Methadone Withdrawl - Pain Management Message Board

thegoodcatjupie · 09-24-2003, 02:02 AM

After waking up at 2:00am, drenched in sweat, I surfed till I found this forum.

I have lupus and years of steroid use has given me unbearable chronic leg pain. I was implanted with a neurostimulator last year (the thing Jerry Lewis had for back pain?) which has helped, but I've also been on duragesics, oxycodone, oxycontin, morphine and yes, methadone! This was all done 'legally' at a Pain and Palliative Care Clinic in NYC. They're actually really cool because they were the first doctors who 'believed' my pain and while they couldn't make it go away, they make it tolerable.

Here's my question--I was on methadone, 40 mgs 3 times a day for the past 2 years. A year ago, I began to wean off of it because the pain wasn't going away and I hated the sweating and constipation. By the end of August 2003 I had stopped the methadone all together.

I still take 60 mgs of morphine in the morning for 'break through' pain which helps a lot. While I feel sort of back to my usual achy self, I'm still waking up with the night sweats and always seem to be a big sweaty or shaking mess during the day if I'm active (active meaning, anything beyond couch potato!)

Does anyone think it could still be methadone withdrawl a month later? Or is it the morphine? Also, does anyone know, does morphine have the same side effects as methadone--dry mouth one of the ones I also experience.

It's rough because I have a million things wrong with me from my lupus and I'm never sure if it's the lupus bugging me or my meds!

Any replies would be greatly appreciated!

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Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals....

HockeyCrystal · 09-24-2003, 03:30 AM

Don't know too much about either med, but I imagine the sweating is probably from the Morphine since it's been a month since you stopped the Methadone. I take Percocets and they make me sweaty, and wake up often drenched in sweat...

I'm sorry I can't answer your other question, but I just wanted to say welcome to the boards and give my opinion on the other question about if it could be WD's or the morphine...

Hope you're feeling better!

Much

Crystal

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-21 year old chronic pain patient..
-Have a transitional vertebrae @ s1.
-Slight bulges in disks L4-L5 and L5-S1.
-adhesions from years of not knowing gallbladder was bad then had it removed, lots of abdominal pain now... also referred pain in mid and upper back from gallbladder as well...
-Chronic severe migraines, and tension headaches... Taking Axert for migraines.. Working well...Nothing px'ed for tension headaches... Sometimes even get both kinds of headaches at the same time..... Really weird.
-Lots of low back and mid back pain growing up..
-Then was in 2 very bad car accidents not even a year apart, 1@17y.o. and 1@18y.o. Had fractures in both... Arm in one, and wrist and hand in the other wreck. Arm was broke by airbag.. Wrist and hand by impact of hand slamming into steering wheel... Also had back, neck and chest (from seatbelt) pain from these wrecks. And in one slammed knees into dash. Also fell on ice a couple yrs ago and landed right on tail bone. This is what my PM doc feels caused the bulges.
-Also have had a few cysts on left ovary, that burst.
-Also had pre-cancerous cells on cervix, and had surgery in Dec. 2002 to have them removed. Have been having normal paps ever since! (Didn't have one of those for like 3 years!)
-Now having lots of knifelike shoulder pain between spine and shoulder blades..Also having a lot of hip/pelvic pain and soreness under my butt, if that even makes sense...And pain in low-back/sacral area and tailbone area...like it's going to crack and break or something... It hurts to sit for very long at all.
-Pain overall between 7-9 everyday with OR without meds.. Because Percocets aren't working well anymore at all.
-Still somewhat undiagnosed, but have had these tests for my pain issues... :
*CT Scan on entire spine
*CT Scan on abdomen
*X-rays on shoulder and entire spine
*MRI on head and spine
*Also been to these specialists: Chiropractor-Did adjustments, and a few other treatments; Orthopedic surgeon-gave stretches and PT exercises to do, also px'd Ibuprofen800 which I can no longer take any NSAIDs; D.O. (my PCP)-Did adjustments, and px'd my meds until I got into pain management.
Pain mgmt doc and his P.A. Have changed my previous meds, and plans on doing Trigger point injections and a couple steroid injections on November 19, 2003. Hope that helps! Then maybe I can go off these pain pills! If not, who knows what's going to go on, but I'm trying to stay positive!

-Started at PM Clinic on 9/9/03, and went wonderful. First saw the P.A. Then saw the PM doc on the 18th, and he's absolutely wonderful.
-Moderate case of TMJ
-Lots of throbbing pain in left knee and left arm from previous fractures.. (knee from sports; arm broke in a car accident)..
-Also arthritis in hands.. Broken 6 of my fingers several times, and also broke 3 of my toes...
-Meds I was taking, then the meds I was changed to and I'm taking now : Percocet 7.5/500 every 4 hrs as need for pain changed on 9/23 to Percocet 10 (hope it does better!), Flexeril 10mg 2x/day changed on 9/9 to Zanaflex 3x/day, Tofranil 50mg @ bedtime changed to Gabitril 40mg @ bedtime on 9/9, Imitrex for migraines changed to Relpax on 9/9 then to Axert on 9/18, also given Zoloft 50mg in the morning on 9/9 to counteract all the meds that make me drowsy to keep me more awake.

AncientTowers · 09-25-2003, 03:30 AM

About your post...Methadone withdrawl last for MUCH longer than most opiates. That's because it' half life is very high. Half life meaning the amount of time it stays in your system, you might not be feeling the effects per say, but it's still there, so they measure all medications by a half life. And after taking it for 2 years in a row, I'm sure it has built up QUITE a half life, methadone REALLY starts working better the more consecutivly you take it, and it builds up longer that way. So infact you could STILL could be having some withdraws. Talk to your Dr. and tell him about it and mention if you could have a small prescription of a benzodiazipene. Like Ativan or Valium...it will DEFF. help those waking up at night w/ sweats and all the w/drawl symptons. I know this, because I have a loved one on methadone for several years now, and I've read TONS of information on Meth. The morphine, I take for my pain...100mg a day Time released. And I've also read tons of info on it, I really doubt that your getting those side effects from the mophine. You should have no withdrawl symptoms if your taking it everyday. Unless your taking it speradically. Then you might get a slight side effect until you dose again. I get that sometimes, like a runny nose and a hot/cold chill, because I didn't take my IR 20mg at my start of the day. So your instincts sound right...talk to your dr. he is the only one that can prob help this, or just wait it out, but like I said, with long term meth w/draw, WHO KNOWS how long till it's said and done.
Jimmy - Miami

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A Utopian Society would have libras as a foundation!

AncientTowers · 09-25-2003, 03:37 AM

I forgot...also, Meth and Morph, deff have similar if not the same side effects. More prominant w/ Morphine is WORSE constipation. WORSE dry mouth. And WORSE drowsyness.

WORSE w/ METH is...dosing off and euphoria. Also I read a neat factoid about methadone. It said that on methadone, your body inhibits the dropping of melitonin. Right before your going to enter that REM deep sleep state, we all 'drop' melitonin to make us sleep heavy and undisterbed. Well, have you ever noticed that on methadone you never seem to sleep strait through a night w/out waking up a couple hourse at a time, or any variation like the sort. Its very anyoing, but may be remidied or helped by buying some OTC melitonin at a health store.

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A Utopian Society would have libras as a foundation!

thegoodcatjupie · 09-25-2003, 08:02 AM

Thank you SO much for all of your replies. It *really* helps to know I am not the only one going through all of this. Realistically, I know I'm not, but your kindness and caring helped me through a rough couple of days.

God bless!