Dear BlueJulie,

I truly feel for your situation! I am the Husband that was described in an earlier post by Jen. Jen is exactly correct about everything that I read in her post.

Methodone, when used for opiate addition, seems to get prescribed in two ways -- extremely fast or extremely slow. My wife, through much enouragment with her MD, started out at 40mg/day and tapered down 5mg/wk, so she was on it for 2 months. Her MD would have wanted her to do it in just a month. When it ran out, she wigged out. Fortunately (I suppose), she had a good supply of Trazadone, Xanax, & Prozac.

Also, once we expressed all of this to one of her other drs, he prescribed the Catapres patch (clonodine) -- and we're on the last month's dose of the lowest strength of that. She has also been taking Skelaxin (a muscle relaxer) but that just ran out, so we're now considering a replacement for that. My wife is a self-proclaimed wimp when it comes to pain and is quick to find a medicinal remedy. I'm just the opposite -- I'll suffer with a headache or neck pain for three days before even taking an Advil.

Short term methodone treatment seems to just be an alternative to C/T, but then you'll still have to deal with W/D's associated with methodone. On the other hand, long-term MMT seems to get good reviews, but I believe that you need to be dealing with someone that really knows what they are doing.

If we had it to do over again, I honestly think that we would have gone C/T without the methodone, but the good news is that we're now over 30 days off of it (and any other opiate) plus she says that the cravings or any desire for opiate is gone!! Maybe the methodone did more than we gave it credit for...God only knows!!!!

I pray that you find the right solution for you!

aNewman

Julie,

Rockingham is very much on target with what his is saying. In hindsight with my wife, we would have been better off cutting the pills and having a smaller dose from which to end. We actually did that some, the problem was that she always felt that she needed that piece later in the day (my fault for giving it to her). The plan was for her to exit from 5mg/day (cutting 10mg's in half) but her 2 week supply only lasted a week and the dr wouldn't write another script. Effectively, she exited @ 10mg/day. She attests that it was rough.

Rockingham wrote - dropping from 10mg to 0 is just not wise at all. the withdrawal will be intense and drawn out.

My wife is curious about what "drawn out" means. She's 37 days downstream of her last methodone and she still feels achy. I can't imagine what it would be like if she didn't have Prozac, Xanax, Clonodine patch, Trazadone, and Skelaxin.

By the end of October, I'm hoping that the patch and skelanin are gone, and that the Xanax is reduced by 25%. I'm more worried about her emotional state at that time...the girl loves medicine!

Julie, keep us posted on how things are progressing with you! Pill quantitiy and emotions - - We'll be here for you!! :)

Newman