Soma. The Good, Bad and the Ugly

[bBarry]

I take 350mg Soma tablets, 1-1/2 of them about 10-11pm with valium now down to 10mg. I fight sleep because it is the first time all day I'm not in pain from 24 broken bones 12 years ago. Soma is great for pain. Been tapering valium, went down from 20mg to 15 then went to 10mg last year and hit the wall. Tapered too fast. I felt like I was shaking inside, irritable, anxiety feeling in chest. Had heart attack 3 years ago, so the anxiety feeling in my chest worried me. After 6 weeks on 10mg I said screw this, went back to 15mg and stayed there until a month ago. I was probably about to feel better, couldn't believe the 2nd 5mg drop lasted 6 weeks. This time I have weaned down to 10mg, a little piece at a time, been at 10mg for 5 nights, feeling ok this time. Woke up this morning though with HR of 140. Stayed over 100 BPM for about 1/2 hour. Within an hour of waking up it was back to 74 beats a minute. I'm sure my HR has been way high in the morning for a long time, just never checked it until today. I think it's the Soma, maybe I chose the wrong one to wean off. Doctors kept me on soma for 12 years and will continue. He used to prescribe 120 soma w/11 refills then the rules changed and he gave me 120 Soma w/4 refills, 120 Lortabs w/4 refills and 90 Valium w 4 refills, then he moved away after 25 years of being my Doctor. I never took as many as he rx'd me. 2 soma and 2 valium at night was the most I ever took. I only take 2 Norco during the day.

I will need the Norco for pain although it doesn't help much, not like Soma. Never will I go to Oxy or anything stronger unless I'm on my death bed due to my addictive, crazy personality, I'm crazy about that stuff!

Another Dr I've been seeing for 18+ years(never got meds from) kept giving me all the meds only not as many, then he got arrested for frauding medicare and over prescribing SubSys. I don't know what it is but he billed medicare $6 million for it, about $4.5 million more than the next highest prescriber of SubSys in the whole country(US). The new Doc told me I could have valium or soma, I chose soma. I am reading that a side effect of soma is rapid HR, so I guess I have to stop it too. Now that I'm down to 10mg Valium I don't want to go back to more. I have about 90, 10mg left and a script for 30,  5mg. The new Doc wanted me to go from 15mg valium to 10 for a week, then 5mg for a week then stop. I don't think so, he would give me another heart attack. He didn't know I had some in the hole for emergencies. He thinks I'm going through w/d now. He never asked me how I feel, whats my problem, nothing. Just choose which drug you want, Valium or Soma "no matter what you say". What a jerk. All I said was I'll take the Soma, that's all I was able to say, except nice to meet you. He knows nothing about my medical history and asked no questions, the FBI has my records from that office. I guess he's scared being in the same office the other Doc just got hauled off in handcuffs in, so I can't blame him for being scared I guess.

He said the Soma you can just stop. Is that true?  Made an appt with Pain management Dr but cant get in for another 2 months.

Sorry to be so long. Thank You for reading all this. Any Advice?

[bBarry]

Sorry to hear about your Mom. Have you contacted other cardiologists? Sorry, don't mean to stick my nose where it don't belong. I know you have done everything possible. GB


Barry

[bBarry]

Hey Puurfect!  Yep, Your husbands story sounds very familiar.I started to lol, but it's really not very funny.

Thanks for asking the Doctor. Who knows, they all see each other at conventions and stuff. He might know someone that lives here that he went to school with. Really appreciate that. I'm not having much luck finding a Doc.

Barry

[bBarry]

Hi Lulu! thanks for the comments,, much appreciated that you took the time.

I lost 2 Doctors that I thought were good that I went to for 2 decades+ since the beginning of 2013. Had a business and for years if someone got hurt at work I took them to him. He was a nice guy, but a pill pusher so it turned out. The new Doctor gave me a choice between being in more pain, or stopping Valium. I chose less pain. He won't give me Valium. I can't get anymore. He wanted me to go home and withdraw pretty much, over 2 weeks. Another Doctor told me thats how they do it in the hospital, they don't care about us. So what people here are saying about needing Doctors help isn't part of the real world. When he cut me off I asked him if he would help me get off, he did. He wouldn't give me any. We are just $$$ to Doctors.  

I am only starting at 15mg since 20 last year. I got down to 10 in a few week, been there about a week and feel great. Been getting Danbury diazepam, I think they are low quality which would be in my favor. I think I have enough to get through this. I don't want to get all religious here but I have a promise that Jesus Christ will be with me always. I just figure whatever happens is already planned out. Don't get me wrong, we have to help ourselves too. That's why I always saved some for later. Well, it's later now and I'm happy to have enough to get me through another 90 days or more, depending on how my schedule goes. I could take 10mg a day until I run out, that wouldn't be too good.

