I threw out my vicoprofen - started ultram

[addicted_to_vicoprofen]

Last night, I flushed my vicoprofen.  I woke up this morning with no signs of withdrawal other than a "sour stomach feeling"  I took 1 ultram (100 mg.)  I have a friend who is a w/d "expert" (she's done it like 15 times - why would anyone do that) and she gave me a clonidine patch (.2mg 7 day patch).  She said I should just stop c/t now and the patch along with my anxiety med and sleeping med should help.  I guess I am just scared to that because I went c/t before and it was awful.  Can anyone offer me advice on how to taper using the 100 mg. tablets of Ultram ER?  I have no chance of abusing these since I don't get any enjoyment out of using them - so far, I haven't felt any w/d symptoms from stopping the vicoprofen.  

Duchess, to answer your earlier question, the ultram are very small caplets with a coating.  

This morning in addition to the ultram, I took a multi - vitamin, one potassium pill, vit. b12 sublingual and l-tyrosine (1- 500mg) for energy.  

I want very much to have these pills out of my life.  and by taking the ultram, I do not want to trade one addiction for another - I simply want to use the Ultram to avoid the c/t withdrawals from the vicoprofen.  I just don't know the proper way.  If you read my post from yesterday - my original plan was to take 1 ultram in the AM and 1 in the PM for 7 days then just 1 pill in the AM for 3 or 4 days.  Does that seem like a good plan -or can someone recommend something different?  As I said before taking time off work is just not something I can do.  I've already flushed the vicoprofen so tapering that down is not an option - besides, I can't trust myself to do a taper.  

Any help anyone can give in regards to "what now" would be great.  how long should I take the ultram for?  If I take the Ultram for 7 days and stop, will I have withdrawals from it - or is there a way I should slowly stop the ultram - and if so, how?

Thank you and I hope everyone is having a blessed day,

Corrine

[missg]

You will have w/d symptoms with ultram.

[DutchessGolden]

You can get the l-tyrosine over the counter usually at your local drug stores with the vitamins or the herbal capsules. The vitamin b12 and potassium can really help too while in w/d just be careful not to overdo potassium.

xoxo- D.

[fedupinmt]

hey what is the tyrosine that you took for energy? Is it a vitamin or a rx? I really need to get stuff done at home, let me know fedup

[DutchessGolden]

You shouldn't have any withdrawal symptoms on the ultram b/c it is binding to the same opiate receptors as the hydrocodone. If you take the ultram for 7 days and stop it won't be much different than if you had just stopped taking the vicoprofen. You would still be quitting an opiate c/t. Taking one in the morning and one at night for seven days is a great start. You probably don't want to use the clonidine until the end of or after you taper. Clonidine is very often used in opiate detox and should help a lot with the withdrawal symptoms. It would be a waste of it to use it while still on opiates. If you take one a day for 4 days after then stop you should still have withdrawal symptoms, they shouldn't be as bad as stopping c/t. You can use the coated tablets to taper, you can break them up into smaller doses to taper. Tapering as slowly as possible can help decrease w/d or even avoid it all together. I have tapered from several opiates before and I taper my patients from different drugs quite often. Since you cannot see your doctor about a tapering schedule (b/c of the school dist. and all that mess-I know how that goes) I can give you a tentative schedule to taper that I would normally use for a patient or myself, you can adjust it according to how your body responds, some can taper faster some need to taper more slowly.: 1 tablet in am, 1 tablet in pm for 5-7days. 1 tablet per day for 5-7 days. half tablet perday for 5-7 days (this might be where you need to adjust, if you start having w/d symptoms you might want to take a half tablet in the morning and a half or quarter tablet at night depending on how your body reacts) a quarter tablet a day, or twice a day 5-7 days. You can shave the pills down as much as you want to lower the dose, you might want to do this toward the end, that is when you really need to taper as slowly as you can. Also, once you start to break the tablets into halves and fourths you might lose some of or all of the extended release coating so you might start to withdrawal during the day or night when you do this b/c the drug will only last about half as long (4-6 hours) rather than 8-12 hours with the extended release coating. You can use a pill cutter, your fingernails, scissors, a razor to take the pills down to halves, fourths, eighths etc. Once you get down to the end or once you stop taking them, that's when you will want to use the clonidine patch to help with withdrawal symptoms you might have. Once you taper w/d symptoms should only last a short time and should not be severe if you have any at all.

xoxo- D.

Oh, and your friend who has detoxed like 15 times- does she work in the medial field? Doctors and researchers do crazy things to themselves sometimes for their own purposes. Also, a great deal of addicts will purposely w/d for a week or so, that way they can get a better high again. Once your body goes without the drug for a period of time, the high will be greater when you take a normal dose. This is also how many heroin addicts overdose and die. They w/d being in jail or not being able to get the drug then take their normal dose when they get it. The body can't handle their normal dose after going a certain period of time without the drug and causes an od. Anyway, hope the info. helps.

[WILLSGURL3]

U GOT A GOOD PLAN I DID THAT USING ULTRAM AFTER I STOPPED MY TAB ADDICTION 3 YEARS AGO. IT WILL WORK JUST STICK WITH IT!!