how long??

So I have 2 slipped discs in my lower back, a harniated disc, and sciatica. I have been on pain meds for over 6 years as i didn't have insurance to have the surgery i needed, of course at first i was taking just as i needed for pain, and in the past few years, my doc. moved me up to 240 norco 10/325 a month, and i got up to taking anywhere from 10-23 pills a day, about a month ago i had enough and wanted to quit, so i tapered a little, i only had a few pills so i took 2 a day for about 4 days, i still had the withdrawls from hell and i thought i never want to go through this again, but i gave in and got my refill and started back up to about 10-14 a day...of course as most of you know just the money itself that i have spent on docs, and buying them from other ppl when i run out should be motivation enough, i feel like ive lost my life, so now i am on day 3, specifically 63 hrs, clean cold turkey, it is HELL, of course my symptoms started only a few hours after my last pills, and the first 2 days were mainly physically painful, leg cramps, shakes, diarhea (diarrhea), headaches, back pain of course, jittery, heart racing, anxiety, suicidal thoughts. now i feel like i can think more clearly, but i still am jittery and have the headache, most of the rest isn't so bad, i can move now, get up for a few minutes at a time...but what i want to know is how long does or can it take to feel normal again, i want my life back...for me, my husband who is supporting me through all of this, and my 3 kids who deserve better...

[sudie58]

hi, well it does vary from person to person, in general 6/10 days, around day 5/6 i started to feel a bit better and slowly every day a bit better still. a lot of it is emotional and the more positive you can be the better, have you taken anything to help with the withdrawals, such as imodium (immodium) for stomache probs, also you need to drink plenty of fluids thats important.  look at the health pages top right hand side of this page, it gives the thomas recipe, lots of things there to help you, keep posting and let us know how your doing, stay strong, god bless    sudie

[ANewLife4Me]

Hi, like Sudie said, it varies.  You are on day 3 and probably in the thick of the worst of it now.  Tomorrow should (and hopefully) be the day you start to feel better little by little.  My DOC was Norco as well and at my worst I was taking 40 per day and when I would go cold turkey, the very worst of my withdrawals were over in 5 days and on day 11 last time was when my sleep started to return.  You may find the depression and anxiety will linger beyond a few weeks, or not as all of us are different.  It took years for us to destroy our bodies with the pills, it's going to take a little time to rebuild it back up.  Exercise will help, big time.  Keep pushing the fluids as well.  Congrats on day 3!!!

[dominosarah]

Hi and welcome~Congrats on getting your life back!!  You should be feeling a bit better everyday.  This is all a slow process so time will be your friend.  We didnt get addicted overnight.  The more you get up and move around the better you will feel.  Usually we recommend exercising but with your back that may be hard to do.  Drink plenty of fluids during this time.  Gatorade is good if you like it.  Bananas are good for you too.  Take warm baths or showers for the aches and pains.  Have you given any thought to aftercare?  The mental part of this kicks in after the physical wd's are over.  Stay positive as you can do this!!  sara

[Baker3336]

I was on the norco 10/325 also. Ive been off them for 37 days. As you know the wds were awful. I had every symptom except vomiting. Like the previous post stated you should start to feel a little better every day after 5-6 days. I didn't get my sleep back til about 3 weeks or so. Week 4 was great(energy, good mood, sleeping through the night) the last couple days have been tough for some reason. My arm is bothering me and just sore back among other little pains. It's has been cold and wet and grey where I live so I feel a little blue. The cravings are there a little more than last week. So listen to people when they say the mental part will come into play eventually. I kind of thought after a month "I'm not really craving, I feel great" then a couple rough days will mess with your mind. I didn't act on it but you can't help but think about the little yellow pills. Hang in there and good luck.

[hbh6yr]

thanks all of you for the advice! yes the hot baths have helped me the most, i haven't tried immodium but the diarhea (diarrhea) has started to slow up today....and no i haven't thought of after care as much, and that is the one thing i am most worried about, getting past all of this, and feeling the severe pain again and thinking hmm 1 pill wont hurt, thats what happened last time  and i know it doesn't work that way now, for me it seems like i kick it fullly or not at all and i want to do it right this time. My husband works and he calls about every hour to see how i'm feeling, i was just telling him, today is different, it's not really better, just different, like i said im not in as much pain with everything today, its more i think of the emotional withdrawl (withdrawal) symptoms, the craving is ridiculous...it's nice having his support, without that, idk if i could make it through this on my own. I've seen alot of posts about people going to different things to help them through the withdrawls or getting prescriptions to get your drive back and subside the symptoms, and i thought about that, but i decided that i needed to go through this cold turkey to remind myself how hard it is, and that i don't want to go through it again...thanks again for the advice, i'll keep posting on my progress

[hbh6yr]

still feeling about the same but just wanted to say i finally just got up, and started cleaning, wich i'm a stay at home mom so that mainly what i usually do all day, and my husband has taken that over since ive felt so bad, and the more i move around the better i feel, or not better maybe it just takes my mind off of it, so even if i can't excerise im going to just try to keep moving around and doing things as much as i can...

[hbh6yr]

just got up, on day 4 actually got about 6 hrs sleep last night, not straight but all together...still not feeling the best, but i can tell its getting better, ill post again later :)

[hbh6yr]

after getting up and  trying to move around a little this morning ive realized that for some reason it feels like today is worsethan yesterday...my back is killing me, and i'm having those shakes again that i didnt have much yesterday, i kind of have that feeling that yesterday i felt i know i acn do this, i felt a step forward from my addiction, and today it feels like a step back, i know that im only on day 4 and i shouldn't feel discouraged but i do, its hard not to. i mean i actually LOLed last night, i thought okay tomorrow should be uphill from here, but no...i know ive got a ways to go, like i said i went through this once before with only taking about 2  a day and gave in....i do not want to give up this time but this depression i guess and anxiety is just taking me over... any advice will help?!