Morphine withdrawals

[joopiter296]

I've been on Morphine Sulphate ER 60mg 3xday for about 18 months for a chronic pain condition (RSD). Boy, do I wish  I had never started it or that my doctor would have warned me how hard withdrawals could be. I had no idea. I gradually went from 1 every 8 hours to 1 every 9 to 1 every 10, etc until I'm now on 1 every 12, but it took 6 weeks to get this far. Now my dr. only gave me 90 30mgs and I've tried taking 3/day and am having horrible withdrawals... constant hot/sweating to cold/chills back and forth, nausea/vomiting, and I just want to crawl out of my skin. I feel awful. I don't have a compassionate, understanding dr. He thinks since I went from 180mg to 120, I can jump from 120 to 90, but I can't. I explained that it took 6 weeks, not all at once. Is there anything OTC to help with these withdrawals? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[joopiter296]

So does your daughter take anything for her pain? Mine gets so bad at times that I can't imagine not having something. I also take Neurontin and Valium. The Valium helps alot with the anxiety and helps the overactive nerves relax which seems to help with the pain some. I've actually found that sleep is my best medicine, but that is hard to come by when the pain levels are high. Ambien helps with that, but my grumpy doctor took that away too! I think if I can get off the morphine, I might be able to get the Ambien back at least on a part-time basis. My best to your daughter too. It's a tough disease and I've learned most doctors are clueless about it.

[joopiter296]

Thank you all for your advice. I am going to look into the Thomas recipe. I just got a new doctor and will talk to him about everything including tapering slower and the possibility of clonidine. Hopefully, he will be more reasonable than my last doctor!

[rush2112]

Hi, and welcome...
your doctor should never have put you on opiates for RSD...they won't work on it...my daughter has RSD and the doctor did try Lyrica but it didn't work..now she just toughs it out...proud of her and feel for her and you as this is a mysterious condition that they know very little about...im sorry you are experiencing this....

as for the withdrawals from the opiates, it's a time thing, the sooner you are just off of them, the better you will be....but it does take time, at least four or five days to start to get back to normal...and it isn't fun.

wish i had better news for you, but it's there reality of it.

[Amandag78]

Hi, i just wanted to send you my well wishes, i hope you get through this and a very big well done on tapering yourself for 6 weeks. Thats a huge deal. Good luck : )

[sprich3]

I have also been tapering off of my pain meds and am a chronic pain patient.  My GP has prescribed Clonidine (an old BP medication) which helps a ton with the symptoms you're mentioning.  Also, from what I've read, the meds and supplements in the Thomas Recipe should help, as well.  I can't believe your doctor was so irresponsible... You are taking pain meds for a legitimate reason,and there's no reason why you shouldn't be tapering comfortably with the assistance of other meds to assuage your symptoms.

[takingmylifeback2014]

Hi and welcome!! I don't know much about morphine but the wds sound the same as I felt! Anyway you can taper slower? Talk to your doc
You can check out the Thomas recipe it helps tremendously the link should be at the bottom of this page.