How Long After Taking Clonidine Does It Start To Take Effect?

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I was prescribed .2mg of Clonidine twice a day to prevent withdrawl while tapering off of 100mcg/hr Fentanyl. I was not informed by my doc that I needed to taper off the Clonodine as well. Stopped taking when took last dose in bottle, & have been having horrible withdrawls from the Clonodine. Went to ER, & doc prescribed .1mg twice daily. Took first two doses & still very shaky, having horrible chills, & unable to sleep. How long will it take for this to calm down?

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1

Hello, Michelle! How long were you on the Clonidine?

I have to wonder if these withdrawal symptoms aren't more due to withdrawing from the Fentanyl, rather than the Clonidine. Short term use of Clonidine shouldn't cause major withdrawal symptoms and the ones you've described are more typical of narcotic withdrawals.

How fast did you taper the Fentanyl? How low did you go, before stopping it?

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2

Hello Verwon,
Thank you for your response. I was tapered off of tje Fentanyl over a month. The dosage was cut in half every 10 days, ending with 12mcg. I was started on the Clonidine a couple weeks before the tapering off of the fentanyl began. I was told absolutely nothing about the Clonidine by my pain mgmt doc. It was simply called into my pharmacy. When I asked why I was taking it, I was told to help lessen the fentanyl withdrawl. I was grateful for it as this doc had allowed me to run out of the fentanyl 6 times in the 3 1/2yrs I was on it, simply because they forgot to write the prescription.
I ended up in the ER last week with what they deemed rebound hypertension caused by the sudden stopping of the Clonidine. The ER doc stated that I could have suffered a stroke or permanent heart damage from it. He also stated that due to my size, (5'2", 107lbs) .2mg of Clonidine was a hefty dose for me to be on & suddenly stop.
I'm now taking .1mg of the Clonidine twice daily, as well as Fioricet for the pain until I see my new pain doc. I am experiencing chills & restlessness, especially at night now. I am completely exhausted, but cannot hold still long enough to fall asleep. It is extremely frustrating! I am the mother of 3 teenage daughters. It's bad enough they've had to watch my being so sick the last 5yrs, but now they have to see this too. Feeling as though you have no control over your body is a waking nightmare.
I have been off of the fentanyl for several weeks now. I don't know of the chills & restlessness are residual effects of still recovering from being taken off of it, but I really wish it would stop. All the moving around only firther aggrevates the bone pain in my hip due to the 6cm bone tumor there. Any idea how long this restlessness might last if it is still my body getting over being taken off of tje Fentanyl? When I tried speaking to the pain doc, he said, "You should feel lucky. We usually taper fentanyl in a week. Your withdrawal is not life threatening as it would be were you detoxing from street drugs." Really?! I should feel lucky that I feel such a loss of control, & my children are seeing it? You try it doc! I have worked in healthcare my entire life. In all my years, all the docs I've worked with, I have never seen such disregard for a patient's concerns. I apologize for my rant. It's so hard to explain these things to someone who's never had to experience any of them. I appreciate your input.
Thanks!
Michelle

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3

Clonodine is old school detox. It lowers your bp enough to knock u out for days. Inpatient for 3-7 is needed to monitor u for the first few days. Plus comes with Robaxin for spasm. And mabey a phenobarbital for anxiety. I've done 20 of these over the years with a H habit. It helps the most for the first 3 days. Your free of opiates, but will have mild chills, anxiety, and restless nites, for a couple weeks. Support is important. Detox with no program is a fail. I finally kicked a H habit cold turkey. The raw pain and The will 2 overcome kept me clean for 13 yrs. More pain more gain. Subs, m-done, all money makers to keep u addicted. U want to get clean and stay that way. I will help u. No 12 step preaching. Just 45 yrs of experience. Note: once a certified counselor and a CNA for a year in detox units. Street,Clinical, and wisdom experience.

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Love drum

I could use some help ASAP -- I'd rather not have a discussion here but if you think maybe you can help me .... {edited for privacy}

Saturday I will have the opportunity to once again start all over again , continuing what feels like a life long addiction to a substance that's not even for the reasons I take it. I'm very sick atm ... I have no one to talk to and I have ....so much shame. Thanks , Kyle

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5

Some doctors don't have a clue. Mine knows I'm in withdrawal from methadone, my choice after taking it 6 yrs for fibro, and finally his nurse put me on the .1mg clonidine patch to help with the horrible withdrawal. It has done nothing. My blood pressure has skyrocketed, due to the 8 weeks of withdrawal I've done so far, so I called his office on Thursday and still waiting for a phone call! I don't want to interrupt his golf game, but I've had to pay every month for an office visit, just for his asst. to hand me the script because Methadone is a controlled substance. I get that, but when you need to talk to the doctor you trust, I think a return call is in order. I love this doctor, he is so compassionate, so it's hard to understand.

