Ready to declare victory?

[TimInColo]

I'm just short of 60 hours since my last dose of oxycodone.  I have no withdrawal symptoms at all -- none.  I even slept fairly well last night w/o any sleep aids (except melatonin, an over-the-counter supplement which I have been taking for years).

For those who don't know my history, I was on oxycodone for about 3 months.  The first two were fairly low  dosages (10-20 mg/day) to help me deal with significant sciatic pain caused by a synovial cyst in my lumbar spine.  On November 29 I had surgery, a posterior instrumented lumbar fusion at L4/5 and a re-operative decompression at L3/4/5 and S1.  I spent 3 days in the hospital on 80mg/day of oxycodone and dilaudid (hydromorphone) administered as needed (I probably had 15-20 doses through my IV during the 3 days... I am unsure of the dosage).

I left the hospital still on the 80mg/day of oxycodone (20mg/day in time-release OxyContine and the rest in immediate release oxycodone, 10mg every 4 hours).  I continued that regimen for two full weeks and then started reducing the immediate release doses until I was down to about 30mg/day just before Christmas).  On Christmas Eve I stopped the OxyContin and decided to only take the oxycodone at bedtime.  Once the time-release oxy cleared my system, and several hours after my last immediate release dose, I hit the wall with significant withdrawal symptoms (I was very sick).  I didn't know what it was at the time... my family wanted me to go to the ER, but I didn't even want to move and the thought of riding in a car or ambulance was revolting.  As I lay in bed I started wondering if I may be in withdrawal, decided to take an oxycodone pill, and within 20 minutes felt much better.  Some replies on this forum and a trip to my doctor confirmed I had developed a dependency on the opiates.

I started tapering the day after Christmas.  I continued to experience minor symptoms each time I cut the dose or increased the time between doses.  

Now I'm in  the middle of day 3 and completely symptom free.  I don't have any desire to take any oxy (I still have about 60 pills left).  I'm sure the tapering helped immensely, and if you are able to taper down I believe you can avoid the worst of the withdrawal symptoms.

Can I claim victory at this point?

Thanks, all...

Tim

[10356]

That is Great Tim ! Congratulations on getting off the opiates with a successful taper !! I wish you and yours well.. lesa

[dominosarah]

Congrats on getting off the oxy's!!!  If i was you i would get rid of the remaining pills.  Our brain can play some real nasty games with us.  

[TimInColo]

Yes, I'm going to wait a day or so just to make 100% sure I don't need to taper any longer and then flush the remaining pills.  I start day 4 in 3 hours and I still feel pretty good.