Withdrawals coming off Suboxone Cold Turkey?

greggr · 02-06-2005, 02:49 AM

Hi All if anyone has read my other post about my fiance Nicole, she just became pregnant and is currently taking 2mg of suboxone everyday and sometime everyother day. She has made a decision to quit cold turkey with the understanding that the withdrawal stress may cause a misscarriarge. The doctor can't treat her anymore on the suboxone because of the lack of studies on pregnant women. The drug is too new to know the side effects. They recommended getting her on methodone which will cause the baby to be addicted when born. We are totally against that and need to know from others experience how long we should expect the withdrawals to last. She is on day 2 right now and is suffering from heavy withdrawals, her opiate addiction is not as severe as most others she is only taking 2mg of suboxone so we are hoping she gets through this real quick without causing too much stress to the growing baby inside her stomach. She is only about 6-7 weeks pregnant but the first trimester is most crucial for miscarriages. Please let us know what kind of experience we should be prepared for. We don't know if we are making the right decision and it is really scary. THank you all for your help.

Gregg
Regards,
Gregg

goddessgrl65 · 02-06-2005, 09:40 AM

Gregg-
How are you-i remember you very well-i am still on the sub-2 mgs-
Tapering is a bit difficult-but not horrible-
Were you planning on having a child so soon?Do you feel this is the right time to have a child?Im not suggesting abortion-im a mother.
When i had my son-i was clean for 6 years-my son shows signs of alcohol problems.He is 20 now-and i did not get addicted to the drugs until he was a teenager..ive been in detoxs w/ pregnant women on methadone-and supposedly it does not cause organ damage.
I would try to have her come off the sub as you are doing now-switching back and forth to 2 mgs/1 mgs/and .5 mgs over the next week or two until she is down to the smallest amount then jump.
I believe the baby/and mom would be far better off not having to go thru w/d after she gives birth.
Obviously..what was your fiances drug of choice/how long?
How long on the sub?
Sorry for all the questions-but id like to be helpful..
If i can-this is a very personal matter-and only the 2 of you know whether or not you are ready to take on the biggest/greatest role of your lives.
Goddess BLESS..
ggrl

greggr · 02-06-2005, 10:00 AM

Nicole was diagnosted with Endometriosis when she was younger so her chances of having a child at all were less than normal. We are very excited to have a baby, we are completly set up for it, we have a big house and financialy stable. Nicole was never the problem with the drugs, I had the big problem and unfortunately Nicole started taking pills because I always had them. She is fine never taking a pill again in her life. She is so against it and once she makes it through these tough times she will never look back. She never once had to go out and find these drugs (vicodin, and towards the end some methodone). She was using opiates for approx 1.5 years at always a low level. Our problem now is there is no getting out of this mess without making a huge decision that may be the wrong one. She tried to go cold turkey because going on Methadone which was recommended by our doctor was out of the questions for us. Because her opiate addiction was so low we thought the withdrawals would not be so severe, well we were wrong. Yesterday was her day 2 clean and she had a real tough time, I was forced to give her approx 1mg of suboxone to calm her nerves down. We are real nervous to taper off as well as cold turkey, but at this point we will probably try to taper her down slowly rather than quit cold turkey. She was in bad shape last night.

She has only been taking suboxone for approx 3 months and its weird some days she doesn't even take it, she only takes it if she feels the withdrawals coming on. We wish we had more advice on what to do, our doctor told us straight out he can't treat her anymore and he doesn't know enough about the drug to help us make a decision. I called 50 different hotlines with still no educated responses. We are so fustrated with the idea that making the wrong decision could affect the rest of our lives as well as endangering our new baby. I appreciate all the responses because you can imagine how difficult it will be if somehow we have a misscarriage and we will know for the rest of our lives that it was because of our drug addiction. It is really hard to grasp. Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks
Gregg

goddessgrl65 · 02-06-2005, 10:15 AM

Hi-
were both online..so.thats good-take the 1 mgs..and take the smallest amount she can take to hold off w/d-very slow taper..is the suggested way to come off the sub-skipping days-taking crumbs-will stave off the w/ds until she gets more time-between w/d and then stop.
I agree w/ your plan-of not switching to methadone-its not nessecery esp. where she did not use large amounts of opiates-ultimately she will have to stop and feel some w/d symptoms but mostly it will be a little fluish-sweats..low key stuff-but there will be the emotional rollercoaster.
Thats great that you have your lives set up to have this child-thats pretty much what i was wondering-and where there was a possibility that she might not be able to have a baby-this must be very exciting for the both of you.
So-i think if you keep goin down-and get off before the end of the first trimester-everything should be fine..I believe thats the basic info-
I would check out some outpatient services for therapy-to keep the emotional side in check..and of course-eat healthy-get the proper sleep-and focus in on those good feelings-Congradulations..
Iwish you both the best..
GoddessBless you all-
ggrl

electricguy · 02-06-2005, 02:00 PM

Hi,
Well I am in the middle of cold turkey from 6 mg's (took sub for 8 days after a 1 year plus 10-15 norco extravaganza) down to 0. My doctor had given me a script with a taper schedule that I followed close enought to make myself feel ok but in the end according to him "I did my math wrong" and now I am out of sub and stuck c/t. My last sub was Friday night. I have to say I am supplementing with valium during the day and halcion (thats the drug George Bush Sr took to sleep when he was Prez-trivia). Doctors might now like to do that the the pregnancy. I feel kind of crappy, but manageable. The affects I am getting from going from 6-0 seem tolerable. Acheing, headache, stuffed up nose. Kind of like a bad cold or light flu. I also take calcium/magnesium (I read somewhere that helps with leg cramps) and multi-vitamins just incase they actually work. GOOD LUCK! You can make it!