Withdrawal Fatigue

[ronniesgirl331]

My husband is disabled and has been on pain medicine for the past 3 years, it started with vicodin then went to percocet then went to fentanyl. Our lives have been a living hell because there is never enough medicine to last the whole month, so we have 2 good weeks and 2 bad, the pain medicine takes away his pain and gives him energy, but as we all know the body always needs more...here is my question 7 weeks ago he went cold turkey, no medicine or patches (I am sooo proud of him) all of the withdrawal symptoms are over except the fatigue. He is in pain but he is dealing with it but the lack of energy is driving him crazy...last week he went for blood work and got a clean bill of health. He is on a healthy diet and takes vitamins. When can he expect to have any kind of energy???? Is there anything he can take to boost his energy level??? Please help............

[JadedSweetheart]

Oh, ps.  My husband still takes Goody's powders like crazy even though they give him rebound headaches, so it's not neccessarily something I'd recommend, but they are a good non-narcotic pain reliever if you don't take them too much.

[JadedSweetheart]

My husband was in a near fatal (the brought him back) accident almost 10 years ago.  He went through almost 20 surgeries and took pain meds off and on for all of the injuries he has.  (I can't even begin to list them, but there's a plate or a rod in about every area)  He was taking percoset a lot for a while before he met me and eventually decided to get off of them.  He said it was really hard and the withdrawls hurt, and the doctor put him on anti-depressants soon after.  When he met me he stopped taking the anti-depressants gradually, because he didn't feel he needed them and now he's one of the most hyper-active and happy people I know.  He gives me hope about getting off the meds, myself when I get surgery.  
My doctor told me that it takes weeks to get your nerves back to normal after taking pain meds (as you grow extra nerve endings while on pain meds and that's where the withdrawl pain comes from).
I hope your husband feels better soon and I applaud you for being a great wife and hanging in there with him for all this time.

[ronniesgirl331]

Thanks so much for your input, the last couple of years have been a living hell, I have watched him go from a vibrant man to someone who is so dependent on pain meds, it has been so scary, I have become completely isolated from friends and family so I dont have to keep lying to them. He has such a high tolerence to meds that the doses were so high I honestly thought i would wake up one  morning and he would be dead. These meds have robbed him of so many things, his memory has been impaired, but yet he always seems to have a good attitude, he does move around, however he has chronic back,neck,and knee problems, over the years he has had surgeries and nerve blockers, then came the pills, but they were over abused so I suggested the patch, well not realizing that can be over abused as well...and now we are 7 weeks out and life is improving each day except for the fatigue...all I want is my Ronnie back, I love this man more than life itself and would and have done everything for him, I have never had a addiction before but I can feel everything as if it was I who was going thru this, I feel I have aged 20 years. I hope and pray he can build his tolerance up for pain again without the use of narcotics.        

[ronniesgirl331]

Thanks so much I am going to look into St Johns Wort...If the fatigue passes and the pain gets him depressed I will ask the dr about wellbutrin. As of now 7 weeks out his mood is decent he is just upset with the fatigue.

[ronniesgirl331]

I am so glad I had the courage to post, I have been reading these questions and answers for 3 years now, thank you so much for your info, we have questioned pharmacies, we even called detox centers and no-one can explain the fatigue...His pain mgmt doctor is not to helpful I guess because he is no longer prescribing the pain meds, so we went to our family physician who took blood work (which was fine) and said they would look into it???

[ronniesgirl331]

Thanks so much for the info, he does take liquid b12, we also have had the b12 patches, I made him go for bloodwork thinking he might be low on iron which is causing some of the fatigue, but his bloodwork was fine??? We are going to buy the ribose powder today...at this point we are willing to try anything...

[ronniesgirl331]

Thanks so much for the info, I am going to post on that forum and see if anyone has any answers for the fatigue. He does see a pain doctor, but we all know they make there money on prescribing meds,lol. He has had nerve blockers in the past as well, right now he is going with the no meds at all, because his body absorbs the drugs so fast that it never seems to be enough to last. Before he went cold turkey he was on 100mcg of fentanyl every 48 hours and 6-10 percocets a day.

[Jaybay]

Sublingual (under the tongue) liquid B-complex vitamins can help with that.  Any health food store or pharmacy carries those products.  Unfortunatly, the fatigue can take a fair amount of time to go away.  