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6

My dr is weening me off 2 mg if xanax after 6 years. 2 mg I week then 1. 5 mill a ween then 1 a week then 1/2 then 1/4 a week then off she gave me clonodine will it help, I'm afraid I'll have a seizure or severe withdrawls she gave me 1 milligram a day for clonodine

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7

I know this is old but I have questions too!, I've been taking tramadol for five years, due to an frankly kind of unbelievable accident my Tramadol is gone. Short story I was tripped in the parking lot by a security guard. He didn't like my parking job. My wheels were touching the lines of the EMPTYspot in front of mine. (not over the line by the way just touching the line barely...plenty of room for someone else to park in The other spot). I got out he kinda pushed my back and said better. So that's the way And whyI fell. Purse flying...bloody knees hands and nice goose egg on my forehead. My stuff flew everywhere. He did " kinda help " me pick my stuff up. And by everywhere I meant everywhere I can't find them phenergan and the Tramadol. ( didn't realise I was missing some of my stuff until AFTER the appointment as I was worried about being late. I looked everywhere, nothing nowhere to be found, no fragments of Pill bottles being crushed by a car wheels or anything just gone. And now that Tramadol is controlled I cannot get an early refill nope nothing. open my new pain Dr. (Old one retired) by the way ...thinks that Tramadol is not addictive or dependence causing which is pretty damn funny!!! I really almost laughed in his face.
I've taken the max dose for 5 years. He did however give me a few 0.1 clonidine patches good for 1 week each. What do these do you have any idea? Will these help At all? I have no idea I'm pretty worried.. I'm pretty scared actually.
I don't know what to do to me being about my information on my med bottles being out there either.

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8

I know this was over 8 months ago but what ended up happening. I hate it when people put stuff out there but never tell you the end results. As far as your pills I would not be surprised if that not so nice security guards pocketed them when he was helping you pick up your stuff.

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9

If you have lost your prescription, the first thing you should do is call the police to notify them what happened. Also tell them how many were in the bottle. That way if someone gets caught with them it's in the system that they were lost.

