Fabrashamx

Hi, Kmit, welcome to the pain boards, Brian has given you some good advice, I would like to share with you both what I went through when I went off Tramadol after 15 years of daily use.

As I said, I took it everyday for 15 years, 400 mgs per day. My old doctor had retired and my new doctor liked his CP patients to be on methadone. I had wanted to try a LA med for some time, and was looking forward to it, but I was scared to death to stop the ultram, I had over the years run out while out of town and had similar things come up, so I knew the withdrawals were horrible, the dizziness and depression, ect.

My new doctor wanted me to go straight off the ultram onto the methadone, But I was scared to go off such a high dose and wanted to titrate down first, and then make the switch.

The doctor wasnt willing to do that, so my only option was to titrate the ultram on my own, with no replacement, and then switch to the methadone at the end of that month when my refills were due.

It was awful. I dont think I slept more that an hour or two for the first week to 10 days. I dropped a dose about every 4-5 days. By the time I was down to 2 a day, I couldnt take it anymore, I made an appointment and begged him to put me on the methadone right then, and he did. Once I was on the methadone, I was fine, all the pain that had come back was gone, and the withdrawal symptoms stopped.

My depression was still pretty bad, so I did have him adjust my prozac, that helped a lot.

In retrospect, I think I would have done better to go off the high dose of ultram cold turkey and switch to the methadone, but I do think it was easier to make the switch from 100 mgs per day to the methadone, but by then I had already gone through hell, lol.

Good luck to you whatever you decide to do, please let me know if you have any questions or if there is anymore I can do for you. I hope you keep posting, and welcome again!

Your Friend, Fabby