SO I was supposed to step down a quarter of a 30mg Oxicodone today and I didn't. I had to go to work early for a crisis and made the excuse that I would do it tonight when I could sleep through the first 12 hours. Now I am at my dosing time and I don't want to step down. I was doing so well! I think it is because my body usually levels off by now and it hasn't . Bladder is still feeling full all the time, still having some achy bones, etc. I made allowances for set backs in my schedule by giving myself several day after a step down before I would be forced to go down a whole half. SO far I haven;t had to do that. I don't want to be forced to have to taper down more than I planned to because I HAVE to. I guess I don't have a question. Just trying to get the will power to just do it tonight! I know I sped up my taper this last couple of weeks because I wanted to be off my X-mas. I wonder if I made it too fast.
Anybody have trouble coming down a quarter to a half Oxcidone 30mg IR every week? (which is about a pill a day of you take them 3 x day or 10% I think)
ALso I realized something today. For those struggling about coming off cold turkey because they have to. If I had been forced to come off before I was ready, I don't think I could have made it. I think you HAVE to be ready to do it to overcome the tempatations. OR you have to have something that you aspire for or in my case, something that scares you. I purposely forced my body into a full blown WD to scare myself and it worked. I think that is the only thing that keeps me going. ANyway, thought I would share.
as the old saying goes;{it is easy to talk about quitting when we have a pill in us,but when it comes down to really doin it is a much different story}you are just begining the journey to one of the hardest things you will ever do in your lifetime,i promise you this.you havent gone down much at all and already you are having second thoughts.opiates are the hardest drug to get off of and stay off of that there ever was.i'll take w/d from any other drug if i could to get off opiates,but it doesnt work like that does it.if you have to work while tapering down you are gonna have to back up and go way way slower than you first planned to.no way can a person work a 40hr week while jonesing off opiates.no need to even try it.only way you can work during all this is if you start over and make much smaller drops.forget christmas,shoot for easter maybe,if not maybe 4th of july.that is how slow im talkin about.i wish you all the luck in the world,its gonna be needed.-spark
So my question is, the slower taper is for the physical part or the psychological part? Because truthfully so far, the physical part is not unearable. Uncomfortable but not unbearable. I feel at this point it is more psychological. So with that being said, will a slow taper help with that or just procrastinate the inevitable? Or does the slower taper help the psyhcolgical part by giving your mind more time to deal.
I have gone down a total of 30% since July. SO about 10% a month. The remainder will be about 30% a month which you are right Sparc, may be too much if I am struggling with the 10%.
I will just continue with the plan until I can talk to my doc tomorrow and see what she says. I just took my dose and I went down the quarter as planned!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so proud of myself. I just hope I can continue it.
So my question is, the slower taper is for the physical part or the psychological part?
Rome, the answer is that the slower taper is for BOTH physical and psychological. In a long, slow taper, the body AND the mind heal as we go slowly along. I took months to taper off Oxycodone and I was on 5MG IR tabs. `The goal on a long, slow taper is not speed, but consistent progress. My cuts were made every two weeks or so... sometimes only ten days, once it was three full weeks. An unbreakable rule for me was "once a cut is made, we don't ever go back up." Each cut should be made when we think we are strong enough to maintain the cut. Do it before that and we set our selves up for failure. If we give ourselves permission to 'cheat' and take a higher dose once, then we have given ourselves mental permission to do it a second, third, fourth time..... this is where the strict discipline comes in with a taper. No cheating.
So, please. do not fret if a scheduled dose cut takes a little longer to implement. Our bodies regulate and re-regulate themselves according to its own time frame, not by the clock we look at. Smiles. It IS cooperating with our gooal, just not by the schedules always that we can predict.
ALso I realized something today. For those struggling about coming off cold turkey because they have to. If I had been forced to come off before I was ready, I don't think I could have made it. I think you HAVE to be ready to do it to overcome the tempatations.
Rome, Buddy, the same applies to those who taper! Force yourself into a step down before you are ready and failure will loom. Don't set ourselves up to succumb to failure and we won't, you know? In my own taper, as the end approached, I made even smaller cuts. I was making 1/2 tab cuts until I got down to 3 tabs a day and then I made only quarter cuts ( and only on one dose at a time). As the last few weeks drew near, I started cutting by only eighths. It took a long time, but who cares? Please, please. do not set a date or a holiday to stop.... keep this a totally seperate issue and make it the only priority. Again, our bodies do not recognize holidays or alarm clocks... they only recgonize their own internal rhythms. Go with the flow. Let the end occur when the end occurs. One day at a time. When nthe end comes, that will be a bigger holiday celebration than you can imagine at this point and you will celebrate for sure. Smiles. We will all celebrate with you.
couldnt have said it better myself reach/ ROME i dont have nothing to add,reach spoke volumes in her post.like she said keep the taper going,dont worry about anything else.good luck-spark
