My introduction

Hello All,
I have been lurking in these forums for some time now, just reading and trying to better educate myself through people's real life experiences. While some post atelier funny others are at time painful to read. Why painful you might ask? Simply because I can totally relate to these experiences. I have also learned that there are a lot of spammers on here whic is so unfortunate because this could really be a place for sufferers to get information about this horrible "disease". How anyone can not have the humanity to see that there are people out there that suffer a great deal yet they can go and scam them. It's just horrible. Well enough of that for now. I am not here to judge anyone but rather to turn to this place in hopin to find some decent people who have gone through the same thing that I am about to go through and hope that they can have some compassion to "guide" me through the horrible process we can, DETOX.
In any case, please let me introduce myself by telling you my story...

Back in 2000 I was coming back from a party with a then boyfriend of mine. We had 2 other friends in the car with us. We had just dropped them off at their house. We were at a stop light when a car, going about 50mph hit us from behind. The back of our car was mashed all the way up to the front of the car where I was sitting. Upon impact, I felt dizzy/ confused and lost. It was the strangest feeling not to know what is going on. And a scary one Like you are in this void. Needless to say, the driver of the other car took off. When the ambulance came and the EMT spoke to me, I could hear everything he said but for some reason could not understand it. I told him this as well. I suppose I was in shock and so was my body.
The police came to the scene and was talking to my ex- bf who appeared to be fine. I was not however. I did not know how much damage was done to me as they were afraid to move me. The police put out a call for the other car. They finally caught him because his car was a mess. It was on fire, yet he took off. Well, I found out later that he received 9 different citations. Some of which were; evasion, drinking and driving, etc...
The very next day, I was a mess. I could not move my body. I felt paralyzed and I was scared. I was lucky that nothing was broken. The doctors told me I was very lucky. I went through a lot of therapy but through the years there is not one day that I woke up without pain. 
From the time of the accident up until 3 years ago, I did not use any medications. I didn't want to become dependent on them like I am now. 
This is where my story is similar to everyone else in the increase usage and the dependence to them. How some use it for recreational use is beyond me. Why would you do that to yourself? It's like putting a death sentence on yourself. Anyway, I live with this chronic pain every day and it is not pleasant. However, I do not like depending on these pills any more. I see my neurologist every month, some times  every 1 1/2 month. But each time she always prescribes the same amount. In some months, my pain is more than others but I would not ask for more dosage. 
Getting to the point of this message... I have decided to quit these meds altogether. I don't like being dependent on anything or anyone for that matter and these pills have had control over my life for far too long. Yes, I have a real chronic pain issue but I will have to just deal with it. I have not told my neurologist that I am quitting these meds. I actually have not seen her for  about over 2 months. I am almost done with the remaining meds. She prescribes 30 20mg OxyContin (extended release) to me every month. I am actually pretty dicipline about over usage. I could get more but I do not want to. 
I have made a plan to quit this coming weekend. I believe I can do this since I also stopped smoking ( cigs) over a year ago. With that, I just told my fiancé the date that I will quit and I did and have not looked back since. I am a fairly strong girl and what I say I do, well, I will do. 
I know that it will be hard to quit these pills since I really do need them. But I honestly don't like the idea of something controlling my life. I guess I am also thankful that I have never bought drugs off the street. I have a friend who has some suboxones left from when she received it from her doctor, is giving me a few to use since she says no matter how strong I am WD can get to the strongest of people. I agree with her and therefore I don't mind the help. I am ready for this journey. A little anxious but ready. 
Sorry for the long post but I thought I would introduce myself. I hope that those who are or have gone through this can help encourage me. I know that this is the beast in my life that must be tamed. Again, I thank you for listening ( reading ).
I am too successful in life to let anything like this every bring me down. I fear that it will get me one day like some of the stories I've read.

Wow.. Well good luck! How do you plan on managing your pain after? It doesn't sound like your dose is too high so I wouldn't think detox would be that horrible. Of course not pleasant. If this is something you really want to do I believe you will be successful!

