Author: laddertipper
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 10:10 am
Not sure you’re gonna read this, but I’ll try anyway.
It sucks that you are losing your doc and the piss test when he is leaving is so ridiculous!! He either did it because he wanted to get the results before you got your script or he did it because he wanted to squeeze a little more money out of you. Doctors can make a lot of money on those tests. My doctor lied to me and said my insurance required the UA’s, but I called and it’s not true. They don’t require any. I think it’s funny how much concern there is for the ‘addict’ but then doctors will up and leave or drop people and don’t seem to look into whether those same poor addicts will even be able to find another doc!!
I ended up in the same boat as you with no doctor anywhere close by and having to drive really far to see my doc. It’s such a pain, so I’m tapering too. You are starting at 4, which isn’t too high, so I think 120 tabs is plenty and I also think you’re lucky to have the small tabs. Some people get stuck trying to taper using the gigantic ones. Since you are starting at 4 and have been there a good while, you should be able to get down to 2 mg pretty easily. It may get tougher from there, but try to get to 1 mg as soon as you can, so you can hold there a while. It’s different for everyone, but it got hard for me at 1 mg, and I just wasn’t expecting that completely. If you can get down to 1 soon, you will have plenty to make it the rest of the way off.
Be vigilant about recording your dose everyday, so you can see your progress and know exactly how much you’re taking and how long you’ve been at each dose. You may get some symptoms between here and 2 mg, especially between here and 1 mg, but try your best to get low and then hold it a while. Your body may throw up a road block at some point, but it you can get to a low enough dose, that roadblock won’t eat into your supply too badly. Try to cut your tabs accurately, but if you mess up, don’t throw it out! Just use the rest of the tab in the following days to average out correctly. Save any severely messed up tabs and dust from cutting them. I have really old tab pieces/dust that is my back up to my back up Sub, just in case. It’s better to plan for it to take longer and then be pleasantly surprised. I’ve realized that, even at between .25 and .375 mg, I’m not even on the verge of being done yet. I could jump from here, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep or do much for a while. As you said, you have to work, so you’ll need to taper pretty low. It’s pretty hard to grasp the true strength of Suboxone until you get to the lower doses. It’s kind of a rude awakening, I guess.
If you want to drop your dose rapidly and are committed to it, try only dosing when you need it. This works really well if you have the drive to stick with it. You can take 1 or 2 mg at a time and wait until your body is demanding more, even if that is in the middle of the night. Once again, you have to write down how much you took in each 24 hour period. Maybe you could do this and give it your all and then tell yourself that once you get to 1, you can take a deserved break. Think about it. If you were at 1 mg, your supply would last you 240 days. 
BTW, do you have any Clonidine? It helps TONS with some of the symptoms. Maybe since your doc ditched you, he’d have to decency to call a script in for you, just in case you need it. Also, you can order it online from Canada, but it takes a small forever, even with the pricier shipping, so order it now and order a bunch of it.
Stick around, because we will help you.
laddertipper
