Help I need sleep !!!

[tired19]

on day 6 of tapering and my sleep is getting worse and worse with each night.
Is this normal? Have taken ambien for years and thought that would start to work
better; now that I have less pain med in my system. I sleep 1-2 hours at most and that's
not even a deep sleep. starting taking more potassium/bananas for the Restless Limb syndrom.
I don't know how much longer I go go completely sleep deprived and not be able to drag into work
Can anyone please help.I' exhausted and in sciatic pain as well.  Will this ever stop !

[tired19]

Hi NANCE777-- how are you doing? you didn't mention are you loading up with vitamins; drinking alot of water; gatorade; help flush the toxins out. During the day; try the product Calm Advantage (5HTP & theanine); I called Walgreens to order more for me; It keeps my anxiety down and feel calmer. I hate taking all these pills but atleast they're helping me get off the other ones, and healthier for it. How long were you taking the Lortab/Percs before trying to quit? I'm hoping summer days coming , sunshine; being able to get out more will help with mental part of this; Exercise helps. I came across an article about PAWS (google it) It's post acute withdrawal syndrome-  make a list for yourself every day and say; Drink water, eat chocolate, exercise 15min twice a day; what ever you can do at first; that way the checklist is in front of you and a task to accomplish every day. Maybe the items mentioned on this site will help you out. Good luck and let me know how goes the battle. Hang in there; you're strong or you would'n't have come this far !!!

[tired19]

Hi there. All of this is new to me honestly. because of all my pain from back/disc issues/constant sciatic nerve problems. It never dawned on me to stop the meds the Neurologist was prescribing me; Why would I question a doctor knowing what's best for me right ????    My best guess for you would be that your body will tell you, believe me, when it's reached that threshold and begins to tell you OKAY; I'm not liking this small dose and start to wreak havoc on you .My opinion is give your body atleast a week to adjust, then taper again in small amounts. I'm not a success story yet; so I don't know how this will completely work for me; but I think of it this way; Even if I did C/T and relapsed because it was all toooooo painful and tooooooooo much all at once; What's the difference in my failure.A failure will be a failure so either way it comes down to will power; how BADLY do we want it and how strong are we to put up with the physical /emotional beatings from these PILLS.  Keep me posted as to your progress and tapering. I'm very interested in how it's going. Do you have a support system.? After almost 10 years of montly trigger point injections/nerve frying, SI joint injections, tractions. PT, you name it; I've just reached the point where I'm so SICK of taking this crap and still in pain; like what is wrong with that picture! So trying to kick this dependency I am completely new at; but very determined. I DON"T want to live like this like most on this forum. We should be very proud of ourselves that WE decided to take the stand against it; because most of the doctors won't. In fact how many on here have had doctors tell them; you really shouldn't be taking this much or maybe we need to seek alternative methods to treat the pain to try to lessen your intake. Notta One !!!  Are the doctors; just legalized drug dealers !!!  There a corporate version of the street thugs; they have 10yr degrees in the field of medicine ; take the oath to help their patients and yet with that doctorate; they hand out these opiates like packs of pez that they know you will have to pay to come back to them to get. YET; were all up in arms with the street drug dealers selling this stuff to people. I'm coming out of my fog; can you tell and pretty disgusted here that this is nothing but a legalized drug dealing ring. They know we'll be back; like it or not; in pain or not; you'll be back. Makes me crazy thinking about it. I'm ready to rally on the steps of Washington over this rampant problem here in the US. It's so wrong.  OK- my rant is done for now : )...................when I tapered I dropped too quick I think at once(didn't know better; hadn't been on any forums yet) went from 7-8 a day and on day one did 2 pills(7.5mg) on day one then for 8 days have had 1.5 pills a day and the worst has been the endless restless limb syndrome (all 4 having it out at once). Waking every hour or so; not even sure why. I from day one started takng a multi-chewable Centrum with Vitamins/mineral, get B12 shots weekly, take something that's called CalmAdvantage that I swear by to help maintain my sanity some days. (has 5htp & theanine in it), eat alot of bananas(normal for me anyway) and take potassium 3 times a day which definitely helps the leg cramps and drink alot of diluted gatorade(give me more water than gatorade but adds some flavor., 2 Vitamin Cs atleast.The first 3 days; were a blurr; was out of my mind in addition to screaming pain(which I would've sworn was real) day 4 I did a march of dimes walk 3miles, was sunny felt better getting out and moving; taking my mind off of sitting there thinking about it every minute. You end up over obsessing of every minute of the day. Then day 5-7 were intense sweating;RLS still ; last night I actually got 4 hours sleep in a shot. WHOA; could this be progress. I felt confident enough to start yesterday cutting another 1/4 pill a day out and I'll see how I feel in a week. I'm in no rush; I want to be successful. I didn't get hooked overnight so why would I expect my body to quit it so fast; plus I can't; I have no one to take care of me and I have kids so I need to function thru this hell.I think my body is level setting. For the doubters out there(as I was one too several days ago). You're pain will stunningly drop; this crap were taking actually makes your body somehow think your in so much more physical pain than you are. There's still pain but it has so significantly dropped; I'm now a believer. This gives me such hope to be able to try and get off the remainder of the medicine by utilizing other methods. Use thermacare heat wraps,Starting physical therapy tomorrow and looking at accupuncture as well. Today I'm hopeful. It's hard when you have nobody to help you. No spouse; nobody to talk to this about; lost my 2nd brother a couple months ago; so it's really hard. This site is all I have and cherish every brave soul on here for there words; were in this together and WE ALL understand what the other is going thru; nobody else can relate to this hell. You have to experience it to believe what W/
Ds are like. I'm terrified if I feel so crappy now; what the hell will the last pill feel like: will it be manageable. I try not to think about it as I have to take hour by hour and carefully manage that so I don't lose site of my goal. Steady Baby steps! I'm proud of the accomplishment so far. May not seem like alot to some; but to cut 6.5pills a day out of your week; that's 45.5 pills in a week; that's 34,125 mg of acetaminophen CUT OUT of my system. YOU GO GIRL ! (you can't see me but I'm patting myself on the back : )
THANX TO ALL FOR SUPPORT; IT"S GOING TO BE A SLOW ROAD BUT WE CAN DO THIS;  WE OWE IT TO OURSELVES and TO ANY FAMILY THAT IT AFFECTS.

