Long history, short question

[whoisit4]

Okay, so the long history which I will make as short and to the point as I can.

I have been on pain meds off and on for probably about 6 years.  Around 12 leg surgeries as a teenager and then two back surgeries in 2008 and 2010 got me very tolerant of pain meds.  Ended up with a doctor who gave me pretty much whatever I asked for.  During my time with him was on every opiate pain medication in the pharmacy.  At the end was on 160mg of oxycontin and 60mg of codeine a day.  Went into rehab in December to get off them.  They put me on suboxone as a maintenance medicine to treat both my addiction and my chronic pain.  About 3 weeks ago I stopped taking the suboxone after about 3 weeks of tapering down.  That was obviously not slow enough because I ended up in the emergency room because of my history of having seizures when in withdrawal. (Pretty common I think but someone saw me one time and that was all it took to say it was a "seizure")  Anyways, I tried to get back into my doctor who prescribed my suboxone but couldn't get in to see him for weeks.  The ER gave me some percocets and chlonidine (sp?) to try to make it through but it isn't going to make it.  Over the last week I have gone into full blown withdrawals.  I think at this point its safe to say I'm WDing from the percs and not the suboxone as its been about 20 days since my last dose of that and I've cold turkey'd off sub before and it only took 10 days.

Now to my question.  If I go through a day and a half of WD and then take a 5mg perc to be able to function and go to work is that putting me back at day 1 of the WD process?  Is it going to make the following WD a little more tolerable since it is nowhere near where I was?  I'm just trying to figure out how much harm I am actually causing by trying to get through this as painlessly as possible.  

[whoisit4]

So I got my answer.  It did NOT seem to affect the length of the WDs.  I started my WDs on the 17th.  Took a percocet or vicodin a couple times throughout the week to make it through days I had to work or had the kids.  I started feeling better on Saturday.  Yesterday evening I felt great.  Had energy and was in a great mood.  Only symptoms still lingering are RLS and super senses.  Hightened sense of smell, touch, and sensitivity to light for some reason?  The RLS may be a prior existing condition though as I had those while still on the suboxone.  Giving it some time and exercise and see how it goes.

[whoisit4]

I definitely remember coming off the sub cold turkey.  It wasn't fun at all.  The acute withdrawals lasted so long that I almost gave up.  That was about 2 years ago.  For me the acute withdrawals only lasted 10 days like I mentioned though.  After that dealing with PAWS became my focus as I knew they would last for months.  You are right that even after 25 days you still don't feel right.  Its like that pretty common saying that I have to paraphrase because I don't remember 100% that we didn't become addicts in a day and its going to take longer than a day to stop.

Like you though when I came off the sub I didn't take anything to ease the pain except over the counter stuff.  So I don't really know what taking a very small dose in the middle does to the length/intensity of the withdrawals. *shrug* For now I'm just waiting and watching.  Debating whether or not to take one more 5mg so I can play with my kids when I pick them up after work today instead of having to take them to their grandparents.

I know how rough this road is to go down because I've traveled it before.  I know it hurts, bad, but I also know you survive and feel much better after getting clean for awhile.  I just have to balance work, kids, and everything else this time whereas last time I just took two weeks off work and had my (now ex)wife handle the kids.  Don't have that luxury this time.

[Lilasme]

hey...sorry to hear you're having such a bad time of this. I'm on day 25 of sub withdrawal and my experience so far is that you never know how you're going to feel from one hour to the next. The bad feeling (creepy skin, chills, rls, muscle aches, horrible fatigue) seems to come and go in waves through out the day...STILL after 25 days. It's not as bad as the first week...and I do have a lot more good days.... a lot longer in between wd symptoms but it's not over yet and that can be really frustrating. I didn't taper long enough either...probably why it's been bad for me...I was on sub for about 6 mos. I didn't take any other opiates while withdrawing so I can't answer that part of your question....but I think what you're feeling could be the sub wd's still...just want to tell you not to give up...find a way to get past this...not gonna be easy...but worth the fight...let me know if I can help : )

[gunn73]

hey man u definitely r going to have some w/ds from the pills. but i guess they won t be as bad as they were b4. so just stay strong .....u ll be able to get through it.
i wish u all the best bro.
take care and keep posting ...... there ll defininatle be some one who can be more precise about what u r going to face there r some amazing folks around here who might be able to help u with ur questions and doubts.
God bless u
gunnu