Hi Everyone,
I have been reading the posts in this forum for quite awhile. Reading the various testimonials has helped me make the final decision to end my 2 year addiction to opiates.
My story began with a cervical spinal fusion 2 years ago in October. After getting out of the hospital, I was prescribed Percocet for about 2 months. I was so afraid of being addicted that I asked my surgeon to prescribe something less potent. I have been on a combination of Hydrocodone 5's and Darvocet N-100 and Soma ever since. The surgery did not have the intended result and I have continued to suffer with pain. I have endured epidural spinal injections and radiofrequency in 7 vertebrae, to no avail.

I know I am seriously addicted to the narcotics, since I have been taking about 14 a day (combined darvocet and hydros) for nearly 2 years. As some others have mentioned, I too have found myself counting my pills, getting all stressed out about running out before I can get another refill. I have been noticing in recent months that my sleep at night is being badly disturbed by breakthrough withdrawls after going about 6-8 hours without a dose. That is when I decided enough is enough and began to seriously consider getting off everything. I started googling and came across this forum.

I have decided to try and taper. Just experiencing how unpleasant these "break-through" withdrawls are, I do not think I could stand going cold turkey. It has been 10 days since I made the personal commitment to end this crazy rollercoaster. As of today, I am now 8 days completely hydrocodone-free and am down to 8 darvocet a day, taken in 4 doses of 2 pills. I am still taking 3-4 Soma a day. I know that one is a nasty addicting drug too, but I am fighting one battle at a time.
So far, I have experienced some withdrawl. I did have a bout of chills and sweats with some anxiety yesterday, but I toughed it out, without taking any extras.
I want to thank the folks who have posted here. You guys (and gals) have truly been my inspiration, and I hope I can continue to taper successfully, because I desperately want to get off this crap and start living life without thinking about pills every waking minute.

I don't see much postings about Darvocet. Does anyone have any experience with getting off this drug and any suggestions for me that might help make this easier? I fear as I get to a lower daily dose that the withdrawls are going to really kick in and I will falter in my tapering.

Thanks for reading this long-winded post. Wish me luck!

Lou

Hey Lou,

I just posted to someone who is looking at going c/t. The darv is a narc and you will go through w/d’s. Have you spoken to any of your drs concerning your issue? There are meds and programs out there that can help you with this problem. As you know, this is not going to be easy and just want to make sure you knew there were other things out there to help you. I really want everyone to be successful in quitting this thing and hope you understand the tools and options available.

Lou;

Couple of questions for you if I may?

• When you say you are taking or were taking 14 or so pills per day, was it to control the pain or was it to control the pain and to enjoy a side benefit “high”?
• It would seem you still have pain issues with your back, if you stop the opiate based pain meds will you still need some level of pain control?
• If you think you will still need some level of pain control have you decided what that will be, whether its meds or some other type of pain control?
• Just because you are pill counting or running out of pills prior to refill does not necessarily mean you are addicted psychologically and I’m curious why you think you might be addicted from a psychological standpoint? IF I read you correctly?

Just to bring up some thoughts here, typically there is a significant difference between being physically addicted to pain meds and psychologically addicted. Proper use of pain meds or use of pain meds to control pain over an extended period of time will cause physical addiction. And that’s to be expected and is AOK. So when you miss a scheduled dose or delay it, withdrawal symptoms will develop. Withdrawal is very unpleasant as you have experienced. I know how that feels having gone cold turkey and then tapering when my pill consumption was so high that I couldn’t handle going cold turkey, thus my choice of using a taper method.

Hopefully my questions do not seem intrusive, just need some clarity or more information before I can provide any advise or examples my past experiences and successes and or failures.

The good thing is you are concerned for your health and well being and being cautious or determining your future is a great thing on your part. You have many options and you should get a lot of good advise here so I’m sure you will be glad you stopped by and asked for support.

Take care and don’t despair its all good moving forward, which is what you are trying to do.

phil

Oh Lou, one more thing I failed to mention, Darvocet on the pain med hierarchy scale is one of the more mild pain meds or lower tier meds. Although it will produce withdrawal symptoms it’s a good med to jump off from as well, in my opinion. And can be easily tapered off.

Rule of thumb is to reduce your consumption at a rate of 5-10% every 4-5 days. That will stave off any severe withdrawal symptoms. You will probably have some level of withdrawal symptom(s) but not the ones you’d have if you went cold turkey or reduced your intake by 25%+. Withdrawal symptoms may be as simple as a runny nose, or headache, or chills, or diarrhea, or sleep problems, or a slight combo of these. In other words the lesser withdrawal symptoms vs. the heavy duty ones from going cold turkey or reducing your intake to fast.

Hope that helps

phil

Tim,

I am afraid to tell my doctor about my addiction concerns, fearing he will immediately stop writing prescriptions, throwing me into cold-turkey full-blown withdrawls.

Phil,

I DO still have quite serious pain issues with my neck and back. I have a pain management doctor who is the one that has done the epidural injections and radiofrequency, as well as prescribe the drugs. I had high hopes that the latest procedure (the radiofrequency) would do the job and I would not need anything for pain. I don't know what other tricks the doc has up his sleeve to resolve the issues so that pain meds are no longer necessary. I have an appointment tomorrow to find out.