[mellie4]

I can only speak for my own taper; though from what I hear, the slower the taper the better you will feel.  I think initially I took too big of a jump down and REALLY felt it.  I just dropped down again yesterday and so far only feeling a bit shaky and a constant dull headache.  Oh, and VERY emotional.  But I dropped the oxycodone and switched to a much lower dose of morphine, in the hopes that I can taper that more quickly since my body isn't dependent on that.  Not sure if that really works or not.  I will say that I am much more clear-headed than when I was on the oxycodone.  (Though the oxycodone did help my pain issues and the morphine doesn't touch them.)

How slow are you tapering?  Are you doing it with a doctor or on your own?

[Eebb26]

Now I've been tapering slowly but really haven't had much WD. Do u think it will come at the end or when I taper more? I started at 15-20 perk a day, down to 8-9

[mellie4]

I'm tapering off a huge amount of stuff.  I had about 3 weeks of pretty moderate withdrawals, though I did okay with the sleep.  I have taken Ambien in the past but stopped taking it a while ago.  Have you tried taking 2 or 3 Melatonin?  It really helps.  You could take that and maybe the Advil PM.  Also the Hylands Restless legs also works great.  You dissolve 2 or 3 at a time and I've found it a big help.

Good luck with the taper.  Tapering is hard since you feel lousy for sooo long.  We stepped things down a little yesterday again.  Looks like we're going to do things about 2 weeks at a time.  (So just when my body adjusts and I start to feel a "little normal" we drop it down again.  Seems like I get 1 day of feeling good and then it starts all over.)

I will say since I've come off the Fentanyl and oxycodone my head is sooo much clearer.  I'm starting to feel my feelings again.  I'm really emotional but I'm hoping that will even out soon.

Good luck.  Try the melatonin.  Everything is harder when you don't sleep well.

