Author: Jimmy
Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 4:42 am
| Ashybaby59 wrote: |
My worries will i be sick? How can i enjoy anything in life without my oxy? The dr said i would be on sub for at least 18months… but i wanted to get pregnant again when my son turns 2. I do not want to be on ANY meds while preg. Yes, i can wait. Yes i am on birth control, but WHAT IF i end up getting pregnant…. we all know birth control is not 100% My dr said wait 12 hours until i dose… is that long enough? I dont want rapid withdraw… everything i have read says wait until you are withdrawing, but evermorning i wake with cramps, anxiety, tired… so isnt that withdraws? I am so scared. I dont know how to enjoy life without my pills… |
Hi and welcome!
I am going to try to answer your questions, but please remember I am not a doctor, just an experienced sub patient.
Will I be sick?
That all depends on how long you wait before you take your first sub. Oxy was also my drug of choice. I too was a daily user, but at a much higher dose. I went through a long period of oxy/sub/oxy/sub/oxy/sub…. so I consider myself somewhat of an expert at sub induction. Your main goal here is to not take the sub too early! Trust me when I say that precipitated withdrawal is the worst sickness you would ever feel.
To avoid the PW’s, you must be in at least mild withdrawal from the vikes you are now taking. It is optimal to be in moderate-severe withdrawal, but I know not everyone (including me) can wait that long. If you are in doubt, I suggest you use the COWS scale – designed to measure the level of opiate withdrawal a person is in. Here is a link, along with some pretty good info regarding sub induction:
http://www.naabt.org/documents/NAABT_PrecipWD_HiRes.pdf
Do whatever it takes to hold off on that first sub, because once you take it, there is no going back. If you are truly in moderate – severe withdrawal, you should begin to feel relief in approximately 20 minutes after your first sub, with full effect coming in about an hour.
You did not mention if you have strips or pills or what dose your doctor told you to take. Opinions on this vary, but in my experience it is best to start with 2mg. After the initial 2mg, wait 1.5-2 hours and if you are still in withdrawal, repeat the process with another 2 mg. Sub is very strong. Some people jump right in by taking 8mg or more. Doing so has no advantages but definitely has downsides. Taking too much will cause your tolerance to skyrocket and invites sub side effects. Side effects are usually non existent at the lower doses. Not saying there won’t be ANY, but any you do get will be very mild because of the low starting dose.
Anyway, once you feel like you are completely out of withdrawal, add up how much you took and that becomes your daily dose. If you get to the next day and that dose doesn’t seem to be cutting it, you can increase it, but never by more than 2 mg!
Don’t want to sound like a broken record, but waiting long enough before that first sub is CRUCIAL ! Now, if for some reason you can’t wait and you are thrown into precipitated withdrawal, do not try to make it go away by taking more sub. That will only make matters worse. Dr. Junig has an excellent post on what to do if you find yourself in precipitated withdrawal.
http://suboxonetalkzone.com/precipitated-withdrawal-now-what/
How can i enjoy anything in life without my oxy?
Good question. What I am about to say is my opinion only! I’m not sure I would have chosen a holiday for a sub induction. For me, when I was able to avoid precipiated withdrawal, the worst part of getting back on sub was the depression and anxiety. I asked myself the exact same question! How am I supposed to enjoy anything without my oxy! It usually took me around a week to see any major improvements to my attitude. Even if I had no physical withdrawal symptoms, I would almost be in a state of panic over not having any oxy. The best way I dealt with this was to make sure it was a weekend, or to get a couple days off work, to just sit and vegetate with the TV with no kids or spouse to bother me.
That’s how I handled it, but I realize everyone is different. You might find that staying busy is the best way to get over the mental part. You might not have ANY mental wd symptoms, but after 18 months of daily use I would expect some. Heck, oxy has been your best friend and now you are losing it’s company. You just gotta remember why you’re doing this and keep telling yourself it MUST be done.
What if I get pregnant?
Dr. Junig has written a few very good articles regarding preganancy and suboxone. Basically he said being on subonxe is much better than being on a full agonist.
http://suboxonetalkzone.com/category/pregnancy/
Please, if anything I’ve said goes against what your doctor told you to do, by all means follow your doctor’s orders. What I described above is what always worked best for me, but no two people react to sub the same way. The one thing I can say with 100% certainty is DON’T TAKE THE FIRST DOSE TOO SOON!
I hope all goes well for you. Again welcome to the site – the members here are the kindest, most compassionate group of people you’ll ever meet. No question is too ‘out there’. If you experience something strange with sub, chances are someone here has experienced it too.
Congratulations! You’ve taken the first step on the road to recovery. You should be proud of yourself.
Merry Christmas!
Jimmy
