When does life become normal after oxy, perc, tab, withdrawls?

[wifeofanaddict]

My husband is nearing the 14th day of being clean.  I am wondering when life will become normal again. Or will it every be normal again? Sometimes I feel like life was normal when my husband was looking for pills all the time, and snorting pills all the time.  Our life is different now, its better but its odd.  Its odd because our routine has changed, we have money now, we have noninterupted time together, the phone isn't ringing off the hook like it used to.  I am wondering will I get used to the quiet atmosphere in our house.  My husband gets so crazy sometimes trying to sleep(because its so quiet) he starts arguments with me.  Give me some advice, Please.
How do I deal with this and how do I help him deal with it?

Thanks,
wifeofanaddict

[IrishRose]

Hi Francois, Yep it's me, same old IR on ez board. I'm married to Skipper ( kip). You've been quite kind in sharing your oxy experience with both of us. He ( we) are doing okay. He's on 120mg per day with IR's for breakthrough. His pain doc just put him on Baclofen for the muscles spasms which seems to help but makes him feel loopy. As an addict myself watching someone in my household take a narcotic is tough, even though I know it is for chronic pain and like you, it enables him to have a life without horrendous pain most days. But my little addict's brain is always working, even though I know it is for chronic pain the fact that he gets to take drugs legit really gets to me some days. Makes no sense, I know, he is in godawful pain and would be miserable without it. Oxy has actually enabled us to have a life somewhat resembling what we had B.S. ( before surgery) we can walk, travel and have conversations that do not entirely revolve around pain. Hope all is well with you as well. Take care. IR.

[rowanshyne]

Baclofen is *horrible*.  It works better on my muscle spasms than anything else, but I can't carry on an actual conversation with anyone for *hours*.  In fact the last 10 mg. I took was over 14 hours ago and I still feel "fluffy".
The part about being an addict, but needing to take narcotics for pain is a real *****, too.
Every so often I *have* to suffer through withdrawal, just so the narcotics are effective for the pain.  If I don't go through withdrawal, I have to keep increasing the meds to toxic levels.
On a couple of other threads I've mentioned what a pain in the butt it is to watch my husband and brother take strong pain meds "normally".  The meds *always* work for them (as pain relief), and they *never* go through withdrawal!  The boys are lucky they're so nice, or I'd be forced to pour ice water on them when I can't sleep because of restless "body" and they're both sawing logs!

BB,
Wren

[Francoise]

You know, way back before I sustained all those injuries, I would sometimes get my hands on a Percodan or something. Maybe it was for some dental work, or for instance I had to have a melanoma removed from my chest and was given a bunch of Perc. Or maybe a friend had a couple of dozen and gave me three or four. I would take 'em, and when they were gone, that was that. I didn't got out looking for more. I guess I was sort of a druggie opportunist. I would go for months, years, without even a milligram of any kind of opiate.

Now I always said that if I had a lot of money and a source, I'd be dangerous on the downers, the opiates. I look back on those statements today and laugh at myself. And now I read your post about envying your husband the pain meds.

Well, here I am today, three and a half years post near-death injury, taking 100 mg oxy twice a day just so I can put one foot in front of another and think to myself how foolish I was to make those kinds of statements.

I've had only one bad experience with oxy, and that was when I was using it for breakthrough nearly every day for months and suddenly stopped. You may remember me mentioning 8 months of deathly depression. I could have returned to taking the extra 20 mg each day, but that would have been a slippery slope. And I would have had to admit failure to my wife, my doctor, and myself. So I gutted it out for the 8 months, and now I'm ok and taking the oxy just as it is prescribed. I will no doubt be on this the rest of my life. It's scary.

Anyway, I do hope you continue controlling your urges to perhaps get into your husband's pain meds. It's a soul killer. I don't know if you have children, but I've heard so many women talk about how painful it is to give birth, but how it's immediately forgotten just the instant the baby is placed in their arms for the first time. I think addicts are like that. They remember how good the opiates feel, and forget all the pain associated with them. Even after my experience, I find myself thinking about how nice a crushed oxy would feel. Then I force myself to remember the 8 months of pure hell. And I forget the crushed oxy and have a nice, cold Coke (-ca-Cola)!!

The grass always seems greener over there where your husband is, but look at what he has to go through for it. And I can tell you from experience - there's NO HIGH in an oxy when you're on them for pain. There's that chance at having a life again, just as you have said. Wise; you're very wise to remember that.

I guess I'm being preachy, but I don't mean to be. I just saw your comment and it made me remember how cocky I was pre-injury. I didn't know what I was talking about then. I do now. Wisdom certainly can come at a very high price sometimes, can't it?

Love to You and to all,
Francois

[IrishRose]

Francois- I don't think you are being preachy at all. It is a point well taken. Kip says to me often, "I never thought what I would do if I acutally NEEDED drugs like these". I hope I don't  ever need them, curiousity has killed this cat a couple of times. I am truly grateful for what I have today in terms of being clean, I guess I don't think of him or anyone on pain meds former addict or not as "unclean". He struggles with it from time to time as you know. You seem to have a good sense of where you are and where you need to be with Oxy and I do admire that. It doesn't rule your life, it allows you to have one. We enjoyed reading your post about putting your Oxy's in the freezer, he utilizes a safe deposit box for the same thing. Our house got broken into last spring and all they took was cash and Oxy,left computers and other toys alone!
     Well it's tax day, if I were still drinking I would be off to drown my sorrows, instead we are going to drive down to Kansas City today, eat some good barbeque, shop, listen to some live music. I'm stopping by the post office on my way out of town,  I always make them wait til the very last friggin day. I'd actually wait til midnight too except I plan to still be out having fun by then hope. Blessings to you.
IR

[zoe1]

Hi wife~
I have to agree with the previous advice you've been given and very strongly suggest that you find some support group meetings for yourself.  There are not Nar-Anon meetings in my city, so I attend Al-Anon on a regular basis.  It is a real lifesaver for me!!  

I have been where you are now.  I know what it is like when he hits 14 days and start hoping for everything to be "normal" again.  That just isn't the case. There have been some major changes in your life so far and I'm sure there will be many more.  When a person stops using drugs or alcohol, it doesn't "fix" everything like we're hoping it will.  As you've already found, the can become rather unpleasant to be around when they are going through their own struggles.  This is the time for you to focus on taking care of yourself...

You may want to check out http://naranon.com/forum/.

[hippy]

I found this list on the net.

anxiety
nervousness
sweating
restlessness
weakness
weakness
nausea
chill's
fatigue
insomina
panic attack's
muscle spasam's
stiffness
jittery
difficultiy swalling
sensitive to noise
pin's and needle's in hand's, arm's , leg's
DEPRESSION
irritable
memory loss
prone to bout's of crying.
I think i have experenced all of the above in the last few year's , i was in the dark about most of them .
So are there more.