Barry

[PurrfectlyKrazy]

I live on Mobile Bay in Alabama.  I just left a message with Dr. Boyer's assistant.  He is out of town right now but she said she'll check with him and let me know if he has a recommendation.  I sure hope he does...as I said, you would have to meet him to understand.  I'll let you know via note when I hear back from him.  In the meantime it sounds like you are on the ball...your story about your Heart Attack...well, I had to tell my hubby about it.  In his case it was the day after Thanksgiving.  He's telling me the cat was putting his arm to sleep and that the cat had to sleep anywhere else.  Well, I told him...you don't feel good, you don't have an appetite, your doing sweats/cold so maybe we should call the doctor.  I call the doctor...she was the on-call doc...she talks to him...I only heard his side of the story but basically she finally had to tell him....YOU ARE HAVING A HEART ATTACK....she said it so loud I heard her on the phone.  He wouldn't let me call an ambulance or anything.  I think it is a man thing ;-)

My mother is kind of in the position you are...her mitral valve is leaking...they won't do anything until it is a certain percentage either...well she's 76 years old and I'm like...excuse me?  what are you waiting for?  a heart attack?  FIX IT!!

Sigh, I think many doctors out there got their licenses out of cracker jack boxes :-)

[lulu747]

Hey Barry welcome back-

You know we're not allowed to give taper advice but I will tell you that your plan to drop every ten days is too quick.  I've been tapering benzos for 3 years and switched to valium because it is longer acting.  I've been dropping every 8 weeks and it is comfortable for me.  Like you- I would get stuck at a certain dose and not be able to sleep for days sometimes weeks.
Because of your health history and issues with your heart you may even need to go slower than I am.  Please don't try to do this alone.  You really need to sit down with a doc who is familiar with benzo withdrawal and tapering and get a good solid plan in place.  With benzo tapers it is always the turtle that wins the race.
Best of luck to you and keep us posted...
Lu

[bBarry]

Sure puurfect, I live in Bridgeport Michigan, a suburb of Saginaw, 4 miles from Frankenmuth. I don't need a hospital recommendation and have a good Cardiologist. He is pretty upset with me because I stopped taking my Simvastatin and went with Niacin. My cholesterol is great on Niacin. Then I griped about Plavix thje whole time I was on it. He begrudgingly let me get off it in 18 months. The Metoprolol makes me feel like I have a big rubber band around my chest, can't breathe on it so I was using the Valium to help keep my HR down. It has been working fine, My HR is in the 60s by evening usually, stays around 72-80 most of the day.

I didn't have to get the surgery like your husband. When I had my Heart Attack it was about 3am, asleep. I am used to chest pains from my accident. They stopped counting rib fractures at 14, I thought it was just my ribs. I got up and took a Lortab which did nothing of course. I tried to go back to bed but couldn't lay there, hurt too much. Got back up and took a Soma. The pain was all but gone within 30 minutes. I think the Soma stopped my MI. Went to family Doc next day, he ran a strip that looked ok (ecg). He took blood and had to send it out. He called the next day, 30+ hours after the event and said I was still having a Heart Attack, get to the ER. I said okay Doc, I'm gonna shower and I'll go up there. He said "Barry, didn't you hear me? Your are having a heart attack now, forget the shower or I'm gonna call an Ambulance." Found later my Troponin (I think) was way elevated showing MI.

Turns out I had a 99% blockage in my right coronary artery and got a stent. He said my L Descending Artery had a 60% blockage. That got me pretty upset, I asked him why they didn't fix it while he was in there? They did heart cath/stenting through an artery in my wrist, twice now. He said they don't fix em til they get to 70%. Still can't figure out why they are waiting for it to give me another heart attack. Went to a heart healthy diet (very strict for over 2-1/12 years) I have ate so much chicken I'm ready to start clucking and I hate chicken since I used to have to pluck them when I was a kid, that stench of dipping chickens in boiling water to get the pin feathers out never left my nose.

sorry, got off track, my mind is racing from cutting Valium. It's good, takes my mind off it. Sorry to get so long again. What I need is a good Family Doctor that cares about their patients around Saginaw, Bay City, or Midland.

Thanks again Puurfect! I hope he knows someone in my area. What State do you live in?

