Dihydrocodeine 10 a day for 3 months/One week later 1 a day (2nd day) Can i jump yet?

PAWS is Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome and comes following physical withdrawal or stopping opiates in this case. Usually you feel extremely tired and have accompanying depression. The best things for it are exercise (even just walking) and eating really nutrtiously. It is caused by dopamine deficiency and adrenal failure of a kind. Although there are supplements for it, i personally don't think they work and you just have to wait it out. Being able to meet with other people getting off opiates in various meetings also really helps because staying positive and feeling supported is crucial during this phase because in some ways it can be more of a psychological bashing than the physical part. Take it a day at a time and stay positive. I know it's hard because i'm experiencing it now. Good luck to you judi81003. Hang in there. You can do it and you're worth it. :-) Take care

Thanks pete58156!

In terms of "jumping" at 30 mg, I would maybe start with half a pill for a bit first and then maybe even move to a quarter pill. You seem to have weaned very quickly and the end may be the hardest part. 

As for myself, I am having trouble cutting back at all, because I have chronic pain, that isn't just going to go away! In fact, my tolerance is so high now, I should ahve an increased dose, not a reduced one, and have even started chewing up my long-release tablets in the evenings for break-through. 

Also as ihavenonickname mentioned, a doctor's supervision is always best when tapering off opioids. Do you have one? I don't have a physician anymore and can't find one (trust me I am looking). I wont be able to function at all with pain and withdrawl... There goes my business (and house). Walk-ins and hospitals won't prescribe narcotics (unless I go in to emerg screaming and collapse in pain, but they wil simply give me a shot and send me home empty-handed). I am in Canada and it was actually suggested by a government health worker that I go to the US to see a doctor for a prescription!!! 

I wish you the best with the path you have chosen and know you can do it. But, if I were you I would go a little more slowly, try a half today and see how it goes. You can always take the other half if you find you aren't ready yet. You seem to be doing very well. I live in the country and finding support at all would be difficult. I just need a doctor who will treat my pain. Did you start with pain and it went away? 

Best to you : )

I am concerned...country in Canada...without a physician...taking narcotics...

Perhaps you might be interested in a palliative approach?

What is the source of your pain?

Is that malady being treated?

We have some shady people who sell shady drugs...I would not trust them.

How can I help?

kind regards

judith

USA

Dear Judith,

Thank-you for your reply. I had a physician who was prescribing morphine sulphate (short and long release) for the past 6 years (since I moved, I have been on it about 10), but he recently retired. By law he could only prescribe 2 months worth before retiring, but I am now on 3 doffernt one-year waiting lists to see a physician at all!!!! So much for universal health care...

I am not  palliative. I am in my 30s and otherwise perfectly healthy. I had an accident that shattered my skull (from ear-to-ear) about 12 years ago, had epidural and subdural hematomas and an emergency craniotomy (peeled off my face to rebuild, etc.). At first I didn't feel anything in my left side, as my surgoen put it I was a "numbskull". Which was weird enough, but tolerable; then the feeling came back.... 

I have a peice of skull missing behind my ear (my surgeon described it as when you try to glue a broken tea cup back together), which makes most sunglasses and helmets impossible. I also have an approx. 3 inch long part of the fracture that didn't heal/fuse, despite the 3 titanium plates from my forehead (which you can see), arching to behind my ear. 

I can't see a hairdresser, or rinse my shampoo. If my partner kisses me or my dog lays her head on mine it is excrutiatiing—despite the morphine. 

I am trying to cut back, but all it does is take hours from my productivity and make me a wreck—from pain!!! I even often take it with vodka so it works better. There is no chance my skull will heal after all this time. There is a difference between dependence and addiction. I am also dependent on food and water, but no one considers that a problem. I run a successful business, and recently bought my first home. Opioids work for pain when nothing else can. But, if I cannot find a doctor, or one who will treat me, I may be forced to buy drugs from those "shady" characters you mention. Otherwise, I don't know what I will do. 

Thank-you for your care. I have six weeks of my script left, then who knows what may happen. It's really, really, scary, and worrying about it makes the pain worse (as does light, noise, changes in air pressure—I can predict rainfall better than the forecasters ; )   ).  

Hi Judi,

Thank you for sharing your nightmare...are you watching Pete's posts?

