Fentanyl Patch Withdrawal Symptoms And Duration (Page 8)

i have post surgical lower back pain. was in 50 mcg patch and had side effects and so decided to wean off. i finished with the 12 mcg patch a week ago and am still suffering from periodic nausea, irritability, daily joint and muscle pain, but the worst is the consistent restless legs. it is driving me crazy. my doctor says that is not withdrawal. is he right? i don't think so. if it is withdrawal, what can i do about it and how long will it last? i am going crazy.

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Take an iron tablet at night with dinner. It works overnight. In a few days or a week you'll start getting constipation. You don't want this! Take 2-1000 mg of flaxseed oil gels with it and you should be fine. I had the same issue and it was driving me crazy, especially when I couldn't sleep because of it, and then found the iron answer online. So happy!

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How long did you taper with Suboxone and what was the starting dose please?

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you are about done w phisical part of wirhvdrawl the mental part of the withdrawal is actually the worst I believe you were probably through the physical withdrawal in about 7 days or so the mental though can drive you nuts for a month or so and depends on u. Drs are genius ask him. They are clueless to withdrawal your lucky they didn't kill u like my wife

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Restlessness, feet kicking, hot pins and pricks on body are ALL associated with opiate withdrawals. Fentanyl being one of them...

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Ask your physician for Pramaprexole. It calms the RLS almost immediately and helps with a deeper sleep. I am going to try the iron supplement too as suggested and also use my magnesium calcium supplement regularly. I got tired of always taking pills so left out a lot of vitamins and supplements. I have been off fentanyl now for 4 months and still lowering dependency on hydromorphone. Some days the pain is just unbearable but usually because I did too much work or stood or sat too long. We really have to be diligent to get optimal health. We can make ourselves more comfortable but living often gets in the way. We have to have outside interests, a healthy family life and outings with good friends, pain or not. Keep focused everyone....withdrawal can be done by choosing what works best for you. I could not to cold turkey...think the shock to my body and blood pressure might have given me worse health issues, ie stroke? Heart attack? So words of caution when reading how a young person succeeded at CT. My very best wishes to all who are suffering. Your posts helped me realize that I was not alone nor crazy (my GP thought I was, I'm sure). I am leaving this page now as I need to focus on getting good health so need to find new group or get a good Naturopath perhaps. Best wishes to all. I feel for you, believe me but do not get discouraged. Keep on the good side of your physician and convince him/her that you need help as recommended by fellow sufferers. Mine finally listened to me!

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John - I started with a dose of 3mg BUT make sure you are in pretty bad wd before dosing AT ALL, especially using suboxone instead of subutex to start (a 26 on the COWS). Then start taking a half mg of sub every 2 hours until you stabilize and paws dissipate (it may take less than 3mg and probably not more if you do this correctly, which will make tapering off the subs quickly much easier). I followed a recipe created by a guy who has helped a ton of people get off this stuff, it's very detailed and you have to stick to it, but it was painless for the most part.

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Beware of Methadone......it is a drug now given to patients who cannot afford Morphine or Hydromorphone.....and the effects and withdrawal are even more harsh for those trying to get free of it. I have had a number of friends who got caught on it, don't buy into it. I have seen too many people destroyed going down the Methadone path, it is a dreadful drug.

I was using Fentanyl patches exactly as prescribed, but they kept falling off. My doctor gave me 4mg Dilaudid in its place to take 3X a day, and now, I avoid Fentanyl with success. Fentanyl is a stronger pain med, but the problems keeping the patches on, the side effects, and all the rest of it has made it a drug I choose to avoid.

Don't get caught in Methadone. It was originally developed in Germany in the 1930s, and even they realized it was not a good drug, and stopped producing it. In the 1960s, it was "rediscovered" to help opiate addicts....all it did was to make their addiction even worse. One of my best friends from high school died from her addiction, Methadone just was a legal way to supplement her need for hard drugs, it does nothing to address the problem of addiction. I wish they would stop using it here.

Please, ask your doctor about other pain medications. If you are given Fentanyl, like myself, you have some serious chronic pain problems, they don't give it out easily. That is between you and your doctors. There are other drugs besides Fentanyl. Good luck.

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Ive read many posts and because of me being a newbe I am scared to death when this happens to me. Doctors seem to treat/prescribe this med like candy. I have skipped a dose as I am on 62 mcg, I was on 25mcg and had no relief. I have had restless legs and also my arms seem to flail when this happens - help!

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Hi Waiting4theSun,

Please could you share with me the instructions. {edited for privacy}. I need to get through the lower dose withdrawals.

Cheers,
John

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John,

I will copy and paste the entire process below, it was created by a man (Robert_325) that has helped many many people like us to get off fentanyl (as well as many other opiates, including illegal drugs). If you have read through many other forums you've probably see some of his past posts, he is now a retired member. I tried stopping the fentanyl many other ways and could not even come close to success until his recipe, but when he states that it must be fooled to a T, it really must, or it will not work. Fentanyl and Methadone are the two hardest opiates to come off of is what he came to experience, and I agree. But, as horrible as my other attempts to come off the fentanyl were, when I followed his recipe it was almost totally symptom free, I had a few hot flashes/sweating the first 3 or 4 days but that's all, and if you've experienced full fent wd, you know that that's a god send. The hardest part is the induction, making sure you are in wd enough to start (this is very important, especially using suboxone, if you are not in heavy enough wd and you dose suboxone-the naloxone in it reacts and will send you into precipitated wd.....aka-normal fent WDx100, subutex does not react that way and can be dosed sooner, but it's still best to wait). I will copy and paste into my next post, it's not allowing me to paste in this post for some reason. Do you know if there is a way to pm or exchange email on here?

