Experiences with Methadone

RLJames · Post by **RLJames** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:12 am

Hi all,

My first third-month course of methadose is almost over (I have 5 tablets left and made an appoint with my doc). I was taking 5mg before bedtime. What i'm noticing for the last couple of weeks now, is that my RSL is getting worse every so slgihtly. I have RSL 24/7 but the methadose helps my legs calm down enough so that the Lunesta can keep me asleep through the night. I've increase my methadose to 7.5 mg. What I'm worried about is that I may need to keep upping the dose to get the desired effect. How high would it take to be really addicted to methadone? Will methadone eventually not work for me? If that happens, what's the next life on defense? I welcome your thoughts and comments, please.

Post by **ViewsAskew** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 2:08 pm

Sounds like a good post for Dr B - www.rlshelp.org. If you are taking once a day, I have heard that stopping it is not difficult. I started a 5 mg - wasn't enough immediately. Went to 10. Barely enough. I fought increasing it and did it incrementally. I should have just gone to 15. I've been at 15 for about year and haven't moved.

I've noticed that timing is crucial. If I am off one day by a couple of hours, I will pay for several nights after. Other than that, alcohol and caffeine are still off-limit for me - if I have them, it's worse.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 3:43 pm

Post by **ViewsAskew** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 5:46 pm

It does as long as I take it on time. If I don't, I really pay. I goofed up twice last week - and didn't sleep much for the whole week. I was even starting to think it wasn't working anymore. But, after four days of taking in on time, I slept well the last two nights.

I do feel fortunate - I have tried so many others (not all of them, but a lot) and there weren't a lot of other options. As you know, that trial and error stuff really is not fun. It took a year of misery to get here - I would feel blessed if I didn't have to do it again for at least a couple more years. I know I probably will eventually, though. Just later rather than sooner.

How are you feeling, Em? Any changes? I can imagine that stopping the Methadone is pretty rough.

BeanieLee · Post by **BeanieLee** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 8:57 pm

Emily,
I'm glad to see you back and I hope you're feeling better. I was hoping you'd come back because I wanted to ask you - how is the Fentanyl Duragesic working out? I was going to ask to try one of the patches to take a 'holiday' from lortab for a few days but my doctor ended up prescribing some dilaudid so I should be fine with that for a short time. You seemed pretty down when you began using that so I'm curious about your feelings on the patch and I hope you're in better spirits. Let me know.

Thanks!
-bean

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:14 pm

Post by **ViewsAskew** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:08 pm

Like you, I haven't seen that information before. The two research studies I saw both indicated low tolerance, low doses. The highest dose I saw was 30 mg of Methadone; the average was 15-somthing mg.

I am glad you have a great doc on your side.

Aiken · Post by **Aiken** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:46 pm

FidgetBoy wrote:Aiken- as a fellow narcotic user I wanted to jump in here and let you know that Darvon is known as being an extremely weak narcotic... when I went to pharmacy school many years ago, there was actually a head to head study with darvon vs. tylenol and there was no statistical difference in perception of pain between the 2.

(getting caught up on the last month's posts here)

Oh, I totally know it's useless for pain. When my back is bad, I skip over the Darvon and take Vicodin. However, the Darvon has something special to it that works for my degree of RLS pretty well. Gives me sort of a soft fuzzy feeling all over my skin and totally takes away the electric creepy crawlies. If I had one of the painful versions of RLS, it'd be totally useless. I just have the drive-you-insane aggravating weird-feeling-under-the-skin sort of deal.

_________________
Disclaimer: I often talk about what I do and what works for me, but these are specific to me and you should always consult a healthcare professional before trying these things yourself, lest you endanger your health or life.

Aiken · Post by **Aiken** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:58 pm

Make Mine Coffee wrote:I don't know why my body would require so much more medication than the normal dose range. I have never taken narcotics before, so it's not like I have a tolerance to them or anything. I wonder if there is any such thing as having a natural tolerance to pain relievers?

It is absolutely possible to have a natural resistance to painkillers and anesthesia.

