Help with Oxycontin withdrawal

[GixerBoy]

Hi all

Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself.  I am using my husband's log in and I know that he has been talking to you guys.   Thank you all for helping him, you seem to be able to help in a way that I can't.   I love him so much and yet whatever I do it seems to be wrong, yet from his posts I know he adores me.    For those of you that don't know he has back problems/osteroporsis and is on 640mg a day of oxycontin for relief.   I know he wants to stop but he relies on it so much, without it he is in constant pain.

Just for the record, for those of you that know, can this drug cause confusion etc?  Its just that he has serious sleep problems, can go days without sleep then just crash.  During this state he becomes very confused, talks a lot of stuff that makes no sense to me at all and is a completely different person!    He is currently asleep on the bedroom floor, I can't move him, and whenever I try and help him and get him into bed he gets angry with me.  So I have just left him, put a pillow under his head, and a duvet over him.   Which of course means no sleep for me tonight! oh well.

Anyway, thanks for listening guys we both appreciate it.  


Karen (Gixerboys wife)

[GixerBoy]

I am so sorry about the many spelling mistakes, kit's kinda late here and I am very very tired now (falling asleep typing this)Gixer

Thank you for your patience

[GixerBoy]

Hi
I am the person concerned "gixerboy", to whom my wife has been posting about.  Firstly I would like to thank all of you that posted.  My wife was so very confused and terrified to frank, as there seemed to be no way she could actually help me!  
My "doctor" at the time prescribed increasing amounts of OxyContin exponentially, in order to combat my pain and in his words "allow you to move freely about both your house environment, and the outside world at large".  Naturally I went allong with his repeated prescription and consumed ever greater quantities of this drug.  I even submitted a spread sheet to show exactly how I was coping etc.  I ended up on 640mg of OxyContin which to be honest seemed to me to be both a perfectly logical and appropriate ammount.  In was in no way at all acting as if I was as high as a kite at any time, indeed I was interacting with many people on a day to day basis with no noticeable degredation of either cognitive or sociointeractive awareness ability.  However when I got married aprox 1 year ago, because my wife and I were organising the entire marriage ourselves, this entailed a huge increase in physical acivity from me.  So for the duration of the wedding (and honeymoon) my doctor still further increased my does to (and yes this is entirely true I promise you) 960mg per day for the duration of both the wedding and honeymoon.  There is however something I need to state, for some strange or even bizarre reason my body metabolises opiates incredibly rapidly, with absolutely no toxic or adverse effects.  I have been this way since I was a child and to be frank no doctor has ever been able to understand or even believe that this is the case, with "normal" doses having absolutely no effect at all!  The only doctor that actuall noticed and "appreciated" this situation was the doctor that put me on this huge dose  now take.  When I returned from my honeymoon however, I had run out of my meds and needed a re-fill so to speak.  The resident pharmasist red flagged my prescription request and that is when my problems with my surgery began.  She was deply concerend that I was using far too much far to quickly, and refused the re-scrip and contacted this doctor to tell him about it.  I was then called in and was forced to speak to him regarding my "over using" of the drug????  When I spoke to him in person I was then accused (in a manner of speaking) that I was using to much and that I could no longer get a month's supply and I was now going to be watched closelyby the pharmasist and that I could now only get one week's supply (one box of 56 x 80mg).  I was completely confused by this action because I was sommunicating to the Dr beforehand and I considered everything to be in order so to speak, but then found that in fact the doctor had then gone completely back on his "word" and was now accusing me of over using the drug!!!!! Before I had a chance to argue my case the doctor in question was dismissed from the surgery for using the surgery PC's to visit pornographic web sites etc!!!!  This is the absolute truth with no variation or omission of any key facts r details.

To be honest it looked like to both my wife and I at the time, that when the dispensary got wind of what was going on they red flagged it to the doctor. So because (as I later found out) this extra 960mg he arranged with me was not actually recorded on any system, when I came back I was effectively framed by my own docor to save his own neck!!  He even said to me once during a consultation, that some of the other doctors had voiced concern about the amount I was taking, but it would be ok because he was dealing with it!!!!

Am I going completely insane here folks or was my docor at that time welll and truly over prescribing this med and when he was effectively "found out" he lied to them and blamed me entirely for the amount I was taking to save his own skin?  Can anybody please just consider what I have written and just tell me exactly what you think??

I have to say that at no point during my honeymoon was I ever delirious confused spaced out or any other form of narcosis or narcotic/opiate derived strange behaviour, because of the 960mg dose I was taking at that time.

My eratic behaviour mentioned before regarding sleeping etc has been there since i was a child.  I have known my wife for over five years now, well before I was prescribed OxyContin and my erratic behaviour was as bad then as it is now, and it was well before I was prescribed any narcotic whatsoever.

Can anybody please please just comment on what you think about the way my doctor behaved towards me and his prescribing both before and after the wedding??

Thank you so so much for reading this you have no idea what it means

Thank you all

Gixer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            


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[briannentx]

That amount is way to high sounds like his body has built up a high tolerance.The thing is that amount even on a veteran of meds like that can cause sleep apnea and breathing compromise and he could die easily in his sleep... He may want to try and taper off that much to let his body re adjust itself and maybe something else with it to help alongside.I was taking high doses myself at one point also and to not have its horrible.  I was tired of the ups and downs with the oxycodone.So, I went to the methadone clinic and that's what I've been on 3 yrs now. If he's going to have pain the rest of his life you may want to ck out methadone.I'm not saying that it's for everyone by any means and it is prescribed for long term pain not just to get off painkillers.  Not long after you have been on methadone you cant tell anymore it just helps with the pain and you are not nodding off and all that comes with high doses of strong pain killers.Hope this helps Bri

[GixerBoy]

Hi guys

thanks for the posts, it sure does help!  I have checked on him several times now and he is dead to the world!  Anyway, I have work to do tomorrow so i;d best go!

[worried878]

I feel ur pain....I am not saying ur husband is not in horrific pain...but sometimes a dose that high is just above and beyond any pain relief..i am not sure how old he is but with tolerence building it can even be a fatal dose..it would be for many...i am assuming a doctor prescribes this for him...that is one of the highest doses i have ever seen..even without a doctors supervision.......sometimes the effect of the narcotic can outweigh the pain relief and evaluation may be in order...maybe by a new doctor...there are internal pumps and such that could help manage this pain...i would be concerned...u have every right to be severely concerned

[monkeypie]

640mg a day??? That is eight times what I was taking and I thought that *I* had a bad monkey. I've been cold turkey for five days and have been just miserable. I can't even imagine how to get off your husband's dosage. Why does he want to get off it? I would have taken it for life if I could but I was cut off completely and all at once. Sounds like your poor on the floor husband has a freekin gorilla on his back-- my best guess is that he will need to get on something else, perhaps SUBOXONE -- I've heard some good reports about that. In the meantime hang in there, understand that his behavior has *nothing* to do with you and keep in contact with this forum. It about saved my sorry a**.

Best to you and he,
monkeypie

[GixerBoy]

Many thanks for your post, I really appreciate it.   It just helps to know that there is someone out there that cares!!!

Karen

[GoingToMakeIt]

If he takes too much at once he sure could have confusion. The lack of sleep can too. That was sweet of you to cover him. I do hope you get some sleep tonight, anyway. Good luck to the both of you.