[pepi112]

Hello everyone! I am new here and just started reading some threads but I find myself having a question. First a little background info on me.

I'm 22 years old and was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at 18 and was given darvocet for a year, increasing in dose as time went by, and then my doctor left private practice and my new doctor refused to give me pain meds because I'm young and she was afraid of me abusing them/selling them *yep that is what she said* and so I went into some withdraw until I found another doctor. This doctor prescribed me lortabs instead of darvocet. He said it was just the next step up in pain meds because the darvocet wasn't helping me with my pain anymore. I was on lortabs for a year and a half, increasing as time went by, and at one point my arthritis flared up really bad and I was taking up to 6 pills a day.

Thankfully my R.A. went into remission and has stayed that way, up until now, so December 2007 I asked to be taken off of pain killers all together because they were controlling my life. My new pain doctor, who is still my doctor now, started me on Subutex. I felt like this man saved my life. Subutex has been amazing. I was started on 8mgs and was on that for a year.

December 2008 I found out I was pregnant! Yay! Well my doctor said that Subutex was safe to take during pregnancy but he wanted me to switch to methadone because it has been around longer and more studies have been done with methadone and pregnancy. He wanted me to take 30 mgs a day, I did that for one day and it knocked me out so I decided to only take 20 mgs, 10 in the morning and 10 at night, and stayed that way throughout my pregnancy. I researched everything I could about methadone and pregnancy and my son was born on the 9th of September and was showing NO signs of withdrawal, scoring 0's on the NAS scale, and then someone out of nowhere scored him a 10 and they put him on morphine and he is still in the hospital, should be home some time this week though!

Anyways, now that I am not pregnant anymore I want to go back to Subutex. I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow morning. I ran out of my methadone yesterday morning and that leads me to believe someone is taking my methadone because I have been taking LESS than my prescribed dose yet I ran out early! My mother, who is on Suboxone to get off of pain killers as well, has offered to give me some of her suboxone today because I'm withdrawing pretty bad here and all I want to do is go see my son but I can't feeling like this.

My questions are: should I switch back to Subutex or stay on methadone? Which is easier to taper off of? And is this safe to take my mom's Suboxone?

[cherrybombmom]

i was on methadone for over 2 years...is it easy to get off of??? NO!! i have never experienced anything worse than detoxing from this medication-i did a 3 month detox off of 85 mgs and was miserable for over 3 months afterward. i experienced severe panic/pain/insomnia & anxiety for months after i stopped. it was hell. granted i felt no pain for the time i was on methadone-i was not told about the side effects such as weight gain, tooth decay & skin problems...not to mention the sleeping. i would suggest any other option if you could before you make the decision to get on this drug....or plan on staying on it for the rest of your life.

[newyorkgal]

you can take your mom's sub. Sub is sub but make sure you're in proper withdrawal from the methadone before making the switch. If you take the sub too early, you will put yourself into precipitated withdrawal which you definitely don't want. I waited 72 hours afterr my last methadone dose before taking sub. Talk to cheeky who DID go into w/ds because of starting sub too soon. Don't stay on sub too long and it will be far less addicting than methadone. There is no reason to be on 8 for a full year. With sub less is more and its meant as a drug to taper down on. 8 is a very high dose actually. You could do just as well on 4 or 2.

[EricaMarie]

Yeah it sounds like going back to the sub would work best for you. I'm on 100mg of methadone daily and I hear it's unbelievable HELL to get off of. I don't plan on getting off so it is for me. NewYorkgal makes sense about it being for more short term use which sounds fitted for you and your situation. My sister is trying to come off methadone after being on it for only 7 months and she is having an extremely hard time. Along with stories I've read here, I've heard from people around here as well how hard coming off methadone is. The longer you remain on it, the harder. Good Luck with everything. Prayers and well wishes for your beautiful son!! congrats!!

[newyorkgal]

Erica, if she is only on it 7 months, she should be able to get off without much of a problem. The trick is to taper off it very very slowly. I don't know her dose but i'd say don't do more than 5 mgs. every few weeks til you reach the low numbers then drop 2 mgs. a month then at the very end, 1 mg. a month. It can take up to a year. Her other alternative is get down to 25 or so mgs. and switch over to the subs. Then taper off them. For long timers I would agree, its a long time drug and real hard to get off, but seven months, less than one year, thats like the magic number which makes it much easier. I was on methadone for a very very long time. Way longer than you. Ask me anything. I hope I can be of help. I have three people in mind, close to me, each of who got off by the taper, in different ways but they did do it.