I consistently require three times the usual amount of novacaine at the dentist, and believe me, if I didn't have to have that guy stabbing the back of my mouth two extra times, I sure wouldn't let him. I'm just happy that I finally found a dentist that believes me when I say it still hurts.

Also, when I had rhinoplasty a couple of years ago, the anesthesiologist remarked to my wife that he had an extremely difficult time putting me out and controlling my pain afterwards. I don't remember most of it, which speaks well for his skills, but apparently I was not a happy camper.

The other thing that may be affecting you is something a little more unusual that I have to deal with. Because my upper stomach valve is totally non-functional, I have full-bore reflux and must take medications that slow my acid secretions to almost none, lest I corrode my esophagus and develop cancer. That, in turn, slows my overall digestion significantly. It can take a day and a half for something I eat to make the full journey. Thus, pills can take a lonnng time to digest, and set in very slowly and gradually. My first dose of darvon does not take effect for 1.5 to 2 hours, even though my doctor had me double that first dose to effectively double the absorption rate. It's only supposed to take about 20-30 minutes. I don't know if this is relevant to you, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

becat · Post by **becat** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:34 am

I wish I could remember where i heard or read about this, but........
If you have a red haired parent or grandparent then you have the red headed gene, right......real possible.
Now, there was a study done some 10? yrs ago or so , that found that red heads needed more pain meds to be helpful and that if in surgery required more anesthesia. They gave no reason why that I can remember. Howver I remembered it because I was a natural red head for yrs. and I have my grandfather that was a true carott top.
Any red heads Em?
Love ya'll Lynne

jan3213 · Post by **jan3213** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:56 am

Well, as some of you know, I've HAD red hair and I'm not a natural redhead. However, my dad was and so was my aunt (his sister). I've been told that redheads are harder to stick (IVs, blood tests etc.) and Lynne can attest to the fact that I may hold the record for longest time to get an IV in.....4 1/2 hours. LOL Also, I've been told that anestesia doesn't work as well with redheads and twice I've woken up as the breathing tube was being pulled out. And, pain meds don't seem to work as well with me as with others, although Lynne, again, might wonder about that----I said some pretty silly things and had conversations with people who were not visible to her...... So, there may be something to all of that. Even though I'm not a natural redhead, there must be a "redhead gene."

Verrrrrrrryyyy interesting!

Jan

Ridgerunner · Post by **Ridgerunner** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 6:22 am

True... my wife is a redhead and works in the Anestesia Dept. of the OR. All of what some say is true, hard sticks, extra meds, etc.. She had a hyster some time ago and they threw tons of narcs at her in recovery and she came to the floor with a Dilauded epidural and a Fentanyl PCA (IV) and they were giving her extra boluses of Fentanyl also toradol due to pain of a 10/10.

She was opioid naive except some percocets off and on for a year for endometriosis. I was with her and she slowed down to 8 respirations/minute and being a nurse I was with her harping on her to wake up and start breathing because they were so close to giving her narcan. Turned out well otherwise.

BeanieLee · Post by **BeanieLee** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:23 pm

Aiken,
I don't know if it's common or rare but I'm the same way. I once let my dentist give me TWELVE shots of novacaine so that he'd believe me. I told him after the second shot that it doesn't work very well on me, he just kept poking away and then touching my nerve and I'd yelp, and he'd poke me again and so on. I was so full of novacaine I could barely move my lips and I said ... NOW can I have some freakin nitrous please?! This stuff doesn't work! ha ha. He was apalled at how much novacaine I had in my face without my nerves being numbed. I also seem to have a naturally high tolerance for pain medication. Strange stuff.

BeanieLee · Post by **BeanieLee** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:34 pm

Emily,
I wish you the best of luck with whatever you decide to do from here on out but i'm thrilled to hear that you had some relief with the patch. That's awesome! Reassesing your rls sounds like a good idea. I'm sure it's easy to drown in medications and get blurry about everything and taking a step back to evaluate how you're feeling and what meds are doing what for you could be a big help in choosing long term treatment. I hope the patch or whatever else you find, will continue to provide you relief for a very long time. keep us posted.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:38 pm