good luck!

[FLaddict]

Welcome. I have a great article on tapering in my profile journal. Check that out and see if it can be some help to you.

[bbooth]

Well, I have had no oxy for 8 days and I tapered the percocet down.  I have not had percocet for 30 hours.  I am not sweating anymore, but I still cannot sleep and today my legs have been cramping really bad.  My husband is going to get me some bananas in the morning.  I heard the potassium in bananas will help with leg cramps.  Since I just had surgery 1 and 1/2 weeks ago, I am not allowed to drive for another 3 weeks, so I am not able to go to health/food store for supplements.  My husband does not want to accept that what I am going through right now is wd from the meds.  He thinks it's just the flu.  Anyway, I am not allowed to soak in a tub for another 5 weeks so I took a hot shower and drank some warm milk (yuck) with 2 Tylenol PM.  That was an hour ago, but when I laid down, my legs would not allow me to rest.  I am encouraged that I am almost at the end of this.  I pray that after I heal from this surgery that I won't continue with more back problems, because I do not want to take those meds ever again!  Thanks for all of your support! It has been very helpful to me, so that I don't feel so alone in this.

[bbooth]

Am I better off to quit cold turkey, no more tapering?  What about Tylenol? Should I not take that either? I just want to be done with it.  I am sure you know what I mean.  If I would have known I was going to have this, I might have decided to deal with the pain vs. taking the meds. Thanks for your kind advice.