Dear Lisa,
I am very sorry for your chronic pain...and can relate. It's agonizing to hurt all the time and you are sick of it and want relief. I just detoxed after four years on Oxys (and Suboxone) and much of the original low back pain is still there. I was masking it for four years! Taking anything like this will give you relief, but it's not a permanant fix. It's like being "between the devil and the deep blue sea."
I have questions for you: What is the source of your back pain? What type of doctor are you seeing who wants to put you on Suboxone for pain? Is this an internist? Psychiatrist? Orthopedist? Most importantly, I have not yet heard of Suboxone being used for pain relief exclusively, although I was told when put on it that it does have some analgesic effect (but not the narcotic "high"). I'm suprised that this is his or her first recommendation, passing over the hydro/oxys. NOT that I'm recommending them. How much experience does this doctor have dosing Suboxone for pain relief? If he or she can dose it, I'm sure they took the "Suboxone course" required by the drug company, which is really four hours of information about the drug. Has your doctor dosed this to anyone else for pain and has he had experience with people trying to stop? He or she will tell you that Suboxone is supposed to be easier to detox off off than opiates; this is how it is marketed by the drug company according to their clinical trials. But ask some people here who have stopped using it what their experience was like. Most doctors (psychiatrists) prescribing it only know what the drug company has provided; they don't have experience prescribing it; i.e. patients taking it over the long term and how they react to it. They do know people can go on it from big doses of narcotic, but they don't know really how people go off it, which is really to me the main goal. Before deciding to take it, please made a list and ask your doctor these questions. Also, have you tried physical therapy, exercise, a chiropractor, stretching therapy, etc.?
It's a conundrum; the pain you have sucks and you want relief. Taking narcotics helps, but taking it long term and regularly will make you dependant. I don't say this to scare you or be a jerk. But read some of the posts here. So many people begin narcotics for pain and end up.....addicted. I know too, that many people can take them only when they need them. As far as the Suboxone for pain.......I just don't know. I know that some here might think me anti-Suboxone but I just finished taking it for six months after four years on Oxycontin, and when I tried to stop had terrible withdrawls. I know for many people, the Suboxone has gotten them off of heroin and other strong narcotics. And it does do that. I went from 100mgs of Oxys a day to one 5 mg pill of Suboxone. But I'm coming to believe that it does it's job a little too well. I don't believe it is meant to be taken long term and is just as addicting as the rest.
C.
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