Author: hatmaker510
Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 5:34 am
Hello notthejones and welcome to the forum. I’ll try my best to answer most of your questions, although I’m not sure that I can completely. First off, I’m don’t really understand how you described how you take/remove your fentanyl patches although I don’t know that I need to. You asked if you need to stop the meds at 9 am or if you can wait until 9 pm. Am I correct in understanding that you will be inducing the next morning? If that’s the case, then if you were to stop the meds at 9 pm, chances are you won’t be in enough withdrawal to start your sub treatment the next day – especially with the fent patches. They are very long lasting. The rule of thumb, so to speak, for starting sub treatment is not the amount of time to be in withdrawal, but how bad those withdrawals are. If we try to get around said withdrawals, we risk going into precipitated withdrawals, and trust me, you don’t want that. The "normal" withdrawals you will feel will seem like a walk in the park compared to the P/W.
Now, all that said, if I’m misunderstood any part of your post, please correct me. Also, I don’t know that much about the transition from fent patches to suboxone, so perhaps someone with personal experience will chime in.
I also take suboxone for pain and I have found that it indeed DOES help quite a bit with my pain. However, some people say the opposite. It just depends on the person and how bad their chronic pain is. When it comes to using sub for pain, dosing methods are different. Pain patients dose multiple times per day (2+) and often tend to be on higher doses than people who are only taking it for opiate addiction. Personally, I’m prescribed up to 3, 8 mg tablets per day. I usually take 2 and only that 3rd pill on a really, really bad day.
With regard to your insurance, honestly, I’m not sure if Medicare covers suboxone, but I THINK there have been some people around here who have had it covered through Medicare. Again, perhaps they will be around and will chime in on your thread.
Trazodone should help you sleep (50 mg shouldn’t knock you out, but you never know) and clonidine does help with withdrawals. It’s sort of the gold standard in treating opiate withdrawals.
Not sure if this is what you were looking for, but I hope this helps at least a little bit. I know you are scared….it’s normal. I don’t know anyone in your shoes who wasn’t afraid of this transition. It’s a HUGE change even though you’re taking a positive stop. Just focus on the other side of it. Before you know it your induction will be behind you and you’ll be amazed at how much better you will feel.
Oh, I wanted to ask you…Is your doctor doing your induction – as in, is s/he giving you the suboxone in their office or having you take them at home, do you know?
Like I said, I hope this helps. Feel free to ask more questions or clarify if I’ve misunderstood your post. Hang in there and again, welcome to the forum.
