(08-11-2018, 05:38 AM)FormerLurker Wrote:

(08-11-2018, 04:14 AM)Chris5555 Wrote: Years ago i had an injury that warranted opioid meds....Fast forward a few years of consistent opioid regiments and BAM....My body is dependent on these things and as a result I was put on buprenorphine.  Just curious how many others on the forum use this useful med to control pain and or addiction.   How long have you been on, and intend to stay on?  What kind of positive and or negative impact have you had as a result of taking it??

Hi Chris5555 - I had a bad injury, compound fracture of my foot, required 6 screws to be inserted, I am lucky I have no pain now and made a full recovery, was supposed to be 9 months and not able to jog again, but I can run 3 miles with little to no noticeable pain, ran 5 miles at 6 months and made one of the fastest recoveries the docs had ever seen from this type of injury.  

Anyways, they started me out very high on oxy - 80mg a day, tried to taper me down 10mg every week for 10 weeks until I was at 5mg a day. Didn't matter, I was already dependent, began getting them off the street (very expensive) and was using at my max 150mg/day. Once the hospital cut me off. I hobbled into a pain clinic about 2 months later, and of course rated my pain a 9/10 - doc asked me what I had been getting prescribed - I told him 90mg/day, he wrote the script like candy (this was 3 years ago so somewhat surprising). They also tapered me down 10mg/day every week. I continued to supplement with hydros, or any other opiate I could get. generally took 80-150mg a day for 4+ months. 

Then once they got me down to about 30mg a day, I began to hold off as long as I could each day to take and would take them all usually by 10am. I was in full blown withdrawals. Girlfriend at the time thought I always had the flu. I finally told her and basically begged the pain clinic to prescribe me more, but I healed very fast - I swam a ton, did tons of physical therapy, and my favorite past time during my comeback was taking 30-50mg and going to gym, 5-6 days a week and riding a exercise bike 60 minutes day with my boot that fit in the straps. 

The pain clinic denied me anymore oxy, said I needed to go 48 hours into full withdrawals and was placed on 8mg of suboxone a day. It was amazing how it took away all the withdrawl symptons for me. Did some for pain, but by then I really didn't have more than 3 /10 on the pain scale anyways. 

Was on 8/mg a day for 4 months and then they cut me back to 4/mg for final 5 months. Had to take a urine analysis every month when I picked up script. I tested positive every time for marijuana they looked the other way on that, docs didn't even care (I haven't smoked in 2+ years) and also was a heavy drinker but would quit for 4 days prior to my UA and usually passed. Then my last 3 months my drinking got out of control, and I started to test positive for alcohol (very hard on liver, subs + alcohol) and was given a warning, then a second warning, then cut off and told to go to treatment. 

Went to treatment and was smoking a lot of pot and drinking regularly the three weeks leading up to treatment when I was cold turkey off the subs, I honestly felt no withdrawal from the subs, but sure it was masked by pot and booze. 


FYI - I am sober now, off all those mentioned in this post. 

Used correctly, suboxone was an amazing drug to cure my withdrawal symptoms from the oxy - took all that away and blocks receptors from being able to use oxy to have any effect on you, so wouldn't bother supplementing. Everyone I spoke to at treatment said the opposite though, that getting off subs was extremely difficult for them but not as bad as getting off the oxy.

That was my experience...stayed off booze for 6 months, relapsed briefly for a week, now have another 6 months in and off everything except 2-4mg of Klonopin a day, or 10-20mg of Valium a day - which I am prescribed for anxiety disorder. A lot of days I don't even take them. I am big into AA now and hit the gym regularly, 5-6 days a week. 

If taken correctly, suboxone was a huge relief for me - unfortunately I had other issues to contend with abuse wise.

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One other thing, the doctors basically said as long as I passed my UA's it was up to me to stay on the 4/mg a day. Was expensive thought even with insurance, I think like $90/month. They said some people stay on them for years - I know heroin addicts that get 16/mg a day and plan to stay on them for the rest of their lives to stay of the heroin.

I think it all depends on the doctor and if you want to get off, somewhat up to you.

(08-17-2018, 07:14 AM)Chicci Wrote: I had a car accident 6 years ago and broke my neck.  
I was on oxycontin and morphine for 4 years. 
Like a lot of ppl after that time it was hard to quit. Plus I still had and have pain issues. So they prescribed me subuxone 16mg/day.

It helpen me tremendously. in about a year they bought the dose down to 4mg. It also was excellent as pain relief.

Last year they changed it to 30mg codeine per day for the pain.

(08-21-2018, 07:42 AM)Chris5555 Wrote:

(08-17-2018, 07:14 AM)Chicci Wrote: I had a car accident 6 years ago and broke my neck.  
I was on oxycontin and morphine for 4 years. 
Like a lot of ppl after that time it was hard to quit. Plus I still had and have pain issues. So they prescribed me subuxone 16mg/day.

It helpen me tremendously. in about a year they bought the dose down to 4mg. It also was excellent as pain relief.

Last year they changed it to 30mg codeine per day for the pain.

Wow Chicci, that tells alot about your will power, discipline and determination.   Not an easy thing to do.   I think that doctors have got to get more creative and find ways to use buprenorphine in place of full agonist opioids like morphine, heroin, oxycontin.   It helps with pain, and more importantly allows people to function and reclaim their lives.  Great  job on titrating down to codeine.

(08-23-2018, 04:20 PM)Chicci Wrote: Luckily I am in country where the heath system is pretty fair. So it wasnt a problem to get on subuxone.
I couldn't have done it without subuxone.

Another terrible idea imo is to put ppl on benzos to recover from an opiate habit. Long acting benzos can help for a couple days..2 weeks max. But not as a replacement.