-----------------------------------

Diary of a Quitter

Tue May 26, 2009 3:39 pm


Day Two of .6mgs (600mcgs)

-----------------------------------

I am on my second day of .6mgs, down from the .8mgs that I was taking for the last 10 days. Yesterday was ok, I was just a little grumpy but I went for a long walk with my daughter and felt much better.

Today I woke up with chills and a runny nose and a little achy but that went away about 15 minutes after I dosed. I'm feeling kinda lethargic so I'm going to get off the computer and go for a swim. Swimming is the best - I have fibromyalgia and swimming doesn't hurt my body any more than it already hurts - exercise I have found for allievating the tapering symptoms. Motivating to do it is the only issue. I just have to remember there's a hot tub waiting for me after I work out.  :lol: 

I've now been doing this liquid taper for almost 2 weeks, and so far it's WAY better than my doctor's suggested method, which was to start dosing every other day. That put me on what felt like a roller coaster and the w/d symptoms were more pronounced, especially insomnia. 

Since starting this new method I haven't even needed my Clonidine prescription, so I'm saving it for the end when things might be worse.

Just for the record, every reduction since I've gotten below 2mgs has had acute symptoms starting 2-3 days after the reduction and lasting up to 2 weeks. These are the achy legs, restlessness, irritablity, sleeplessness, runny nose, chills. Clonidine helped some of these - but the new taper method is gentler so these symptoms are less.

There are other aspects of the taper that are longer lasting - lethargy, apathy, the return of fibro symptoms, fatigue. It's hard for me to tell what of these is withdrawal and what is my fibro or my depression. I've had to make adjustments in my life to cope with these symptoms, and while they are a pain in the ass, they are not unbearable. Reminding myself that it's not forever, this is not the worst I've ever felt, and keeping a positive outlook helps me get through it. So has adjusting my expectations of what this period of my life is going to be like. 

At this point I absolutely do not regret going on Suboxone. Sub helped me save my life.