Posted 10/26/2014 11:37 AM (GMT 0)
Matt thats too much!!! Drop one of those doses today! Crap I hate Dr's who do this!! You won't miss that dose as methadone is a drug you can take the entire daily dose at one time since it's peak time is 12 hours. You could take the entire 25mg in the morning and I promise you it still will cover the same way.
I was lortab for years after blowing my knee, forever chasing the pain every dose, watching the clock and finally my Dr did me the greatest disservice and saved my life!! He put me on methadone! I was able to raise my 5 kids and do things I hadn't done and probably never would have on hydro.
14 yrs I remained on the methadone Matt until one day my now different Dr had me stop for a weekend and use hydro. I was one sick puppy but I noticed things like my hearing was better, my vision cleared, I wanted to do things I use to enjoy a long time ago. I spent hours talking to my teenager and listening to music with her, I was an avid music buff way back before and rarely missed a concert in town. Hadn't been to one in years. So much I could Remember sitting there with my teen as we spent the afternoon reminiscing over my teenage years, things I had long forgotten. She was as old as my methadone use.
I realized that weekend that this drug in its saviour had robbed me of her life by making me a shell of a Mom with no interest in anything but the fact it tricked me into believing I was OK. That's what it does Matt just like it tricks the addicts into believing they're OK, no gagging, jonsing for a hit,sweating, restless leg, driving themselves insane wanting to be high, and for us let's us believe we are OK and no pain. You know how I know I was still experiencing the pain Matt? I had worked my way through the years up to 100 mgs a day of methadone and was totally blitzed when I had a EMC done and my body reacted violently to that test yet I felt not even a prick.
As a matter of fact I had a miild heart attack and the methadone did its job and tricked my nerve receptors into believing there was no pain and I could have died Matt at 45 years old. The hardest part about that incident as years later they discover that methadone actually interferes with cardiac rhythm at the QT wave interval and can stop your heart in its beat pattern.
I was a shell of the person I use to be and nolonger had a personality at all. I took no interest in life other then day to day living. I had no emotional state of mind whatsoever. Moods? None. I was nothing short of an uncaring unemotional, living breathing piece of flesh.
The side effects of methadone is I high price to pay to be tricked into believing your in no pain. Then you have the physical ones like horrible constipation,rapid weight gain,water retention, edema, pulmonary congestion, itching, lethargy, malaise, and loss of sexual desire, libido Matt and if you have a significant other your going to deal with impotence on top of no desire. That by the way is the number 1 side effect for men using methadone, women don't put as much importance on that so it's not number 1 in women, weight gain is.
Long story but I decided I wasn't living my last years with no past and I started what turned into a year long battle to get off. You can read that in archive here since there's plenty of posts about my agony. A year of trying desperately to lower the dose enough I could stop. Horrible withdrawls of a degree I was suicidal at several junctions, I never left my house more then 5 times in a year. W/D s from this drug are tenfold that of any other opiate. A entire year and 15mgs a day was the lowest I could get and I tried with everything I'm worth I wanted off!!
Through all that I was lucky enough to have a awesome Dr who understood the ramifications of long term use, most don't so just stop it or attempt to switch you to another opiate and assume your going to be fine. Your Not, Remember no other opiate hits on the same receptor so you would only cover spillover. Like this for example. The proper conversion of methadone to morphine is 10:1 meaning it would take ten mgs of morphine for every one mg of methadone your taking. Trying to give you an idea of the power of this drug. As it stands they would have to write you 250 mgs of morphine to cover comfortably the dose your on now. That's Not going to happen, its considered a lethal dose. Do you understand what I'm implying? They would have to risk your life to make you comfortable and not be in W/D's.
Everytime you go to surgery, have a procedure or any need to stop your methadone to give you a different opiate your going into w/D's . I finally with the help of that awesome Dr got off using butrans, xanax, hydro for pain,clonidine, and truckloads of tissue and Imodium the blessed friend's I have on this forum Not letting me give up or turn back and months of sheer misery like none you can imagine. Read about please.
Don't be fooled all the horrible stories you hear about methadone related deaths are true and many are in ppl who have used it for years without problems. Good example is Anna Nicole Smith, been on and off of it countless times. The problems arise because of that half-life I talked about. You stop today and you still have an 1/8 of that drug in your system 3 days from now. Your body is constantly storing it. By the time you take your last dose of the day your first dose is just reaching its peak.
Think long and hard about this because this is one of the most important life changing events you will ever have and it will change your life in ways you can never imagine. Getting ons easy, living on its a little more difficult, getting off is suicidal and you never know if your going to be stronger then your own mind.