I want to taper my hydrocodone w/o taking anything else. Help please.

[sweetieneedshelp]

Please excuse me ahead of time for my bad spelling! LOL I'm a bad speller :-) and bear with me, it's a little complicated, hence, I'm a little long winded.

My situation: I'm 31 yr old female. I'm not exactly sure how much I've been taking. I try not to take a ton. My pills are 10/650 hydrocodone apap (tylenol). I would guess I average about 1 1/2 every 4 hours (usually 3 doses ea. day. Never more than 2 at a time. I am not emotionally addicted, just physically...I take them for pain. I am perscribed them for back problems (scoliosis and other soft tissue damage stuff I can't spell), but I have other issues with pain as well... I get severe cramps when I get my period...  you can skip the parenthesized section below if you don't want to hear the details about that:

(that's kinda a long story in itself. I don't get the cramps when I excercize regularly - at least an hour and a half of cardio divided up however... throughout a week, every week... But I've been going through a lot of personal stuff and I've been sick a lot recently, so I have not been excercizing and I'm getting cramps crazy bad. They start up to a week before I even get my period and last up to 3 days after it's over. Advil doesn't do ANYTHING. But I am going to try to start exercizing again... so this should get rid of the cramps eventually as it has in the past. Some of my friends think I have endo... but I always thought I didn't because I don't get cramps when I excercize... I think I'm going to post a seperate posting asking if anyone knows anything about these cramps...)

I've been having problems with my teeth lately as well... I am in the process of saving money for the dentist to get all of that fixed...
I have been taking the pills on and off for about the last 5 years or so. I never had withdrawal symptoms when I stopped taking them in the past. I have been taking them solid for the last 6 months or so. fluctuating a lot in dosages... I ended up running out and had no idea that I would get sick... until... you guessed it! 2 days without pills and I felt sick to my stomache, restless legs - shoot restless whole body! LOL, stomache cramps, severe exaustion... so I started up again and decided I would taper my dose till I can get off. They don't work as well as they used to for pain and I feel like I am taking them just to be normal now...

So, needless to say, I have a few questions.
I went down from about 1 1/2 every 4 hours (3 doses ea. day usually) to 1 every 4-5 hours (no more than 3 ea. day - on most days). I did ok so I decided I would cut that in half and go down to 1/2 a pill 3 times ea. day. ug! I feel sick. I have to work 5-7 days a week. So I want to taper my dose without having to take any time off.

Sooo... QUESTION #1:  from 1 every 4-5 hours (total of 3 ea. day) where should I go? I'd rather taper slow since I can not take time off...I know, I said that all ready LOL, but I really can not take off work... I have a pill splitter, so I can cut my 10/650's into 4 pieces making each piece 2.5/162.5's. I could probably go even smaller than that...
I do not take any other pills regularly except allergy medecine.
I take a 1/2 of a soma once in a blue moon to relax muscle spasms in my back (prob. ave. no more than 4 pills a month).
I would be willing to take vitamins or other natural supplements that I can find at a pharmacy or health food store, but I hear they do not really help.

QUESTION #2: In the future how long can I take them again without having to go through withdrawl? If I take 1 10/650 every 4-5 hours? If I take 1 1/2? Is it the same? Can I take them for a week straight and be ok? Or just a few days? I know that there will be times when I will need them and I want to try to avoid this whole tapering / withdrawl mess again...


QUESTION #3: Is there any non perscrition that helps mood swings when I do have to take them? I pretty much ruined my relationship with the man I love because of mood swings on LT's (hydrocodone). We were together for over 6 years. We were sublimely happy for the most part, untill I started taking hydrocodone. After that we fought all the time. We ended up breaking up. I have not felt like myself since I started taking the darn things.

QUESTION #4: Has anyone else noticed that they have gotten sick more often (sinus infections, flu...) while they were taking hydrocodone regularly? Does hydrocodone lower your immune system?

QUESTION #5: What are the possible long term physical damages that I should look out for if I continue to take them off and on (when I need them)?

QUESTION #7: Is there anything else that actually works for pain that is not so addictive? Ultram doesn't work for my pain(and they make my heart beat wierd). Neither does tylenol 3 (and they make me puke). Advil, motrin, tylenol, aleve... = do nothing.

Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooo much for reading my post! Please give me your advice!

[sweetieneedshelp]

Thank you so much for your post! It really helps to know that someone understands! :-) How much are you trying to decrease your dose by? In what intervals? I'm just not sure what will work and keep me functioning.

I have someone I can confide in, but he really doesn't understand, so talking to people on here willl be really helpful!

I thought abouut the whole "bite the bullet" method too... I would do it if I had the time off. But you are on more, so it would probably be harder for you. When I ran out before I seem to remember (I can't remember exactly, I think I blocked it out!) that the first day was ok but the second and third sucked. I had no idea how long it would take. I was considering just stopping completely then. But I got more pills and since I had no idea how long it would take, and I had to work, I got back on them again... Now I wish I had just taken a couple more days and been done with it since I know wd's weren't going to last 3 weeks or something crazy like that... But the fear and uncertainty... made me get back on them... Since you have tried it before and it didn't work, it makes sence to me that you are trying it a different way this time. Everyone is different and you know yourself better than anyone else does.

Most people just don't understand how hard it is when you are in pain!!!!! My x used to tell me that I shouldn't take them as often as I did all the time. What he didn't understand was, at that point, I needed to take that many to function. Being in chronic pain is awful. Sometimes you need a break from it! I have read a lot of research that suggests that chronic pain is very bad for you. It even shortens your life span if it goes untreated! Oh, and if it's really bad, it can actually shrink your brain! Sounds like a sci fi movie or something, but in some cases it happens... There is no perfect solution.

