Fentynal withdrawal

[hundborg]

Hi,

I have been on this patch - started on 75mcg 6 months ago, it was decreased to 50 then 25 over this time. I have been withdrawing over the last 2 months from 3/4 patch to 1/2 of the 25mcg patch, then decided to go cold turkey and just stop 14 days ago. I have had some withdrawal - restless legs, insomnia has been chronic over the whole 6 months, not sure whether that is also due to drugs or other things ( was hit by car and broke neck, had spinal and a couple of fractures in my head - no real head injury problems ... except maybe this or maybe it is the drug, wanted to find out opinions and experiences of others.

Something I noticed about 7 weeks into taking the patch - when the withdrawal process was starting, (also was taking tramadol (another opiate) at the time was that i started feeling like I could not stop smiling when I did not really want to, when I felt tense, or when I did see the funny side of things, or when observing myself being upset over something. It seemed that when I was due to change a patch, sometimes I would leave it a bit and put it on a day or so later, so was not following the instructions completely as knew the patch still was active for 2 days after the 72 hours and wanted to get off it. The smiling laughing thing was often more problematic the days I put the new one on. If this was a head injury thing, I wonder why it took a few weeks to start. Now that I am into 14 days later and it has not totally gone away I wanted to know if it was the drug - as it can cause emotional lability and euphoria - how long would it take to get out of my system if I have been on it 6 months?

It has got increasingly better over the time of withdrawing - which is another thing that makes me think it might be drug related, taking less time now to 'get a grip' than it was 3 months ago. It is still socially embarrassing at times as I find myself seeing the funny side of some things I really should not be laughing at. I always did see the funny side a bit but this is now too hard to suppress and I really want rid of it. I don't want to think of myself as brain damaged if it is just withdrawal, however the drug companies half-life info does not seem to take into account how long you have been on it. What I am seeing from people on blogs is that this is very relevant to how long it takes to withdraw. The restless legs and sleeplessness I am handling with sleeping pills, which gets me past the worst stuff at night.

Would appreciate finding out if anyone else had this symptom or issue, or anyone who has been on this medication 6 months or more and can say how long it took to get it totally out of their system.

[hundborg]

Thanks, will try to find her.

[GoingToMakeIt]

We have several here that have come off the patch. withdrawals, unfortunately, linger on for a long time. A good resource here is Jacqui805
She is also a nurse but quit the patch the first part of the year.

[hundborg]

I read an article where withdrawal is less if you put insul tape on part of the patch and gradually increase the insul tape. Apparently reduced the withdrawals. The Dr said also people cut them, but there is no guarantee that the other part will work as well if you save it to use 72 ours later.  She suggested 3-4 weeks before grading down again.

So do you think the euphoria you are experiencing comes from long term patch use or something else? How long have you been off now? How do the drs explain this to you?

[fengirl09]

I was on these patches for 3 years and it does sound to me like it is the meds making you feel this way, but a doctor is usually the best to tell you for sure.  I know I had sooo much euphoria that is what I still struggle the most with.  I think it will continue to be my hard part.  Everyone is very different thou.  One question: how did you use half a patch or 3/4 of a patch?  Anyway, congrats on your decission to get off this scary med. and keep up the good work. It will get easier and much better.  My physical w/d took a short time, but my emothional is ongoing.  Don't give up..

fengirl09