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10

Im 26 female I need help to stop hetion help me please

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Just read your post. And wanted your advice or suggests. I have been on 60 to 70 milligrams of hydrocodone per day for the past 9 months in about 4 milligrams per day 5 months prior to that. I also suffer from extreme anxiety and depression. I've tried multiple antidepressants without success. Also have been on clonazepam for the past 15 months starting at about one milligram a day and now I'm at 3 to 4 milligrams a day. I found it for a long time the hydrocodone help my anxiety and depression quite a bit. I have tried to taper down several times in the past couple months on the hydrocodone butt have been unsuccessful due to the extreme increase in anxiety. Couple months ago I started taking the nefazodone to try to help with the depression and anxiety. But also ran into gastritis issues which I believe was most likely from taking NSAID pain relievers. I was diagnosed with the erosive gastritis after an endoscopy. My other problem now is my psych doctor won't prescribe me anymore clonazepam until I'm off the opioids. I recently tried a low dose of buprenorphine for a few days. It kept the physical withdrawals from the hydrocodone at Bay but the anxiety was still extremely bad and actually let me to a panic attack and had to go to the ER. I've taken the nefazodone going on and off for the past couple months as I didn't know if it was causing some of my gastric issues and also I developed a lot of neck shoulder and upper arm muscle pain and stiffness. I'd initially started taking baclofen for the neck and muscle stiffness at first it helped with the muscle spasms and pain in my neck which is due to arthritis but it has never been this bad before. Seems like the long I took the baclofen the worst the upper arm and neck pain got. But I also read that muscle tension and pain could be a side effect of the nefazodone. I have taper down the Baclofen and the muscle pain seems to be improved considerably. But I also stopped taking nefazodone. I had gotten buprenorphine from the pain doctor but he initially prescribed me what I thought was an exorbitantly High dose of 8 milligrams twice a day for two the first two days. Then once a day for two days. Also gave me 60 milligram tablets to take over the course of the next 4 days. Two two milligram tablets the first day and 2 2milligram tablets the second day. And then one 2 milligram tablet the last two days. Total of 8 Days on the buprenorphine and then he said I would be off. I did some research online on buprenorphine after this and from what I read this amount is for somebody who was on 5 times as much as I'm on. I did not try it this way. I waited 37 hours after my last hydrocodone dose until I was in withdrawals and took one milligram of the buprenorphine. It completely resolved my withdrawal physically and I actually felt euphoria from it. Second day I only took three-quarters of a milligram and it kept the physical withdrawals away but my anxiety skyrocketed. Third day I took about a half a milligram of buprenorphine no physical withdrawals. But I felt my breathing was labored and thought it might have been an interaction between the clonazepam and buprenorphine. I later found out after the trip to the emergency room on the fourth day that it was most likely due to my anxiety. so my analogy is that even though the buprenorphine cut the physical withdrawals of the opioids away my anxiety was not controlled. My psych doctor told me I could take Clonidine for the anxiety but I wouldn't be able to take it with the clonazepam because of blood pressure issues. I told him I couldn't just cold turkey benzos because I was worried about withdrawals and even a possible seizure. He told me I could take gabapentin to prevent the risk of seizure without the clonazepam. But I would have to start at a low dose and work my way up. Couple years ago I took clonazepam for a while and actually used Gabapentin to help wean myself off of it. But I think the Gabapentin actually made my depression worse and I actually ended up in the psych hospital two years ago for 6 days. I also read it Gabapentin especially in a low dose is not that much of a seizure preventive medicine. So I did not stop the clonazepam and take the Clonidine. For the anxiety. Nor did I take gabapentin. So two days after stopping the buprenorphine. I started taking hydrocodone again. So for the past two days I've been taking 40 milligrams of hydrocodone a day n divided 10 milligram doses. My therapist recommends I go to Inpatient Detox in order to manage the withdrawals and anxiety. But this is an absolute last resort to me. I also talked to the pain doctors office the doctor wouldn't talk to me directly but his nurse told me that I need to take the buprenorphine is a prescribed and if I didn't want to take it that I needed to come in and see him and bring the medicine with me and most likely have to just give it back to him if I don't want to take that the way he prescribed it is what it sounds like he will do. I just couldn't see how taking such a high dose with my level of opioid use made any sense. I did some research and read that inductions are done by giving a patient a small dose and seeing how they do and then move it up if necessary. Initially I talk to my psych doctor about taking buprenorphine and his suggestion was take to take a low amount for a short. Of time and then too come off it and deal with the withdrawal with the use of the Clonidine. Hot showers baths Etc. I was going to go back to the pain doctor initially to discuss the buprenorphine dose and use with him the next day after I was in the ER or possibly today since they were closed yesterday but I didn't have the $50 copay needed to see him and asked if I would be okay if I paid them next week because I am not working right now and only collecting workman's comp and she said no I had to have a co-pay in order to see the doctor. I said well you know me I've been coming there for months I can pay you next week what's the problem she said that's the policy and that's it. Right now I do have enough hydrocodone to try to taper down over the next ten days or so as long as I can without going bonkers but I also only have 8 more days worth of clonazepam too. Sorry for the long post but I have a complicated story. In years past on multiple occasions I had been on hydrocodone the longest period was about 7 months and I was always able to slowly taper off but that was before I suffered with such anxiety and depression. I did have considerable anxiety the last time I take it off it wasn't too bad I actually tapered off quite quickly from 40 milligrams a day in about seven or eight days. I had trouble sleeping the first couple nights felt very irritable for several days and then had some restless legs on and off for about two weeks but I made it through it. I also do have an RX for some Lyrica 100 milligrams which iPad is a better anti seizure provider as it's a more pure form Gaba. I would really like to try to taper down a little bit more and try this at home before going into detox as a last resort. But I'm not sure I can handle it. If I do stop the clonazepam and take the clip out a dying I guess I could take the Lyrica and see how it goes. I also read that in a low dose buprenorphine acts more like a full Agonist. And didn't want to take it too long to actually increase my opioid tolerance. So right now my anxiety is actually quite High just in addition to my not working for 3 months and being in Desperate financial trouble and trying to figure out what to do with the whole mess I'm in. Thanks for any of your input or suggestions I appreciate it. I read so many different home remedies and suggestions and things to do for opiate detox I don't know what's really good or not. I know clonidine is old school detox remedy. And that there are also issues with being on that medicine for a while. Like rebound high blood pressure. I'm also very thin and I've lost 25 pounds in the last 3 months. I read to taking a blood pressure lowering medicine for someone who's very underweight. I'm 6-3 and weigh 147 pounds now. I do have access to getting some Valium from somebody but really don't want to take her medicine without a script. Aside from it being illegal hopefully if I can get back on my feet and get over this soon. I will need to get a new job and obviously we'll be taking a drug panel.

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12

Help me get over the w/d From narcos, I have clonidine will it help

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13

The doctor had me on oxymorphone 40mg 4@ day for 2 years and i came up dirty for fetanyl due to taken care of my father as he wore them and they have to be changed every 3 days.She didnt want to hear it she discharged me.I am going thru withdrawls so bad.I tryed methadone pills but didnt have enough for more than 2 days.Someone gave me some Clonodine pills to take but im kinda nervous about taking them any input.Thank you.

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