[Eebb26]

My thought exactly. I can't do the ct thing but give a LOT of credit to those that can. I think tapering(however u do it) is the best if u can stick to it. I have to work REALLy hard to do it . I find when I only take with me (my purse) exactally what I'm suppose to take then I do well cuz I don't have a choice but when I have the bottle, I'm so tempted to just take 1 extra here or there, after all I think I have plenty , lol. Anyhow hope u slept well. Good luck

[tired19]

well, let's check in on each other and see if we're all getting better nights sleep with each passing day and what other new symptoms may rear their ugly head..  
gonna try to catch some zzzzzzzz'a ; have a big presentation in front of 35 people tomorrow and need some rest. I wish something would keep the sweating to a minimum.But only had diarhhea one time in the past 8 days; no gut pain; just a uncomfortable. If this is some of the worst then it still sounds thousand times better than the Cold Turkey thing. Why torture yourself. You don't get depeendent overnight on the pillls so why try to remove them so quickly and cause such wretched pain!?
off to snooze land. . . ......  let me know how everyone is doing this week

[Eebb26]

Inknow ur not asking me but I think the WD is so bad because of the dramatic taper. Very close to ct. I'm tapering slower at about a deduction of 1 pill ever few days. U have gotten thru the rough patch so I don't think it will be so bad when u stop   , best of luck

[tired19]

H there. What my concern is how can I be this miserable just by tapering; although I did start out w/a big taper (75%) drop from day 1.  Is this typical for a taper and I panic at times thinking okay; If I've felt miserable with sweats/chills/legcramps, the mind game that you fight on a minute by minute basis. I think if this is what tapering is like am I fooling myself to think I can totally get off of them. You did great and went ColdTurkey. I'mgoing to give this about 1 at best and cut down more; why torture myself MORE than I'm incurring already If I don't have to. What will the W/Ds be just as bad doing from 1.5pills a day to none or worse than it was going from 8 a day to 1.5 ?? Do you know? Did you have bad RLS at night?  

[Nance777]

Hi,,I feel ur pain...I am on Day 15 of ct Lortabs & Percocets and I still cant sleep,,,I sleep the same as u,,,,,I am so exhausted, I go to bed at 11PM, lay there till 3am, sleep maybe 3 hrs, then am up for awhile , then try to go back to sleep to get 3 more hrs in,,,,I figure it has got to get better soon,,,I tried Xanax, Ambien, Benadryl, etc, and nothing really works,,,the physical symptoms are pretty much gone other than the not sleeping....Now the mental stuff is setting in,,,,just feel real depressed and dont know how to do anything or function without taking pills, cos it got to be such a habit,,,,,Hope u can sleep soon and will feel better

[tired19]

I was taking anywhere from 6-8 a day 7.5mg hydro for so many years dating back to a serious accident 10 yrs ago ; arm needed 7 surgeries to rebuild over the course of  15months; I had a herniated disc with wicked sciatic that never lets up. Like most I've just had enough of feeling crappy; still in pain and just TIRED of taking these pills. I want to try alternative pain methods; but need to get myelf off the meds. I had no interested in doing a tramatic/cold turkey. I have to function as a single parent , work 10 hour days and decided for my circumstances and from what i've read -taper as much as you can; if you can stick to it. But atfirst, b4 I read any info I decided to cut my usage to 2pills a day and that was maxium for the week I would take no matter what. That may have been too much at first.Now that I'm on day 7 and actually proud of myself that I've done this alone with no help and stuck to it so far. 1 day I used 2 the other 6 days I used only 1.5 pills (half at a time 3 times throughout the day. I sweat profusely in waves/chills, Wah-Wahs in my ears; endless headaches, leg cramps, restless limbs were pretty bad; although I think last night was the first night it was a little bit better. Although that doesn't say much! I drink water/gatorade/Vitamin C,Multi vitamin, get B12 shots,potassium and something called Calm Advantage (5HTP & Theanine) which really helps I feel with trying to keep my head about me at times. How can my body be so tired and NOT sleep!!! I stay up as late as possible to try to make sure I'll sleep and that lasts maybe 1hr or 1.5 hrs at most; then up for a hr or 2 then back down to try & sleep so I can go to work.I just don't know why it's getting easier & easier physically to make it thru the day with 1.5 pill finally by day 7 you would think My sleep would getter better because I AM SO RUNDOWN AND EXHAUSTED; so why am I sleeping 1 hour at a time (and this is while taking ambien)

[Eebb26]

How much did u taper? Maybe u need to taper a little slower. I was under the impression that the slower the taper, the less the WD. I know we r not allowed to give a taper schedule but I will tell u what I've been doing and was given this advice by a pharmacist. I was told to reduce 10% a week , aprox 1 pill less per day for 5-7 days then drop again. You cld do 1/2 a pill every few days too I'd ur more comfortable. I know everyone is different and I don't know ur health issues but I do KNoW sleep deprevation. I have a 15 month old that doesn't sleep thru the night.  Best of luck and please wrote back if u need or want. E