The Drug From Hell
Since I touched on this earlier and didn't take it any further, I figure I better expand on it here. During my 2 years being unable to find a doctor to help me stay out of pain, I was forced to self medicate by going to a methadone clinic every day. I realize most people have never been around one, nor would want to. It wasn't my first, second or third choice, but it was the only option I had.
While I will say the clinic was professionally run and managed, methadone clinics are what they are. I also was the 'oddball out' since I wasn't a drug addict, but a pain patient. It took me some time to be 'accepted' by the other people who went there.
While going there I did hook up with the doctor who cares for me today, when I can afford to get in to see him. 75 bucks a pop isn't easy to come up with when your income is only 9 bucks an hour. He had never dealt with a patient coming off methadone and going back on to traditional pain meds before, so we entered unknown territory together. We both learned a lot and never want to repeat it.
First off he allowed me to have 2 Vicodin ES a day for the breakthrough pain the 100 mg of methadone didn't get. Our next plan was to start me on a taper off the methadone and then get me back on either Morphine (MS Contin) or Oxycontin. That is when my husband's job ceased to exist and I couldn't afford the $140.00 a month for the clinic. We immediately put me on 80 mg of Oxycontin and the 2 Vic ES a day. Wrong.
While that is a fairly high dose of Oxycontin, it didn't come close to stopping the withdrawals I experienced from the lack of methadone. Normal withdrawals from a painkiller with a long half life normally take you about 2 weeks to get over. (I know this from experience.) It took me a whole year to get rid of the majority of the withdrawal symptoms from the methadone ... to the point I had a near death experience. To this day I still don't remember the first 2 weeks coming off that crap.
Later on, after all was said and done, I looked up some conversion charts online and I would have had to take 500 mg of MS Contin or 300 mg of Oxycontin to equal the 100 mg of methadone. Neither my doctor nor I were aware of the drastic difference in the drugs, nor how methadone kills any tolerance you may have had.
I will acknowledge here that methadone was a wonderful pain killer, probably the best I've ever taken. The daily 'nod', the daily visits to the clinic to dose (only between 4 am and 11 am, fun on a 3rd shifter such as myself), the LONG waits before they allow you take home doses and the withdrawal from hell, just don't add up to making it worth taking. I only advise it to people who are assured they can afford it and who must be on it for the rest of their lives without ceasing. I'd hate to see anyone else go thru what I did getting off it. While it doesn't do that to everyone, I'm meeting more and more pain patients online who have had extended withdrawals from it.
LC
While I will say the clinic was professionally run and managed, methadone clinics are what they are. I also was the 'oddball out' since I wasn't a drug addict, but a pain patient. It took me some time to be 'accepted' by the other people who went there.
While going there I did hook up with the doctor who cares for me today, when I can afford to get in to see him. 75 bucks a pop isn't easy to come up with when your income is only 9 bucks an hour. He had never dealt with a patient coming off methadone and going back on to traditional pain meds before, so we entered unknown territory together. We both learned a lot and never want to repeat it.
First off he allowed me to have 2 Vicodin ES a day for the breakthrough pain the 100 mg of methadone didn't get. Our next plan was to start me on a taper off the methadone and then get me back on either Morphine (MS Contin) or Oxycontin. That is when my husband's job ceased to exist and I couldn't afford the $140.00 a month for the clinic. We immediately put me on 80 mg of Oxycontin and the 2 Vic ES a day. Wrong.
While that is a fairly high dose of Oxycontin, it didn't come close to stopping the withdrawals I experienced from the lack of methadone. Normal withdrawals from a painkiller with a long half life normally take you about 2 weeks to get over. (I know this from experience.) It took me a whole year to get rid of the majority of the withdrawal symptoms from the methadone ... to the point I had a near death experience. To this day I still don't remember the first 2 weeks coming off that crap.
Later on, after all was said and done, I looked up some conversion charts online and I would have had to take 500 mg of MS Contin or 300 mg of Oxycontin to equal the 100 mg of methadone. Neither my doctor nor I were aware of the drastic difference in the drugs, nor how methadone kills any tolerance you may have had.
I will acknowledge here that methadone was a wonderful pain killer, probably the best I've ever taken. The daily 'nod', the daily visits to the clinic to dose (only between 4 am and 11 am, fun on a 3rd shifter such as myself), the LONG waits before they allow you take home doses and the withdrawal from hell, just don't add up to making it worth taking. I only advise it to people who are assured they can afford it and who must be on it for the rest of their lives without ceasing. I'd hate to see anyone else go thru what I did getting off it. While it doesn't do that to everyone, I'm meeting more and more pain patients online who have had extended withdrawals from it.
LC
posted by LComeno at 7:00 PM
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