I know it sounds contradictory, but if your husband can slowly begin an exercise program of some kind, it actually helps boost energy.  If he is mobile enough to walk - even around the house - that's a start.  If he can't walk, can he use light handweights for a light upper body workout?  Not knowing the extent of his disability I can't specifically suggest anything, but I can truthfully state that if a person in chronic pain lays down and doesn't make the effort to move, he never will again.  Muscle tissue wastes away and it's soon impossible to do much of anything.  Even something like singing for a half-hour is a cardio-vascular exercise.  Ever wondered why singers are always wringing with sweat?  It's not because of the heat from the stage lights.  :-)

Depression is common after quitting narcotics, or even with just a reduced dose.  A lot of people don't realize that - they only know they feel awful and think it's all physical.  It WILL go away.  As runitskat mentioned, St. Johns wort might help in that area.

My hearty congratulations to your husband for his 7 week track record and to you for enduring the nightmare over the years.  You are both absolutely amazing.  He's a braver soul than I am!  :-)

[runitskat]

I know you said he doesn't want to take anymore meds but I started taking Wellbutrin to help with my chronic fatigue. It works really well. It gives me the energy I need to get through the day. It does cause insomnia though so I had to go on Zoloft and lower my dose of Wellbutrin to balance out all the energy. Antidepressants can sometimes help with pain as well.

As someone else suggested he can take B12. I take that and Saint Johns wart and it helps a lot. Plus Saint Johns wart is a natural mood stabilizer so he may benefit from that as well.

I've gone through withdrawal many times and it has gotten a lot better since I started with the crazy pills (as I like to call them) I do get really fatigued for the first 3 days then it usually goes away. So there may be something else going on that he may want to get checked out.

[namnam46]

Hi Ronniesgirl,

We would like to welcome you to the Pain Management Forum!  We're very glad that you found us and hope that we can help you.

I, too, like Jamie and Sara, am extremely proud of your husband's accomplishment. I also, would like to commend you for sticking by him on his long and difficult journey. He's extremely lucky to have you beside him!!  Both Sara and Jamie have given you excellent ideas of where to start. I know that this phase wil eventually pass but I, too, have no knowledge of how long it will take to get thru that phase of w/d. I wonder have you asked your Husband's Dr. for any suggestions for the fatigue that he is experiencing? The only other person that might have some suggestions is your Pharmacist. You might just say that your husband is extremely fatigued and do they have any suggestions of what he might use to get his energy back? Leave it generic like that and that way if you don't want them to know what is going on they won't have a clue!

Other people may be on here later with more suggestions. Again, all of us are really pleased that you found the Pain Forum and hope that you will post your updates as we are concerned for both your Husband and You!!....Sherry

[Sarajmt]

I'm so sorry that your family is going through this.  And you should be proud of your husband.  He did a very tough and courageous thing.  

I do have a couple of ideas but no idea if they'll work for your husband.  He could try sublinqual B12 available at any drug store.  There is a post on the Chronic Pain couch about fatique.  http://www.medhelp.org/posts/The-Chronic-Pain-Couch/Fatigue-and-D-Ribose/show/1248011    I've not tried D Ribose but plan to.  Also another post there:http://www.medhelp.org/posts/The-Chronic-Pain-Couch/Need-Energy-Any-ideas/show/1244078.

He could also try B vitamin injections from his doctor.  I've heard those help but again, no personal experience.

Jamie's suggestions were great, as always.  You might try other forums on this site.

Good luck to you

Sara

[jamlws]

sorry you and your husband is going thru this, it is so hard when you come off pain meds and not just super hard on him but hard on everyone. I would past this on the Addiction  Substance Abuse Community on this website also cause they all know about withdrawls and most have been thru it so they can help you over there also. you can find it under the forums button just click on it and you will see it under the A's. I know it can take awhile for your body to get use to not being on meds. It is a big jump from being on them and then not.
What does he have planned? Does he want to stay off the meds or just take a break? I deal with pain all day everyday and It is hard to deal with but when he is taking so many pills and is always short something has to be done about it. Does he see a pain dr?  I wish you all the luck and hope you get the answers that you want.

Jamie