[PurrfectlyKrazy]

I meant local hospital not local doctor lol

[PurrfectlyKrazy]

If you don't mind telling me...if you can tell me what city and state you live in I could talk to our Dr. Boyer and see if he can give some recommendations.  Dr. Boyer is hubby's surgeon (3 so far....2 heart and 1 lung).  We both love this doctor to death...if you met him you would understand.  If I told him that I had a friend who needs a doctor like him he would recommend someone if he knew someone in the area AND he knows what I want.  He once told me that I could be a nurse because I'm such a good caretaker and that he wished more of his patients' partners would be so hands-on.  He embarrassed me.  I didn't do anything special...I just took care of my husband with the view of keeping him on this planet and with me.  God will take us both eventually but I'm hoping for more time for the two of us :-)

[PurrfectlyKrazy]

From what you said I see a lot of similarities between u and hubby.  Not having a reliable doctor you can trust isn't helping your situation.  Joe is also similar age range (59).  The luckiest thing (he says) is that he had me....if I didn't like what a doctor said or did well I took care of it.  I basically vetted all of Joe's doctors and he now has an excellent team that he trusts.  If you don't have that trust then you are dealing with a ton of fear.

I know you have to take care of this pill issue but I really think you really need to shop around (if your insurance will allow it) and find a doctor you really can trust.  None of our doctors act like God...in fact we are on first name basis with most of them, a couple of them always hug me and three of them come over for dinner occasionally (Now you KNOW how rare that is).

Start asking around with people you know...if nothing else go to your local doctor, build a rapport with the person who does the intakes for hospital outpatient tests and surgeries.  That is the person who can tell you which doctors have the best reps, the best bedside manner etc.

I do know one thing...you really do need to be careful if you drop any medications.  You HAVE to do it under the care of a doctor because you have a lot of risk factors....so this week I would say do what you can to find that doctor!

Good luck to you.  I'll be praying that God sends you the doctor you need and you can trust.  I think that will alleviate a lot of your anxiety and then you can go from there.  Feel free to send me a message if you want to at any time.  I would also be happy to talk to hubby and see if he would be willing to talk to you via e-mail.  You have a lot in common and I can see where a supportive relationship between you guys would be a good thing :-)

[bBarry]

Thanks Puurfect! You could very well be right. My Doctor put me on Valium for a reason. I have so much going on with my body at 61, that I really don't feel I have time to get to know another Doctor. I have not found one I like. They think they are up there with God. I had one tell me he was beyond reproach. Then I went to another and all he wanted to talk about was medical marijuana. He's neutered, watching the door for the police because he's writing everybody a pot card. Scared to prescribe anything. I won't be going back to either of them. The search goes on.

Appreciate you taking the time to respond. God Bless You back!!

Barry

[PurrfectlyKrazy]

Please don't take this the wrong way okay?  Is it possible that the anxiety is because of the heart attack and not the drugs?  The only reason I say this is my husband had his heart attack just under 2 years ago and then a quadruple bypass, last September he had another open heart surgery (no heart attack) to replace one of the bypasses and his heart valve.

He was having major anxiety just like you describe and he takes a LOT of medications for his various conditions and also takes valium....He kept having the anxiety attacks.  When he tried to lower the amount of valium they got worse.  Finally we sat and chatted and I asked him if he thought that maybe he'd been brooding over his illnesses or if he had more fear about possibly dying than he was admitting.  He actually said yes (just about floored me).

After talking to the doctor about it he was put on a very, very low dose of Prozac (child's dose in fact).  Since then he rarely needs valium and he's been able to cut his pain meds in half.  He still has an anxiety attack now and then but nothing like he was having.  The increased heart rate is part of the anxiety attack.

As I said please know I'm not saying this is what is happening to you...but it is what happened to my hubby.  Something for you to look at and see if there are any similarities.  God Bless you!

[bBarry]

Thank you so much, I know it was long. You are alright in my book!. You helped me in the past. If you can do it I should be able to. I haven't done too good at getting off valium. Getting down to 10mg is a milestone but I am determined. I will never kiss any Doctors **** for pills.

I will stay at 10mg for 10 days this time, then I will start breaking 1/2 of a 10mg pill into 1/3s. Maybe I should cash in this prescription for 5mg tablets. It's rough splitting a tiny 10mg pill into 6 pieces.

You would know how good soma is for pain then, but I don't know if I should start working on Soma right away or wait until I get off valium. This 140 HR kinda bothers me, do you think that could be from the Valium Taper? Been sweating at night. I should be off valium in 2 months or less, since I got to 10 in about 3 weeks. Wont be a month for 4 days.

Thanks Again IB. You have helped a lot of people, I have been lurking this forum since last year. They say we are all here for a reason. I think this is one of your reasons. Methinks God is working through You.

[bBarry]

I should have mentioned besides the Heart Attack and the 24 badly mangled bones they did nothing for but give me a hospital bed and a morphine pump for a week, I also had a collapsed lung and closed head injury. I have Pulmonary Fibrosis from working with metal for 36 years. Lots of asbestos and silica dust. I'm pretty sure Soma and Valium are contraindicated with a real bad lung disease. Why would they put me on those drugs? I didn't know what I was getting into. Seems like they would know. I never asked for anything but Tylenol 3.