Please help! Tapering off hydrocodone - EXTREME pain in hands

[noel17]

I just discovered this site and it has already helped
me tremendously. Much of the advice and first hand
experience posted in this forum is invaluable.

I have been taking vicaprofen (7.5 hydrocodone 200 mg
ibuprofen) everyday for 4 months; staying within the
recommended dosage of 3-5 tablets a day.

I first began taking it for severe sciatic pain (I'm a
professional dancer and I could not work with the
pain). After two months of being on the medication I
woke up one day with severe pain in the joints of my
fingers and I could barely bend them. Since then, the
hand and wrist pain, along with periodic numbness,
have never completely subsided and at times it is even
worse. I finally found a website that has a very long
list of rare side effects from hydrocodone. Numbness
and pain of the hands and feet were on that list. I'm
very concerned because as I'm trying to taper down the
pain increases. I'm only 30 years old and before I
started this medication I had never had any bone or
joint pain. Has anyone ever experienced this side effect or
withdrawal symptom? If so, did it go away once you
stopped the medication?

I'm trying to stop completely, but as we all know, it
is very physically addictive and difficult to stop.
Does anyone know what the ideal rate of decreasing
this medication would be to avoid as many withdrawal
symptoms as possible? Running out of pills is not an
issue for me.

Is there any other solution for this hand pain,
because it is the biggest obstacle in my attempt to
stop completely. I don't want to take steroidal drugs
and NSAID's are not strong enough. In the past two
weeks the pain has been such that I have not been able
to work at all and I can barely afford to take more
time off.

Thanks in advance for any useful information.

[noel17]

DNG, you were at a similar level as I am now. I posted a question to you 4 posts above this one. Whenever you have the time and energy I would so appreciate more info from you. Thanks, Noel

[FLaddict]

Since you have only been on them for a few months and at a normal dose you shouldn't have issues tapering off of them.. take it slow.. even if you drop a half a pill a week.. your body will adjust to the lower dose.. I have been off of all pills now for 92 days it will get better i promise... and there are alternative ways to deal with chronic pain.. I am almost 27 and have fibromyalgia and myofascial pain and I am slowly learning new ways to deal with it..
As far as your hands you won't really know if its from the vics till you are off of them.. I would suggest getting a MRI to make sure there is no nerve issue in your neck or arm.. If it is nerve related there are meds out there now for pain and numbness like that.. Lyrica is one and Neurotin is another. They are not narcotics.
Good luck to you... keep posting for help and support

[anotherfinemess]

You appear to have peripheral neuropathy (in what's called a "glove and stocking type distribution).  Neuropathy in inordinately painful; many people who have it can't sleep at night because of the pain. It might be helpful to get Neurontin (gabapentin) which helps with the neuropathic pain and has also been shown to be helpful with withdrawals.  You start with a 300 mg tab, and can increase up to 3600 mg over a period of days as needed.  Ask your doc about this.

[NoNo_In_Pa]

I have what he has & I am on Gabapenten 600 mg a day. It does not help me.

[hillary5]

i started the suboxone in april and i'm still on them ... i started at 3 - 8mgs a day. which from what i hear, is hi.  but i wz at 2 but i wz feeling the w/ds bad and thats when they upped me to 3 ... its sept now and i'm at 2 1/2 pills aday and everymonth i will go down a 1/2 a pill.  my doctor gave me the option to stay on 1 a day for the rest of my life if i chose to.....we'll see when the time comes. i really don't want to be dependent on anything ... another friend of mine did the 2 wk rapid detox w/the subs. about 4 days later couldn't sleep at all but wz ok during the day. dr put him on a 1/4 of sub a day so he can sleep and not feel that anxiety ... i know every dr is different ... i also tried to get off the vics by myself once before and made it 7 days.  it wzn't fun ... i could not sleep - i ached, couldn't get comfortable, tired, chills, etc.   I wz up to 15 vics a day, the 750's .. also did oxy's too. 3 80mg tabs ... my doctor said since i wz taking so much and for so long - about 4yrs that heavy.  i had 2 kids that are 15mos apart, which i wz allowed to take 2 vics a day because of my back problems and nevre once took more than i wz suposed to. i didn't want to do that to my child ... but b4 i had the kids i wz up to about 5-6 a day of the vics. ck on this site what others recommend for the suboxone and how long to be on it .. alot of peoples opinions i've read suggest only 10-14 days .... i think it all depends on your doctor ( not all dr's prescribe it ) and your habit and how bad you want to get clean .. hope this helps some ... not sure, might be rambling, but helps to talk about it ... ;-]