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Regarding suboxone/subutex therapy, please see post #281 in the following discussion thread for details on the process created by Robert_325:

Discuss/How-to-get-off-Suboxone-204381_p24_s2.htm

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John,

I hope that helps, they changed what I pasted and referred to a post here where it appears someone else had copied Robert's plan and posted it. I glanced thru it and it appears to be word for word the same plan Robert shared many years ago, so it must have proven successful for others too! Good luck!

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Thanks heaps Waiting in the Sun. It looks good.
Gratitude,
John

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Glad I could help, I know how terrified I was to come off fentanyl after experiencing it's wd's. I can honestly say, it was easy using Robert's method. Of course, I still have pain but I've found that it's no worse than when I was wearing a 50mcg patch and taking 10mg percocet 4xday. Now on the days I simply can't take the pain, I will take a couple tramadol, they don't totally kill the pain, but they help take the edge off as well as put me in a better mood with a little energy which also helps in dealing with pain. On another note, I found in the past that tramadol worked wonders for withdrawal from my opiates too (not something to take daily for long periods, as it too can be addicting even though it is not a true opiate). I wish you the best of luck John, keep us posted on your progress and if you need support!

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Have you researched the drug, withdrawal and time period on line? The MFG will often give data, and so does Google. I was totally weaned off of Fentanyl in ICU by the doctors giving me dilaudid, the other drug given me for pain. I don't recommend developing sepsis, becoming comatose and nearly dying to withdraw, but I am free of the drug now. I may have to go back to it because I have terminal spinal cancer, my back just broke again, and the pain is powerful. However, ask your doctor if dilaudid or oxy might work for you to get free. I did talk to one doctor about the weaning off of Fentanyl & asked if one could go from the 12mg to 6mg, 3mg, ETC. He said 12 was the lowest, and I ventured that seemed a recipe for suffering. What about Percocet or something like that? I suggest asking & calling until receiving satisfactory response. If you don't, find another doctor. I hope you are seeing a pain specialist, they usually have the best information available in the pain field. If not, find one.

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This is an excellent message, thanks for posting it. Positive thinking, outside interests, keeping involved in life is essential to pain management. I have a terminal spinal condition that will soon take my life, but doctors who have treated me over the last 20+ years have expressed amazement I was not in a wheel chair years ago. I have kept engaged, listened to others, helped when I could, stayed out of self as much as possible.
I also had an MD who did acupuncture, and I am sure that kept me free of narcotics for at least 20 years. I have really enjoyed my life until the last couple of years when my condition has advanced to the point I have to accept my own mortality.
I have come to terms with it, and am okay about it. I have difficulty walking, pain has accelerated, ETC. I continue to reach out to others. I can listen, and offer support, and will do so the rest of my life.
Positive thinking and activities are essential to keeping life on a good, even track. When in hospital (been there a lot lately), my computer lets me connect to sites and people I like.
Keep positive. Thanks for the good ideas.

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Using dilaudid or percocet is not really a good idea if you want off of narcotics, it just substitutes one opiate for another and you'd just withdraw from the new opiate when you quit taking it. Using the method I posted earlier I went thru no real discomfort, no sickness and in 2 weeks I was done and clean, it was much easier than trying to wean with another narcotic.

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MG,

I'm sorry to hear of your illness. Is there a reason you decided to come off of the fentanyl? It really is a great painkiller for those of us with extreme chronic pain, if I were terminal I would have no qualms about continuing fentanyl therapy. For those of us that are not terminal, have chronic pain and are still young enough that we're still looking at years of pain management though.......I don't recommend it until ALL other avenues have been explored and exhausted. With fentanyl being one of the strongest options for pain management, one you're on it all other opiates are like taking candy and your options for comfort start becoming bleak other than increasing your fent dosage. This becomes a problem when you still have years ahead of you, or say, you have surgery scheduled.......it becomes very difficult to treat the acute pain that results due to your extreme tolerance. For me, I have a very high metabolism and I seemed to burn thru all the medication in the patch within the first 26 to 30 hours, I then spent nearly a full day withdrawing until I could change my patch again. It was like being on the worst rollercoaster ride ever. It's still not legal in my state, but have you tried medical marijuana treatment? I have more faith in nature's cures than the man made nightmares we are forced to use if we want to live any kind of life.

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I have cancer of the spine, on top of that, it is twisting on the axis, and at last scan was on the 3rd rotation. My condition is terminal, so it is not a matter of getting free of drugs, per sec, in my case, it is keeping drug use to a minimum. The reason is simple, as the pain continues to advance, I need to have stronger ones in reserve.....Mitigating the pain is all I can do. It appears the cancer has spread to other parts of my body, including the lymph nodes, so my time is about over. I was not suggesting another narcotic as a mode of detoxing......On one of my posts, I talked about how I got free of Oxy at home alone (recommend a detox center, but in those days, I had no resources for one) using a high blood pressure medicine prescribed by a surgeon friend to dry up the sweats and shakes, Clonedin....or something like that. I would never recommend a narcotic for those able to live without pain mitigation.

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I came off the patches when comatose in ICU due to blood poisoning. They gave me IV dilaudid instead. I had the tablets, so decided to stay off the patches after reading how brutal the withdrawal can be......My doctor is looking to get my insurance to give me a stronger version of fentanyl, one that can go under the tongue....only for cancer patients. If I can get that, I will probably go back to it. You are correct it is a good painkiller, but the patches are unreliable, there is no way to monitor or assure dosage. In my case, they fall off, or if I make a mistake putting them on, they are completely unusable. Medical use of what you suggest isn't allowed for patients being given controlled substances in our state. The doctors are not allowed to give out controlled substances if we come up positive for the medication you suggest. It is a way around the new laws, put it on the pain doctors. Until big pharmaceuticals can control and market it, they will lobby for ways around legal use. This is one technicality.

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