update

[watergirl08]

I wanted to thank everyone again for your kind support.
I was having trouble with the tapering. I couldn't give them to my husband to keep or he would take them. I would end up hurting (my back is awful lately) and I would end up taking an extra one to sleep. Usually I get steroid shots to help with some of the acute pain. But because of the testing I am doing I can't have an iota of steroids. I am stuck at all turns!
It is this night time pain that is dragging me down. I am terrible when I dont get enough sleep. I could never be a politician or a surgeon, I need 7 hours to function or I get stupid.
Anywhoo I would get panicky at the dosage going down. I was having trouble getting myself to stick to the plan.
I decided I needed  to trick myself. I tried a new tactic.
This is actuallly how I quit smoking. It takes away the panicky feelings of losing your crutch and being cut off. The act of willpower helps you release the demon, and the feeling of control and reward at practise is paramount.
Instead of tapering, and keeping count. I ended up stretching the times between doses. I would take some vicodin every few hours. I upped it to 4 hours. That is a good amount of time to stretch the dose before starting to feel w/d effects. I did that for a couple of days. Then I reduced the dose to one and half, instead of two. Sticking to the four hours. Do that for a few days. Then I started stretching to 4.5 hours.
Doing the time taper helps you to practise control, and not rely on the medication. Because you are cutting yourself off, if only a few hours a time.
I finally counted how many I was taking and I had managed to drop a couple a day. With mild side effects.I am feeling exhausted but that may be because of my affliction. I got a prescrip for darvocet which I hope to switch too soon.
So now I am to the point where I am not thinking about the pills all the time. In fact, the four and a half hours is going by fast. I am almost up to five hours and one pill. Just about my prescribed dose. I would be at my prescribed dose but I need some to sleep.
If you can't quit cold turkey, I am recommending this method.
The strange thing is that I am feelign better. I started a vit D therapy so it could be that. There was an exception to the other day when I was hurting so bad I ended up takin an extra dose. This is not the best time of year for me to be doing this. The cold and constant changing weather kills me.
So I don't know if I was stuck in that rut where the medicine was making me feel worse(which I have read numerous articles that it can happen with opiods) or the vit D.

The really sucky part is that I saw my doc about my test results and they were inconclusive. So I have to do more testing and come back in another three weeks. I want this testing over with so I can get my steroid shots again to help me along and depend less on medication.

[watergirl08]

Thanks sara!

I have been doing some research on Vit D myself and have learned some interesting things. They feel that so many people have a D def. And it causes severe pain, fatigue, insomnia, etc.

the reason being is man used to spend all day outside in the sun. Now we are in offices and if we are outside it is for short stints and with sunscreen. All the scare of skin cancer now may be causing a bigger problem.

I have read some stories and people have sworn by vit D. But you have to take a lot of it. 5-6 K mg a day at first. Then after a month, you cut down to three.

And doctors can give you a blood test to check your levels.

[dominosarah]

Im glad this is working for you.  Keep going and spreading the hours out.  I heard recently that Vitamin D is really supposed to be beneficial......more so than they first thought.  I am going to try some.   stay strong          sara