Okay, ten years is a long time...your body will protest...but we, yes we, can do this.

Have you ever taken Neurotin, gabapentin?

Have you ever taken Lyrica, pregabalin?

Have you ever taken Zoloft, sertraline?

Are you familiar with a TENS machine, trans cutaneous electrical nerve stimulation?

You are palliative...just means you have severe, physiologically based pain...you are not hospice.

Is the trauma surgeon still practicing....bet he would love to follow up with such a remarkable case.

Universities with medical schools would be very interested in your case. Students would clamor.

And bio feedback, have you check on bio feedback?

Look in the largest city you can travel to.

What doses?

No shady. No alcohol.

hugs

judith

Thanks Judith.

I did try gabapentin, but I had a terrible reactoin that made my face swell up to the point I could barely see. This is likely why I was never given pregabalin either (as they seem related).   As for sertraline, no I haven't tried it, but the literature seems mixed in its control of pain and I have had bad experiences with anti-depressents in the past. I have about four different types of pain, some seems bloods vessel related, others neurological and then that is that darn sensitivity that means I can't even touch it or rinse out my shampoo properly (no head massages for me). 

I have tried cold lasers, massage, never blockers.... nothing has helped. I have looked into biofedback but there isn't anything around here or offered at the pain clinics I have been to, although I now have to drive 3 hours (each way) every two weeks to get my script (I found a pain clinic to keep my script up, but need to go every two weeks, have a pee test each time, etc), which means I lose work and then there's the gas... But at least I am still able to get my morph from a pharmacy, no shadies (thank goodness), but I did just see a 'doctor' the other day who said she would not treat me and only gives opiods to palliative people, hhhmmmm... So much for the oath. It was reall upsetting. I hate being treated like a junkie. 

I would like to think my case is interesting. However, the surgeon who did it is in another province 3000 km away and simply told me a few years back to find a doctor that would give me pain killers. Which I did and have done ever since. He's on the 'I'm lucky to be alive and functioning' bandwagon. 

As for TENS I am familiar as I was reading about it's developer the other day, the same individual that made the pacemaker battery that doesn't need recharging I think(?)

As for dose I take up to 7 x 25 mg (fast-acting) and up to 3 x 65 mg (long-acting) each day. However, I am trying to cut back to 6 and 2 because I my new pain clinic is only open on Mondays, and due to when my final script from my other doctor is done, and that they will only give 2 weeks at a time (not the three months I was getting, which really cut back on travel time) I end up with 3 days without any. So I am trying to save them up for those days. The worry of not having them makes the pain worse.... 

I certainly appreciate your thoughts and suggestions Judith; amd I am following this thred of Pete's, but whre is he? We haven't heard from him lately and I do hope he is well.

Have you considered reducing by half a pill. For me, that was the way to keep my body quieter during the process of reducing the dose. Because of the dose and years, it took me 6 months to come completely off. I kept a written diary of what I took when, how I felt, and what I was going to take next and at what time. I stretched the time as well under the theory that I could wait an additional hour. By writing the time down, I did not have to think, I just had to meet the goal.

Stay committed, you can make this happen.

hugs

judith

Hi Judith. Thanks so much for asking. I went a few days and because i did this so fast, decided that the PAWS was absolutely kicking my rear, so i made the typical addict mistake and went back to 2x30. Although it's not the 10x40 i was on, i feel bad about this. I'll stay here for a week and then go back to 1x30, then half then jump. Thanks for caring. Where i am, i can't ask my doctor without being put on a list that i'd rather not be on. Also, they don't prescribe or even recomend to rehab. They put you on a list and then you go to a place to try and get on sub or methadone and i figure i'm so close now, that i don't want all of that because i feel it may do more harm then good. How are you getting on?

I hope things are easing up for you and that life's on the up. I really do. :-) All the best to you and thanks for the look in.

Don't feel you have failed yourself by needing to go back up. You weaned very quickly. Know your body and know yourself. If you don't have a chronic condition that requires it (do you?) maybe you can do it yourself. I understand you don't want to be on the list, and how in some areas there are no such services. Keep it up, be strong and maybe try a little more slowly.... 

I am not sure I should ask, but where are you getting them it you don't have medical support?

peace, love and strength