Here I am 6 weeks into tapering off of pain medication. I'ts going better than I thought it would. My latest step down brought me to one half in am, one fourth one forth in afternoon and bedtime.
Initially I was taking 2.5. One in morning, one again when I just couldn't take it any longer. (Anywhere from 2-4 pm depending on what I had to do that day) and 3-4 days a week a half at bedtime.
My first adjustment was one half three times a day. After a week of that I was feeling like stepping down was for the birds and to slow for me. I decided to stop taking bedtime dose completely, then stop taking afternoon. NOT. Two nights in a row of no sleep at all put me back on the half at night for a couple nights then I moved to a quarter at night for two weeks.
During this time I had a conversation with my pharmacist and she really encouraged me to take it slow. I heard everything my doctor said. It's not about the amount you were taking. It's about how long you've been taking it. She said the minor withdrawals I was experiencing will be much worse if I just skipped doses instead of tapering slowly. The rebound period will be more intense after if I didn't take it slowly.
I just wanted it to be over. However, I took her advise and stuck with the plan.
My next move was half, half, quarter. Two weeks later half, quarter, quarter. Next week I will move to quarter three times a day.
Funny thing is even though I have my hives flaring up right now, fatigue, night sweats and brain zaps, it's not so bad. Pain wise I mean. As far as my back. What you find, at least for me, after a couple days the half works the same as a whole. It lowers my pain number to the same and wears off at the same time. Same when I moved to the quarter. It takes a couple of days but you adjust. I'm understanding how it doesn't just relieve pain but makes you body dependant on it. I've always understood the difference between addiction and your system being dependant, but now I'm experiencing it for real.
I have more faith than I ever had in the last 6 years that some parts may get better. The ultimate goal is to have my stimulator give me enough relief to not need any narcotic and find a medication that WORKS for the fibromyalgia. It's been long enough to stop dwelling on why I have to live with this. It's about keeping myself comfortable in the safest way possible.
I had to stop by my psychologists office to pick up some samples last week. She happened to see me at front office and asked how I was. I explained where I was in tapering off the pain medicine. I shared with her my thoughts of how even though my pain increases at some times of the day it hasn't effected my mood. In fact, I seem to be in a better mood than usual. She wasn't at all surprised to here me say that. They are downers, that's a down side she explained. They can make you moody and depressed. I'm now wanting to believe that if I can get off completely and the other drug my rheumatologist wants me to take for my FM works the depression will be better.
Nothing wrong with being hopeful. I've been hoping for years with each coming appointment something would change. I'm just a little impatient getting to that point. Some days the FM is worse than my back. I saw my rheumatologist last week and he said I need to be off the pain meds for two full weeks before starting the new medicine. (It takes that long to be completely out of your system) This will be the toughest part. Nothing to help with pain and the withdrawals I will experience. I have to believe it will be worth it.
I picked up a prescription and the pharmacist asked how I was doing. I let her know where I am and how it was going. She gave me a huge boost of encouragement and some advise on what to do after I complete this last step down. It felt so good to get some encouragement. It's been hard, but I feel so positive about it.
Hanging in there full of H.O.P.E.
Theresa
2 comments:
Hi. I know it's been quite a while since I commented on your posts. For some reason the page I had your blog open on wasn't updating and I hadn't seen any new posts since July. Then yesterday I clicked somewhere else and ended up seeing new posts and I was so excited! I'm glad you're sharing your experience with weaning off of the pain meds and I'm really glad to hear that it's not as bad as you thought it would be. I'm anticipating I will have to start lowering my doses soon as well. I finally got my SCS put in on October 9th. I was really nervous about the sedation because whenever I have general anesthetia I wake up screaming in pain. They assured me that I would just be getting conscious sedation and I wouldn't have that problem. Well I had conscious sedation, but I still woke up screaming and crying. Apparently I started to aspirate during the procedure and I think they ended up intubating me. They never told me and if they did, then I don't remember it. But whatever they did totally screwed up my throat because most of the pain I was crying about when I woke up was in my throat, but way up high like it was behind my nose. It was the weirdest feeling ever. It kind of felt like the kind of pain you get when you have water go up your nose, except that it never stopped. And to top it off, I couldn't talk at all. Like I could barely get any sound out and it was like that for 2 weeks! 10 days after surgery I was able to get enough sound out that people could finally understand me. Today is 17 days after surgery and I still don't have my voice back. It totally sucks and I'm so frustrated and sick of not being able to talk! As for my back, my incisions are all healed closed. I really did not know what I was getting into though. I knew that there would be a small incision where they put the battery, but I was not prepared for the incision where they put the leads in. When I had the trial, there was only a small hole that they put the wires in through. This incision by my spine is a good 4-5 inches long. It feels okay now, I just wasn't prepared when I woke up with it. I've been feeling pretty good though. Last week I was getting really frustrated with how crappy I still felt and tried to remind myself that they said it would be a 6-8 week recovery and that I shouldn't expect to be back to where I was before surgery. Then the end of last week I was really feeling pretty good. But then of course when you're feeling good you go and do more than you're supposed to and pay for it later. That's what I'm feeling right now. I obviously overdid it yesterday and now I am paying for it big time! I know that the incisions are all healed, but I feel like the one where the battery is is really pulling weird. It just hurts bad and I can't seem to find a position that is anywhere near comfortable. However, I am happy with the stimulation I'm getting. I only have 3 programs on mine, but they really cover where I need them to. I'm hoping after everything settles down, that I won't need as much pain medicine. I better not, because I know my pain management doctor is planning on lowering my dosages and I just hope I'm ready when he does. I just don't want him to take it away before I'm ready. So I just wanted to give you that update, because your blog has been so helpful to me when I was having my trial done and preparing for my permanent implant. Thank you again so much for sharing everything you have. It has been really helpful to me and I really appreciate you.
Here's the rest of my comment. I had too many characters in the first one, so I had to break it up into two.
I hope you continue to do well with weaning off your pain meds and that your new medicine works well. I can't remember if you shared in your posts what the new medicine is called, but I would really like to know what it is if you don't mind telling me. If you'd rather not, I completely undertand. I hope your family is all doing well. I enjoy hearing about all of them too and seeing pics, especially of those beautiful grandkids! Take care! Hope to hear from you soon! Oh, and my fiancé and I finally tied the knot too! We weren't sure when we wanted to do it and then just decided one week that we should do it before my surgery because we didn't know how long it would be afterwards until I felt up to doing it. So we planned it in a matter of days and had a small ceremony with just our family on September 27th! So now when I call him my "hubby", he really is, legally! LoL. Love, Dana Runge. Please feel free to email me at kyanne06mom@gmail.com
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