Thanks MzJay! I know from reading these forums that you are one of the few good pple in here.:)
My habits depended on the day. Day by day. Some days are worst than others.:(
To manage my pain, I plan to go to the gym a lot more to build up the muscles around my injuries.
Some stretching exercises that I received from my therapist and neurologist. Basically, just take it day by day and try things out. I do find that the older I've gotten the harder it is, so we shall see.
Thank you for you encouragement! I really need it.

Dreamy Life wrote:

Thanks MzJay! I know from reading these forums that you are one of the few good pple in here.:)
My habits depended on the day. Day by day. Some days are worst than others.:(
To manage my pain, I plan to go to the gym a lot more to build up the muscles around my injuries.
Some stretching exercises that I received from my therapist and neurologist. Basically, just take it day by day and try things out. I do find that the older I've gotten the harder it is, so we shall see.
Thank you for you encouragement! I really need it.

Hey no problem! I'm always here to support anyone I can. I know WD can be hard. I am on a pretty low dose myself and I have went without before for a few days. I found that sleeping was the most difficult. Even when taking OTC sleep aids. During the day I just try to stay busy and take ibuprofen to try and help a little. I've read that things like Xanax help with the WDs. I found that if I just had things to do it made it easier. Laying in the bed feeling horrible only makes it worse. Since I don't take a very high dose I don't think my WD is that bad. If you have quit smoking you are definitely strong in my eyes! I think you can do it and there are lots of good people here that will support u! Just ignore any negative comments!

Thank you! I will try to ignore all the negative comments. Its crazy to see so many!
After reading a lot of these posts, I have gotten a few good ideas as to what helped for people and what didn't. I am sure I will need all the help I can get. And yes, stop smokin wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. But, I know that this would be a lot harder.***sighing***
I have never tried to quit but I have tried to skip a couple of days in between and I remember that not be ao pleasant. Painful is the word really!

Also just to share a little. I myself am actually curentlty attempting a self detox myself from an opiate. The last time I succesfully detoxed it was pure cold turkey but I had the luxury of being able to take off of work for a week so counting weekends I had 9 days to myself. I don't have that luxury this time around and need to keep functioning normally each day. I also acquired some subs from a friend and believe me they help immensly I've also found SOMA to assist as well with the aches. I went up to 16mg of the subs for simply 3 days and am now decreasing that by 2mg a day until zero. I'm currently down to 8 today and so far so good and I've only had mild discomfort. Again I wish u all the best with ur personal struggle sounds like u have a great head on ur shoulders and I have faith you'll be able to achieve ur goal

Hi Simplicity,

Thank you for your words of encouragement and I hope for a speedy recovery for you as well. If I may ask, when do you plan on jumping off of the suboxones? Also, I am also prescribed the SOMA every month but it makes me too sleepy to take them during the day so I take it at night to help me sleep. How do you manage to take it during the day. Doesn't it make you sleepy?

Good Luck and I hope you quickly beat this.

Ahh I read this ladies introduction, and I really wanted to rush her ass with negative comments, but I restrained myself and i wish her good luck!!!! because I am in the same boat!'nn.

Thank you, Big Pauly. I do appreciate your restraint. So you say you are in the same boat, do you mean where you are about to start your detox? If you don't mind me asking. I'am sorry if I am over stepping my boundaries.

Thanks Again and I wish you much success.

Hello to u as well dreamy and thank u for the encouragement too :) I'm going to just keep up with the 2mg per day reduction until I hit zero and then just try cold turkey from there. The subs can give you a withdrawl too but I'm hoping since Im doing it pretty rapidly (10 days total)that it will be very minimal. Guess ill find out for sure in 4 more days though. As far as the SOMA goes Ive been taking 1 late morning and 2 at night. Prior to detoxing I couldn't take 1 during the day either because of the drowsiness you mentioned but whatever brain chemistry change that causes sleeplisness (sp?) when dt'ing must be allowing me to now do it because I have only a very small amount of drowsiness during the day now with it but at the same time then the 2 at night DO make me drowsy and thankfully allow me to sleep without too many issues.

