Author: jonathanm1978
Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 1:30 pm
| Gettingthere wrote: |
| After all the vomiting passed I felt great & slept even better! I called the dr this morning & he told me to try 1/2 a strip this morning & see how things go. I woke up feeling amazing, thank you all for your help – without you guys I would’ve been lost. Took my 1/2 about a half hour ago…. So far so good |
It’s hard to judge who should take how much when it comes to Suboxone. It’s a VERY strong medicine, but it has a bunch of factors that determine how much of it will get you to a level where you are comfortable and feel fine. Just like my doctor said yesterday when I went to him for my 3-month visit, not everyone is the same, and what’s good for one might not be good for another.
I’m to a point where my Suboxone levels need to be around 8-12mg a day to feel OK. Now, when it comes to chronic pain, much of which I can attest to arthritis in my knee and pretty bad dental probs, I take a little bit over that 8-12 mg per day to help tolerate the pain. I remember when I first started, I thought I had to have more, more, more…then I figured out that most of what I thought I needed was just anxiety.
I was so dumb back when I first started on it..I remember thinking if I only took 2 suboxone today, and the last one was around 6pm tonight, then by tomorrow morning if I didn’t have another one to take, that I would immediately face WD. It wasn’t until I realized that I was portraying the same attitude as I portrayed when I was in active addiction that I backed off and started seeing how long I could stretch between my dosage. I even had days when I would get busy and forget to take my suboxone, like literally just forgot all about it. Never had WD or felt bad either…it was just the brain saying "hey, feel bad unless you get more" and my body responding by ultimately feeling bad. I actually remember when I would think I was having chills and such while I was driving to the pharmacy to pick up my meds…
That was back before my insurance, when I was having to pay full-price for Suboxone tablets…and BOY were they high!!
I thought I was going to get my meds at CVS because it was the most easily accessible to my location..but I was BADLY mistaken. I went to CVS once, and got 3 pills. They cost me $31.00 and some change. That’s ok, I won’t be back here…and i went home and called around. I found that Fred’s had the VERY same pill, very same manufacturer, for $6.90.
So I began getting them at Fred’s. The pharmacist in there knew me and he was kinda glad to see that I was now doing better, but I could not afford to get much at once, so I was going to Fred’s about once/twice a week and buying 8, 10, or sometimes 15 pills…because I couldn’t afford any more than that.
And Fred’s pharm is closed on Sundays…I can remember when I would make damn sure i had enough to do me till Monday morning..and a couple of times I would take an extra on Sunday night before bed, then I’d get up Monday morning and I would convince myself that I was in withdrawals. Oh I felt SO bad (or told myself I did)…and I remember going to the pharmacy and getting my 5 or 10 pills, and popping one under my tongue in the parking lot…and thinking "whoo, I sure came close"…
Now I look back and think..I didn’t have a clue. I was no where NEAR withdrawals only doing without for 10-12 hours. But I sure told myself that I was.
Just goes to show what kind of tricks your brain can convince you of.
Ironically, I had my doctor visit yesterday, and talking about going to get my meds, I just got back from town a little bit ago, from going to Fred’s to get my monthly 75 Suboxone strips…
I don’t know about you guys, but before I sat down here, I had just finished counting them to make sure I was getting what I should. It’s not that I don’t trust the pharmacy or people, but the first time I say that I’m short, they’ll automagically assume that I’m just another druggie trying to get more than I should…when that’s farther from the truth than anything.
In fact, I got a backstock of Suboxone going that I’m just now starting..and I"m going to try and put up as many as I can.
Maybe it’s just me, or conspiracy theories from reading too much online, but I think about things like "what if the dollar is devalued and I can’t get my medicine" or "what if we are attacked by terrorists again and suddenly we can’t get shipments of anything, or meds are cut off.."
I def don’t dwell on it or let it consume me, but I do think about the stuff, doesn’t hurt to be cautious.