As far as your question regarding whether I take the pills for a "high": unlike many posters here on the board, I get absolutely no high from any drug containing hydrocodone. It does help with the pain though. Strangely enough, it is the weaker Darvocet that does give me somewhat of a buzz. I have never taken more than 2 pills at a time trying to chase a high, but I certainly cannot lie and say that I do not enjoy the somewhat serene feeling I sometimes get when I do take a dose of Darvocet.....which is the part that scares me enough to want to stop.

I KNOW I am physically addicted, because of the withdrawl symptoms I experience after just 8 hours without taking a pill....and that scares me too, since that did not happen until recently, which in my mind means that I am developing tolerance, needing more just to prevent withdrawls. I do find myself at times taking a dose for that reason (staving off withdrawl symptoms) rather than strictly needing the drugs for pain control.

As far as psychologically being addicted....I dunno. I don't feel a screaming "need" to take the pills. I know I would certainly not resort to any illicit means of obtaining more, such as doctor shopping or worse, buying off the street.
I am now in my 11th day of tapering (I am keeping a journal). Today would be my fifth day at 8 pills (I did have one slip in this time period where I took one extra dose at bedtime). I would like to drop to 7 today, but am scared. I am trying to put more hours between dosing, which is hard withdrawl-wise. Once I hit that 6-8 hour time-frame, the sweats and chills start, along with a distressed feeling in the pit of my stomach and increased anxiety.

Thanks to both Phil and Tim for your input. I read this board everyday, which has given me the strength to try and end this.

Lou

Hey Lou,
Looks like you are making progress and have a good plan. About the dr.... Who knows what a lot of these clowns will do. I lose more and more respect for them. Not only what they did for me, but what they have done to others on here. Example-"giving whatever asked for then cutting off when the person says they have a problem". That will stick with me for a while.
I dont think you should go in there and say you are addicted. That is a word I would refrain from using, but....there is nothing wrong with saying something like, hey, I would like to move away from taking any narcotics, but would like to trim down the pace.
You could always seek advice from an addictionologist.

Lou;

Then physically dependant is absolutely normal in your case. And tolerance is also part of the process.

The big question is when you get off all pain meds will you still have a need for pain management. It would seem from your comments you will. If you’ve always taken your meds as prescribed and really do not feel the “high” as you stated then you are in a pretty good position. There are a number of ways a pain management Dr. can attack your pain management and the tolerance issues you seem to be having. Many times changing pain med types is an effective way of fighting tolerance and getting more effective pain management results. This may be an option your Dr. takes or you may want to discuss that with your pain management Dr.

Also not sure if you’ve followed the pain management board here but they would have great information and support in helping with tolerance issues, effective meds for pain management and hints and tips for all around pain management health issues which would include withdrawal issues associated with legitimate pain meds use.

Hey it’s OK to be sensitized and overly cautious when it comes to pain meds and pain management and letting it get away from you. There are many here who started out innocently enough and let it get away from them. (Like ME)

Just remember if you continue to taper off the Darvocet just do it at 5-10% reduction every 4-5 days and you should not experience to much in the withdrawal department. Like I said, running nose, chills, sweats on the easy side would be normal and very easy to endure.

Anyways good luck, we are here to help in any way we can, lets us know how and where you need us to jump in.

phil

Well, the past 5 days have been a struggle for me. I have been in a bout of much increased back pain to the point that I was in tears 2 days ago at work. You can probably see where this is going...
My planned taper which I feel I have been doing so good with has "gone out the window". I had gotten myself down from 14 darvocets / hydrocodone a day to just 8 when this pain episode struck. I know that when you stop taking narcotics after being on them a long time that you will experience "rebound pain". This was NOT the situation (after-all, I was still taking 8 pills a day). This was a classic nasty flare-up of my spinal condition that occurs every so often. The doctor has prescribed me a prednisone script to have on hand when this happens. Before I started popping more hydros, I tried dosing myself with the steroids, hoping the pain would subside....to no avail. I ended up on Saturday taking 12 Darvocets again.

I feel so defeated in this struggle to STOP taking narcotics. Yesterday, I forced myself back down to 9 pills and am determined to get back on track with my taper.

Does this mean I am a failure with this? I was doing so good and now feel so bad about myself....
:confused:
Lou

Hello all,

In anwer to your post title; the answer is no. I have been seen by doctors and tell them up front that I had a prior history of addiction and do not want to go that route again. They usually prescribe accordingly (if questionable, you can always research the medication on the internet.

A doctor that is knowledgeable enough knows that there are scores of medications to choose from; some anti addictive in nature.

Take care and God Bless.Love and Peace.Forthemasses only.

A sad update on my condition....
I have not been able to keep up with my planned taper. I am in just too much pain with the neck and back...here I am back up to 12 hydros / darvocets a day. I feel so defeated and depressed because I really do want to stop taking narcotics. But with the physical pain, I don't see how I can function without.

The other bad thing is this constant break-through withdrawl that I keep experiencing about 6-8 hours after taking a dose. Sometimes, a stressful situation will throw me into a really bad feeling of withdrawl (sweats, chills and bad anxiety.. overall nasty flu-like symptoms). How can this happen when I have just taken a dose within the past couple of hours? These sort of uncomfortable physical symptoms have me really stressed. I feel almost as if my body is rebelling for some reason. Has anyone experienced what I have just described?

I am totally at a loss as to what I am to do.

--Lou