I do not want to take anything like klonopin. I get anxiety attacks when I take something like that (klonopin, valium, xanex...) when it wears off. So it would take me just a short period of time to get addicted. But a lot of people on here say it helps them.

We should really stay in touch! I'd love to have a partner... a tapering partner LOL :-) Maybe we can help each other get through it.

Oh, and I was thinking this morning (while lying awake)... I wonder if medecine that is normally perscribed for restless legs would help that symptom. A friend of mine is perscribed it (not an addict) and it really helps her a lot. I was thinking of maybe asking her for one of her pills to give it a try... but I'm not sure if that's a good idea. At this point I second guess and medecine I take! LOL

I hope that you can stick to your plan and you have a great day today!

[peaceM]

Hi,
I read your post and can really relate to you what you're going through.  I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone.  

I have been taking more than you have -- about 8 to 9 of hydrocodone per day ("as prescribed") and have been trying desperately to wean myself off -- I know I no longer take it for the neck pain I incurred from a car injury 2 years ago.  At the same time, I would still like to have medication as an option for those times when my neck really is in chronic pain.  I was told by someone in NA recently that being a chronic pain person is the worse case scenario if you're addicted to the painkillers.  You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't.  It takes a tremendous amount of willpower to stick to the medication only as needed and I applaud you for trying.  

I tried going cold turkey and the w/d symptoms are horrible and I always end up failing.  So now I'm trying to taper off very gradually.  People keep telling me that I have to face up to the w/d symptoms and just "bite the bullet".  And unlike you, I am not currently working, so I have the time and space to do it cold turkey.  I've learned that days 3 and 4 are the worst.  But maybe with the amount that you're taking, the withdrawal symptoms won't be as bad or won't last as long.

Having access to a prescription for klonopin (a benzo) has helped so far in getting me to cut down but you have to be really careful with that...klonopin can be just as addicting.  Plus, it is almost impossible to do this alone.  If you trust someone to let them know what you are facing, it goes a long way.

On a few forums, I have seen a "Thomas Recipe" posted that seems to have some useful advice if you want to get unhooked from this stuff, whatever approach you decide to take.  

I have started cutting down very, very gradually since Wednesday and checking in with this forum has helped a lot.  So far, I'm experiencing a small degree of success but I wonder if I should just "bite the bullet" as they say and go cold turkey and just endure 5 days of hell.  The restless legs are the absolute worst!

Best of luck to you.  

[sweetieneedshelp]

It's 6:30 am. I got about 3 hours of sleep. I feel horrible. Restless legs suck!
I hope I didn't offend anyone by posting on here (as I do not think I am emotionally addicted...). I am dealing with emotional issues because of the pills... It's hard to explain... I just turned around one day and realized I wa taking more than I needed just for pain... and it's having a bad impact on my life. The pills make me feel asome and when they wear off I'm a B. So I thought the solution was taking them more regularly to minimize mood fluctuations. But I'm not actually in pain all the time. Then they stopped working as well... For a while I was getting horrible stomache cramps and I think I figured out it was from taking more pills than perscribed... Then I took more for the cramps...
I want to be back at the point where I only take them when the pain is really bad and I'm not so moody all of the time... that way I don't have to take so many for them to work... and maybe I won't be such a B to my next boyfriend...
Not everyone is the same... maybe I'm a little bit of a wuss too... but they have really affected me badly! Now that I'm putting two and two together and realizing that it isn't the best thing for me to be on these all the time, I want off.

[worried878]

well...ur dose is not extraordinary..the tyleonol is a bit high as most forms of hydro have 500 mgs of tylenol tops..either way the toxic dose is 4000 mgs of tyleol a day so be sure u dont go over that often or at all in one day...the hydro u r taking   45mgs a day?  i am thinking that is what u were saying..is really not alot and would be a CT dose for many...i was at 100 mgs for 4 yrs and wds were not severe physically/done in 3 days..but the emotional/mental part as far as fatigue and depression hit me hard...but u state u r not an addict...so this should not be a problem for u like it was for me....if ur pain warrants pain meds and u have found no alternative pain relief then i am not sure why u want to quit since u r not addicted/per say/?  i would ask the dr for sumpin with less or no tylenol in it and i would also remember that narcotics were never intended to be used long term due to tolerence...ur dose now can double in a few yrs...mine did and also a chronic pain patient as well...just did not work for me as emotional pain out weighed the physical relief//which was nill after a few yrs anyway...narcs only work on the perception of pain as far as the brain perceives it.it doesnt directly hit the pain source like other forms of pain relief

if u r NOT an addict//mentally having problems with this and only u would know this for sure//then u should be able to go back to pills if u feel the need cos the physical wd is the easy part to do for most..not gonna say ur tolerence will not go up cos it eventually it will..it is inevitable...most here are mentally additcted and taking narcs is not sumpin most of us can entertain the idea of ever doing again ...we just end up back where we were in the spider web we created..using safely is virtually impossible for an addict...

hard to answer u i guess as i c i have been rambling....but this is an addiction forum..and most here are not really thinkin bout ever using again..not gonna say that some wont relapse cos they will..but not actively planning to use again...there is a chronic pain forum here and it would be good to go there as there r many there who r on long term narcotics for pain and have no issues with them..i want to wish u the best of luck and if u ever need advice on quitting we r here

[IBKleen]

Hi,

I so much want to help here and answer your questions but I have to go to bed as I get up at 5 am for work. I am sure there are some "night owls" who will give you good advise and I will check in the am and see if I can post to you, but I will guess you will have great advise by then. Hang in there for the night.

I just posted so you know there are people here who care and will answer all of your questions. Enjoy your evening.


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