stopping darvocet

[hope2662]

I am addicted to darvocet.  I know it's one of the "mild" pain killers, but I have become physicaly addicted.  I have been taking them for about two years now.  I have wanted to quit for some time now and now that they have taken them off the market I am forced into doing it.  I would like to hear from anyone out there who has ever quit darvocet and what I can expect from my withdrawals.  I have had to go with out in the past but only for a  day or two and the twitches and aches and pain were pretty severe.  Would love to hear from anyone out there who has been through this.

[faith_hope_love]

Hi Hope, not sure you are still with us but wanted to update anyway for you or any lurkers since I know many are having to stop darvocet now.

Mama is on day 4 and the taper really must have worked because she has slept each night, no restless leg, she did have the bathroom issues a little yesterday but that is to be expected.  She seems to be fine.  I am so thankful.  Best wishes to you.

[faith_hope_love]

PS> and she slept through the night too.

[faith_hope_love]

Hi Hope, good news for mama.  She went ahead and stopped the darvocet about 35 hours ago and seems to be fine.  She say's that she is having pain in her back but she doesn't seem to be in any bad withdrawals.  No restless leg, thank you God!  I have been praying alot for her.  I know it has got to be because we did a slow taper down to one darvocet per day over a period I guess of about 2 months?  It was whenever the FDA took darvocet off the market, we started her taper the next day.  I even had her drop like from 4 pills per day to 3 and 1/2 per day, to 3 per day, then 2 and 1/2 per day and so on and we kept her on each dose about 10 days until she got down to 1 pill and she only did that one day and then stopped. As she dropped the darvocet dosage, she added tylenol in it's place.  So, if you can force yourself to taper, it will be so much better in the end for you.  I know she is not out of the woods yet but seems like she would be feeling worse by now if she were gonna go through any harder withdrawal.  Will post an update again tomorrow.  Lyn

[hope2662]

Thanks everybody for the great words of encouragement.  I started taking them after an ankle surgery and my doctor has kept giving them to me for arthritis that set in right away.  Yes I am physically and mentally adddicted.  I have battled drug use in one form or another for years.  I just have never become addicted, only because I have never had open access like this.  My doctor was giving me #240 at a time with 5 refills.  I am down to 4 a day.  When i heard on the news that it had been pulled I ran straht to the drug store and refilled my script.  I have been very careful with them knowing his had to be the end.  I have enough left to taper off but yes I am an addict so making myself only take one or two a day will be very tough.  I think I fear the rollercoaster of emotion, and all the things that make me use in the first place more then the wd.  I need to attend NA.  I am scared of that too but I know I need support.  My family have no idea.  I am so grateful I found this website.  Thanks for your help.  

[faith_hope_love]

My mama who is 72 is having to stop darvocet too.  She was taking it for arthritis and pinched nerves and degenerative disk disease.  Anyhow, when I saw on the internet that night that the FDA had pulled them my heart sank because I can't stand the thought of my dear mama going through any type of withdrawal or pain.  She already has high blood pressure, heart problems etc so this IS a big deal for her.  
Her history - she was on darvocets for 6 years..her prescribed amount was 4 per day but she got up to 5 per day in this last year.  Anyhow, thank you God for the provision, she had been putting pills back here and there for a while (not sure how she did this when she was taking more toward the end..think her sister slid her some at one point) anyhow we had a good amount to taper with.  Mama doesn't have the addictive behaviour, just her body is dependent so she has easily followed the taper to a T.  I am so proud of her.  Anyhow, all her dr. said was to taper and then quit...duh! I was hoping he would advise more on just how to taper but he didn't.  So, I made up a taper for her and thank God she has had relatively no side effects yet.  She is now down to 1 pill per day..half of a darvocet and a tylenol in the morning and that same dose at night. (I think it is more mental now too, I am surprised that we are not prolonging withdrawal but she seems to be fine so far. ) She will do this today and tomorrow and then off completely so I hope to God because we weaned her so slowly that she won't have alot of withdrawal. My main concern is the restless leg because that is where her nerve damage is so they already bother her.  She goes for the epidural steroid injections in 10 days and she doesn't want to be on any narcotics after this so hoping the injections plus tylenol will be sufficient.

Hope, I will let you know how she does when she takes her last darvocet and how she does in the days to come after that.  I think you and her will be just fine.  It might be hard but be thankful that you didn't get put on something stronger to come off of like most of us here have had too.  hugs! lyn

[WantToBeNormalAgain]

..I stand corrected! Sorry!! I didn't know it was an opioid, but knew it was a narcotic. I would try to find that answer all the time and came up with different answers all the time >:( But good to know in a way, that way you can follow the same protocol for other opiates. Thans, Back2Me for the correction!! ...so how are you doing, Hope?

[Back2Me]

I just looked it up it is an opioid. A mild one but still an opioid. So I think you will have the same withdrawls as other pain meds. Just read around on here lots of information.

[gnarly_1]

HI for many years I ate darvasett by the handful I likes the sleepy narcotic high it gave me
you just had to take enough of them....that being said I detoxed off them several times
and propxafene is a mild narcotic so the symptoms are the same the twitches restless legs
no sleep anxiety the whole shooting match the advise you where givin above is good advise
spend as much time as you can in a hot tub it realeves most of the symptoms try not to let fear into the equation the best thing you can do is try to keep a positive attitude threw the whole process  keep in mind this is 1/3 physical 2/3 mental be ready to fight on both fronts
this whole thing should take about 4 days then you will start to feel better read some of the other posts and keep posting for support good luck and God bless.....Gnarly    

[WantToBeNormalAgain]

I have taken darvocet in the past for my rheumatoid arthritis. My drug of choice is vicodin though. I know Darvocet was taken off the market in November or early December, wasn't it? Did you just have enough to get you through to this month? When I went off Darvocet, it was nothing as far as withdrawals in comparison to vicodin wds. But since you're physically addicted, and considering you have had a reaction when stopping in the past, I'm guessing that unfortunately you'll probably be a bit uncomfortable. Darvocet is a narcotic, but not an opiate, so the wds are different for it. I would imagine though that the thomas recipe may work still (it's over to the right of your screen under 'most viewed health pages') although I found this forum way after I went through my last wd episode almost a year ago.

Since you say that you're only physically addicted, would you have enough pills left to do a taper off of them? Most of us on here who are physically and mentally addicted to the pills simply get too tempted when we only have a few pills left and end up taking them all before a tapering plan is set in place. Can you talk to the doctor who prescribes them as far as what you're to do for pain control now? I personally wouldn't recommend going to anything stronger, but maybe if the doctor who gave them to you can give you a rx for something else for the pain (non narcotic is what I'd recommend, there's a lot of stuff out there) and then they can also recommend what you do in the mean time. What were you taking the darvocet for? Didn't the doctor warn you that they can't write for it any more? If so, didn't they give you a plan for what you can do? Just wondering all this, as it may help others to answer more questions for you.

Heating pads, hot baths or showers, rest, sleepy time or relaxing tea, motrin, lots of water, and then again if you want to follow the thomas protocol I've heard it helps most people. If you get stomach issues you can take immodium. But again, since darvocet isn't an opiate, I'm not quite sure what you can expect. Probably just more of what you experienced when you had to go without the darvocet before. Best of luck to you, keep us posted on what happens.. :)

[avenge7]

hey there, i was never addicted to darvocet since they never got me high but i would still expect the wds to be the same but lesser if that makes sense,like other pain pills...take care of yourself and i dont know if the thomas recipe is still on here or not but it helped me...seems to be a slow night! i did take a lot of vitamins,extra vit b and c...hot baths....take care