Another dead end with methadone

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debbluebird
Posts: 2386
Joined: Mon May 21, 2012 3:27 pm

Another dead end with methadone

Post by debbluebird »

I had a pretty good several months sleeping, until mid Aug. We had not worked in the yard or around the house until then. My husband has chronic neck pain and just felt he couldn't do much until then. The problem is when I do that kind of work it causes my leg spasms to increase. It's related to pinched nerves from my back. Previous to this I had been increasing my methadone every other night. That gave me sleep each night. Plus it seemed to carry into the second night. So 8 to 10 hours every night. Yeah !
It has come to an end even though our work ended a week ago. I'm experiencing the hyper-alertness at night, only sleeping 3 to 4 hours mostly the morning of the next day. I don't function well with that little amount of sleep. I have slept 9 to 12 hours my whole life until RLS hit me around 1990. Spasms were mild back then. Now the spasms are severe.
I had a back fusion last fall which didn't have much affect. I even had an injection in my back a few weeks ago. It didn't help.
So I guess I'm left with catching naps here and there. For those of you who don't know me, I've tried over 20 plus drugs since 1990. I've had good periods and bad.
Kratom really doesn't help much anymore. I think the amount of methadone covers it up. I take 5 mg methadone every 8 hours and 600 mg gabapentin every 8 hours. That is an increase too. I can't take more of that. My hemp oil hasn't helped lately either.

QyX

Re: Another dead end with methadone

Post by QyX »

So 3 x 5 mg Methadone per day would amount to 15 mg Methadone. Is this the highest dose your doctor would prescribe or is there another reason why you can't further increase the dose?

Also: 600 mg Gabapentin is not really much. When you tolerate the drug well, there is quite some potential to further increase the dose, however when you complain about hyper-alertness at night, medical marijuana might be by far the best treatment option, if it is available in your state and you tolerate it.

Other opioids might work just as well or even better than Methadone. Methadone is very well known to cause the hyper-alertness you describe. Opioids based on the chemical structure of Morphine (Oxycodone, Hydromorphone, Hydrocodone, ...) are known to cause less alertness.

debbluebird
Posts: 2386
Joined: Mon May 21, 2012 3:27 pm

Re: Another dead end with methadone

Post by debbluebird »

Thank you for your input. I have tried other opioids. I do not tolerate higher doses of methadone and gabapentin.. The gabapentin is 600 mg three times a day. My Doctor has been reserved in increasing my dose. I was at 10 mg total. I have central sleep apnea as well as obstructive sleep apnea. I use a bipap machine. Marijuana is legal in my state, but it is too expensive for us. I do have some hemp oil that costs $80 for a 1 oz bottle. I don't take it very often, saving it for my worst nights. Morphine and some of the other opioids make me have itching and vomiting.
Thanks anyway

QyX

Re: Another dead end with methadone

Post by QyX »

I've read case studies where patients with severe RLS got pain pumps implanted under the skin. The necessary dose is only 1 mg / Morphine in 24 hours because the drugs go directly into the nervous system and not into the blood. This avoids all the systemic side effects like itching.

There are also other options to Gabapentin: there are two other antiepileptics who have proven effective for RLS: Carbamazepine and Oxcarbazepine. For me Carbamazepine was so powerful that I was able to drop opioids for several months. Unfortunately after 5 years I developed a tolerance and now use Oxcarbazepine.

Your other medical issues complicate your situation quite a bit.

What you would need is treatment by one of those RLS Quality Care centers. Only a combination of experts could treat your case properly.

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