Fla Mike,

I am On my phone and apparently it's not working right. I am still getting familiar with all of this. Also, my phone keeps kicking me out. I had to reset my password so many times as well. Strange.
Btw, hello.

Dreamy Life wrote:

Thank you, Big Pauly. I do appreciate your restraint. So you say you are in the same boat, do you mean where you are about to start your detox? If you don't mind me asking. I'am sorry if I am over stepping my boundaries.

Thanks Again and I wish you much success.

I just want to stop cold turkey but I keep failing at that, right now I am drinking 5 grams of kratom to help me with the withdrawals.

Simplicity, that is awesome and I applaud you for being where you are right now. I do know how hard it is to make that decision to stop. And, we all go at our own pace and we will all eventually get there. Congrats to you for making it this far already. I hope to be there soon enough. The doctor has been giving me SOMA to take twice a day but I still can't seem to take it during the day. I would be nodding off at work if I did.:P

Big Pauly, that's seems very brave of you to try and do it cold turkey. Also, I'm sorry, what is Kratom? I'm really new to all of this. Thanks!

Thanks again dreamy :) I'm hoping for the best outcome for both of us!
To answer your question about kratom..its a powder you can easily buy online to make drinks. it does indeed help a lot with opiate withdrawl and I've personally tried it myself to detox in the past but i found it quite nasty and only sufficiently effective for me at very large doses which then makes me incredibly nauseous. That's just personal experience though. I know and have read a lot of other peoples experiences with it though and they were quite positive. If interested here is a link for some more info on it (also if your not familiar with that site itself its a great drug info resource) http://www.erowid.org/plants/kratom/kratom.sh...

MzJayBay wrote:

Wow.. Well good luck! How do you plan on managing your pain after? It doesn't sound like your dose is too high so I wouldn't think detox would be that horrible. Of course not pleasant. If this is something you really want to do I believe you will be successful!

I was thinking the same....there will be WD, especially since you have been on them for 3 years. It is a low dose, however, but from what I know, being dependant is being dependant. I would stock up immodium and zantec, amd if you can get some benzos to help you sleep once the WDs really start, that will help. Just take them for like 5 days - you don't want a new habit! With the immodium you will have to take more than the dosing instructions. Also, take ibuprofen and a lot of showers. Stay hydrated and as much as you're not going to want to, try to take long walks or light exercising. Light exercising followed by an immediate shower will make you feel better after, plus help pass time. Good luck and stay strong! Have you considered a taper? Maybe start by taking one every other day in stead of just one every day...then every 3 days. Or perhaps cut it in half or something.

I was typing MBFH and posted,or i would not have after reading your suggestion !!!

Simplicity, thanks for the link.:)
MBFB- thank you for all the advise. I am surely going to use it. As for tapering off the oxy, I have been doing that but I don't have that many more days to taper off before I jump start this detox. I want to start sometime this weekend. My long weekend that is. I want to use this long weekend to do this. You can understand why.
Hi Painboi- thanks for your post. I originally req some of your post with that one guy you were
arguing with. I hope that all turned out ok.

Thanks all for giving me the info I need to be successful. I am so ready to start this and get it over with. I will post my progress on here throughout it all. I am hoping to try by Saturday or Sunday. I am just so scared about the period of WD before the subs. Ouch! Oh question- so During my process, like you said, MFBH, I can take things to help with te withdraw? I I can get Xanax? The problem is I don't buy off the streets and I haven't told my neurologist tht I am doing this. I don't want her to put me on subs for a longer time than I need to be. I have heard all those horror stories on here.

Thanks guys!

Also, why does my location constantly changes? Weird. I haven't done anything to it. And I not even where they say I am in.

Anytime :) o and one last thing then since you said you are unfamiliar with a lot of this. Please use this chart to determine when it is safe to take your first sub. If you take it too early it will put you into the hells of precipitated withdrawls which is the last thing you want. This is actually the monitoring chart that Dr's use to determine when to start your treatment and the second page gives u a little more info too. Best of luck again :)
http://www.naabt.org/documents/COWS_Induction...