Will a primary doctor help me through detox?

[luciddreamrgrl]

I have researched this question over and over and can't find the answer anywhere.

I have been addicted to vicodin for over a year now and I want to stop before my addiction gets any further out of control. I am a mother and hold a very good job. I never expected nor wanted anything like this to happen. My pills are legitimately prescribed for me through pain management for a transient reoccurring intussusseption. About 3 months ago I got a tolerance, the pain doc refused to up my dose and I took more anyways. When I ran out 11 days early last month I knew I had a problem. Now I've decided I'm done. I can't keep doing this to myself and want to avoid bringing my family down with me.

So I made an appointment with an outpatient rehab facility. I will be seeing a therapist, not a doctor.  That is on Wednesday. I will run out of my pills on that day. I know I will need meds such as benzos and blood pressure meds to help me through the first week. I was hoping to get some sleeping pills also.

My question is, will I need to make an appointment with my primary doctor to get these pills since I'm only seeing a therapist? Or do outpatient rehab facilities usually have prescribing doctors on staff? I'm concerned and want to have my ducks in a row before I actually start withdrawing. I only want to do this ONCE.

[luciddreamrgrl]

Thank you so much for answering! I feel more at ease now.

I thought maybe I would just explain my issue briefly. I have a transient reoccurring intussusception with resulting IBS and Chronic diarrhea. They have not yet been able to figure out why I keep getting these inussusception episodes so I'm stuck until they figure it out. The reason I went on pain meds was because they slow down my intestinal tract and make me have normal bowel movements. Before I started on pain management, I would have 7-10 bowel movements a day and none of the normal meds worked to stop. We tried lots of things. It obviously also helped with the pain because the episodes happened about twice a week. I was going to the hospital over and over and getting CAT scans that I lost count of. When they give me the stuff that lights my intestines up, it would help to correct it because it causes bad diarrhea. The forceful nature of the bowel movements would help to straighten my intestines before being scanned. I have had multiple surgeries and numerous tests and procedures done. It's been a very trying experience and the pain meds gave me a quality of life that I didn't have before. That is until I realized I was addicted and now I'm going to be back to square one.

[Julia M Aharonov, DO]

You definitely will need some medical help to do this.  Doing it by yourself is not easy.  You seem very determined and committed, which is good.  I am surprised that they would even give you narcotic when you were having intestinal issues. Narcotics will only exacerbate these problems by creating sluggish, slow moving bowels.
You will need a script for Requip, Clonidine and possibly Ambien.  I don't know what other rehab facilities do, but we have a long protocol on how we make our patients comfortable for the few days that they are experiencing some issues.  I suggest that you read some of my blogs, which have lots of information on options of detox. I wish you lots of luck.