Opioids, handling side effects, decreasing dosage; cannabis

[AriaLittlhous]

Hi, this is my first post. I hate Oxy but it's the only thing that's worked for me recently. Before back surgery, I was on 5 mg of Oxycodone at 6 pm and 10 of Oxycontin at 9 pm, for about 3 years. Before that, pramipexole for 10. The (successful!) back surgery was two months ago and I've decreased my Oxy from 40 mg/day to 20 mg at night. That is 10 mg of Oxycontin at 5pm and 9 pm. I want to get it down to at least where I was before the surgery, and I'm still holding out hope (don't tell anyone) that the surgery will result in the elimination of my rls. I say this because I'm having some nerve pain the MD's say will abate eventually. I'm hoping the rls is actually in the same category--but that's a tangent. Does anyone have any tricks that help with detoxing? Or with uneven absorption? Even when my dose is constant sometimes I feel like I spend the whole next day in withdrawal with mood swings. I think I finally got my laxative situation under control. I also use cannabis. I will be talking to a Pain MD, not an RLS specialist, about this all next week, but I'm in pain now. I've also gotten a lot of good tips from the rls facebook group--its just hard to contact the Oxy users in that group. I"m supposed to be looking for a new RLS md in the Boston area (Waltham) but I feel awful so much, I just haven't gotten to it. Thanks for anything anyone can recommend.

[ViewsAskew]

Hi - many of us here are on methadone. A few on Oxy. Hope someone has some advice for you.

[Frunobulax]

My doc, who prescribes a lot of opioids, stresses that any reduction must happen very slowly. He recommended to me to reduce my Oxycodone no more than 5mg a month.

I can confirm that RLS flares up for weeks and longer. I was down to your dose (5mg around 2pm + 10mg around 9pm, slow release Oxycodone). Then I took a 2-day trip, ate some food I didn't prepare myself, and had severe breakthrough symptoms even after going up to 10mg/10mg and throwing in additional L-Dopa. It took over a week until I was back to my usual state (only occasional symptoms, typically after a few hours of sleep) without L-Dopa, but back at 10mg+10mg a day. I will try to go back to 5mg+10mg soon.