Tapering off narcotics

Anyone have any suggestions?

I had a very bad experience about 3 years ago after shoulder surgery.  I was on demerol pills for about 5 days, and when I ran out, I had pretty obnoxious withdrawal symptoms.  It was REALLY seriously unpleasant for about 36 hours.

For my facelift and arms, I was on a Fentnyl patch and demerol until Thursday, when I started feeling ill.  Took off the patch, stopped the demerol and started taking percoset, one every 4 hours, instead.  Decided to try to taper off today.

At noon, I took 2 Aleve and 1 percoset.  At 4 PM. took nothing.  It's now 5:30, and my face and arms are ACHING and STINGING really badly.  I'm mostly willing to put up with this, so long as I don't go into withdrawals.  So far, no problem with that -- so I'm reluctant to do what I really want to do -- which is to take a 1/2 percoset right now.

I still have the fentanyl patches.  I also have some Tylenol 3s (codeine).  Trying to figure out the best way to both handle the pain and taper off the narcotics without withdrawals.

What I have done is to space it out. Like 1 every 6 hours. The next day...1 every 8 hours until I'm ready to just go without. If you are still stinging a lot I wouldn't go cold turkey. I'm off of mine now and just taking the Aleve for the aching but it doesn't do much for me.

I checked with Agha too, after I posted this -- and he suggested exactly what you said.  He also said it was a little too soon to stop taking the percosets just yet.  So I took another one and I'm feeling better now.

Thanks!

Good Girl!

I don't know anything important about narcotics except how to spell it.

BUT . . . post-plastics I took serious meds for pain at night until six weeks out, because by the evening the swelling and pain were so severe that I could hardly think about anything else, much less sleep.   It didn't take a lot of vicodin to eliminate the agony, and because of the RNY I was able to feel relief in 13 minutes (I was in pain and seriously medicated, but still compulsive enough to count, go figure).  What I did find was that once I was at a stage when pain was less severe, the pain meds 1)  didn't work well anyway; and 2) they made me nauseous.

If you are still in pain, then I'm not sure why you would reduce the pain relief -- if it is working.  I'm trying to read your post correctly -- is it that previously after five days you had an addiction-type response?  I have been told repeatedly (because I tend to under medicate for pain) that using these meds for genuine pain relief generally does not produce addiction -- are you saying that in your case, this is hogwash?

Yeah, I got physically addicted despite the fact that I actually was needing the pain relief.  Physically addicted -- not psychologically -- I didn't want to be taking the meds.  But I did have physical withdrawal symptoms (nausea, abdominal cramps, anxiety).

Agha told me to keep taking the percosets for another few days.  I went nearly 6 hours without getting any symptoms of withdrawal, which while not definitiive, did encourage me that maybe it won't happen with the percosets.  I have had it happen with demerol and once many years ago with high dose codeine.

I'd make a lousy heroin addict.

Well, sorry about that, that's really too bad.  Percocet makes me batsh*t no matter HOW much pain I'm in, and Demerol makes me stupid without relieving the pain (but then, I really don't give a d*mn) ... so I'm strictly a Vicodinian.

Good luck to you -- and wow, I can't imagine being in that position.  I swear, I used to lie in bed waiting for the thirteenth minute, and feeling the pain literally lift from my body as the Vicodin took over.

I'm guessing all this means you're also not allowed to drink? 

Vicodin doesn't do much for me -- I prefer codeine.  And demerol is my friend -- blissfully floating a few inches over the bed.  But then it makes me feel like I'm drifting away for good.

Drinking -- oh snap -- I hadn't even THOUGHT about having a drink to enhance the percs.  Breathing is one of my favorite activities however -- I should think about this carefully.

Drinking didn't do sh*t to quell the pain, and I wouldn't mix it with narcs, BUT ... it would occasionally knock me out (about a tablespoon did the trick with RNY) so that I could sleep.  This is not a good life strategy, but in a pinch it helped.