[noel17]

Thank you, can you tell me what you felt (any wd symptoms, depression, fatigue, headaches, etc.) and for how long you felt them when you first stopped and how long  it took to start feeling better? Did you go from 2 to 0? If you tapered, how long and how gradual?  Thank you!!!

[hillary5]

hey there ... i had the same problem almost 2 yrs ago w/the pain and numbness in my hands and my arm.  the pain shot down from my neck to my hands to where i could not even hold the blow dryer for more than 5 min at a time ... the pain wz worse at nite and they only thing that would alleviate it wz to get up and walk around .. i've also had the sciatica thing which caused 2 major surgeries .. anyways, i found out thru an mri that i had a slight bulging disc in my neck .. i also heard from my doctor and on another website somewhere, that people who have had back surgeries or back problems can end up w/disc probs in their neck .. you might want to get it ckd ... never heard of pain meds causing numbness either ...  i've been takin suboxone - which is for coming off vicodins and for pain control also ... ck w/your doc ... peace~

[noel17]

Thank you very much for your posts, very helpful, the thing that is really making it impossible for me to stop, and very difficult to even taper slowly, is the problem with my hands(major pain & inability to do even the simplest things, like washing my hair or opening a bottle, without the hydrocodone). Has anyone heard of a case of painkillers causing a problem like this and if so, does it go after the med is stopped? I am afraid of the steroids because of scary and painful lasting side effects I read on other forums.

[3 1/2 yrs sober]

I know that you said you didn't want to take steriods, but a couple of months ago my back went out, and it had a hard time finding its way back, lol!  Anyways I went to my Dr and told her I needed some relief, but no addictive substances.  She Asked me if I had ever tried a steriod, and I hadn't.  So I was willing to try anything at this point cause the pain was so bad.  She gave me 2 steriod shots in my back and two shots that had some type of numbing medicine in it.  Let me tell you, I imediately felt better and within 2 days the pain was totally gone and never came back!  I will definitly get another shot if I get in that kind of shape again.    

[FLaddict]

Ideal rate to decrease is 10-20% of your dose per week... so a half to one pill down a week.. you are taking a relatively small dose.. I would take 4 for a day then a few days later 3.5 then a few days later 3 ect dropping out a half a pill every 4 days or so..
There is lots of info here about stuff to take for the symptoms while you discontinue them.. Immodium is one that helps.. also a good multi vitamin and B complex.. there are amino acids that help but do your research cause some of them can't be taken with other meds. For example L-tyrosine that was recommended above cannot be taken with a SSRI. MAOI or tricyclic anti depressant.... neither can 5HTP. so becareful

[dng]

hi...i was taking 2 7.5 vicodin a day for 4 months....it has been about 2 weeks and i feel great...it will get better i promise...try taking lytrosine 500 mg...you can get it at any vitamin store also b6 b12 start out with 1000mg of the lytrosine and increase as you go along...you will feel the difference...good luck   dee

[VOsRose]

Hi...welcome to the forum and I hope you get some good information and insight here.  

First, I'm sorry for the pain...I have had sciatica and I know how bad it hurts.  I actually developed it right after I had gone through detox for hydrocodone, so I couldn't take anything stronger than Motrin for it.  I found massage therapy helped tremendously, though.

You have been on a small dose for a relatively short period of time.  Even without tapering, you shouldn't experience a whole lot of withdrawal from stopping.  One thing you should keep in mind, though, as far as the pain...it may intensify for a time, but should level out in a short time.  

Others are much more familiar with how to do a taper, so I will let them advise you on that.  Good luck and if you need anything else, just ask...I'm sure you'll get a lot of responses.

Rosie