Please do not take this as critism, although I have been known to come off as a "know it all"......
There is no logical reason I can think of that you should be worrying about how and when a
PERCOCET will take "effect" when/if you have surgery or extreme pain. I feel that you are setting yourself up already, without trying to let that addiction go.
And I promise you, I do know how we can manipulate our thoughts and justify our reasonings. I also was addicted to opiates (percocets and then on to
oxycontin) for quite a few years.
In saying that, I have to tell you that your thought process today will not help you tomorrow.
For me, I was so desperate for an "out" that I would have hung upside down and naked (*blush) for a month if someone would have promised me that the withdrawl from the opiates would not have been as bad as the times I had tried to quit/wean myself from them in the past.
My doc prescribed
suboxone, 8mg a day. I was on that for a few weeks and then he brought me down to 4 mg a day for another 2 weeks.
There are many people here that do not agree with the suboxone process. I tend to agree to a certain point. I don't want to discourage you, but I will be honest nonetheless.......
I have been on sub's for 4 years. There was only one time that I took the initiative to stop taking them on my own. I was down to 1mg every other day. That means that I had break the tabs in half. At that point I couldn't possibly imagine how much they could actually be helping me. I was feeling GOOD. So I jumped off at that point. After 4 days it hit me like the worse flu/migrane EVER!!!! I was so in denial that my illness was due to the withdrawl from sub's that I actually thought I had the flu. I stayed in bed for 3 days with my "sickness" and the body aches and symptoms were not subsiding. At that point my fiancee suggested that perhaps it was from stopping the sub's. Nah! It couldn't be that.....could it?
So I dug around in the bottom of my purse. Amongst the
nicotine and loose change and gum wrappers, lo and behold, I found a half tab. Mind you, at this point I had not taken a sub in almost 8 days! I took the suboxone sublingually (spell check?) and within 20 minutes I was cured of my flu!
I am not telling you this to dissuade you from doing what you need to do to get off the opiates. I am only sharing with you my experience.
Today? I take a half mg (yes, I break that small tablet into 4 little tiny pieces) and take that dose only every 4 days or so. I know that it's hard to believe, but sub's stay in your system for days! Sometimes I can go a whole week without a piece. Some weeks I can't go more than 4-5 days.
I was lucky enough to find a great doc that has the patience of a saint, and the knowledge to understand that withdrawls get so bad, suicide is an option.
But for me, being on sub's for such an extended period, is still better than the pain and mental anguish I suffer thru withdrawl. So if it takes me the rest of my life to get off the subs? I don't care. It's still better than spending 40K for oxy's at street prices. It beats the constant panic of wondering how I'm going to find my next "fix", and it certainly outweighs the option of laying in bed, crying from the pain of withdrawl. On suboxone, I am able to get out of bed every morning, mother my children, function at work, and live with the peace of mind that I am no longer driving the streets of the city looking for a dealer, or worrying about the cops, or worrying about how I can face my family, knowing that I am a illegal street drug user spending my children's food money on pills not much bigger than the head of a pin!
So, for me? I am happier being ON SUBOXONE than I ever was without it!
Good luck to you! Keep posting! If you need to talk, email me anytime!
Hugs,
Janice
Starting Suboxone; Have a few questions first 
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