Questions & Comments about tapering off morphine (Kadian)

@elsa, first, welcome to Connect and I hope you make yourself at home and keep bringing your experiences back to us. I was diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis and the primary symptom is pain in the abdomen that radiates into the back. Ladies/nurses I have spoken with who have had P, a child, and kidney stones say P is the worst. As a result, I have been on some form of opiate for 12 years and my amounts have gone up, tapered, gone up, tapered, sort of like a yo-yo. I am a backwards reactor to opiates; they pump me up and make me very hungry. When I go down, I am very tired, but the other w/d symptoms sound very familiar. You may not be symptom free for a few more days, but it sounds to me like you have done a tremendous job of reducing and getting opiate free. Immodium, rest, and any food and hydration you can stand may speed you through the last of the bad symptoms. I am not sure that once you get there, you will even feel as if you need the naltrexone. Great job and hope we hear more from you and your experience at Mayo. Gary

You sound like me coming off Lyrica: my withdrawal symptoms were so severe you would think I was a heroine addict! Started coming off 300mg in Oct, tapering using the schedule I was given. I went into a month of severe diarrhea, depression anxiety panic. I am still suffering with these three. I still have to withdrawal from 50 mg starting tomorrow with decreasing to 25mg for a week then no more. I lost 28 lbs in a month down to 101 now not good, my skin is sagging, my boobies shrunk lol. I finally had to get a psychiatrist to help me with panic and anxiety. I know now why people commit suicide , I was even in the ER for dehydration and severe nausea, gagging you name it. So each morning when I awake I wonder what the day will bring me. The psychiatrist has given me a very low dose of Ativan to help. I do a lot of deep breathing, and I still cry a lot wondering how this prescription drug Lyrica could do this to me let alone anyone else trying to come off of it. I. Surprised I haven’t ended up in a mental institution sitting in a corner doing jigsaw puzzles. I. So thankful and cry I have such a loving caring husband of 48 years

First lady I have ever heard complain about losing weight! jk, there are good ways and this is not one of them. I pray that the worst of your symptoms have at least stabilized and that the next two step downs will not be as difficult. I know how ravaging w/d symptoms are, but if you get there and it was the right thing for your body, the longer term will be so much better. The deep breathing has been a benefit for my anxiety; doesn't go away, but does give me some feeling of control over halting the horrible, unrealistic images of the future. My wife has always been the same kind of rock for me, and that is so important that there is someone(s) that have your back! Blessings and well wishes for your next two steps.

Gary, thanks very much for your message! Funny, I just got back from Walgreens where I purchased Immodium and Melatonin. I spoke to the pharmacist and he said I would probably have the withdrawal symptoms for 3 or 4 more days. He thought my pain would lessen somewhat too.

I'm sorry to hear about the pain you sustain because of pancreatitis. It sounds extremely difficult to work with. I'm so impressed that you're a mentor on this discussion list and are responding to people, like me, who haven't been through Mayo's rehab program yet. Your comments give me a great deal of hope. Do you feel that your pain is well-managed at this point? I imagine the tapering up, then down, is difficult.

I have severe nerve pain stemming from a "simple" back surgery, a microdiscectomy, I had 8 years ago. During surgery the surgeon tore the membrane which surrounds the spinal cord (the"dura"). Many patients can sustain a dural tear without developing chronic pain but I also have MS, so my nervous system was already extra sensitive. In the year following surgery, the pain returned and got worse and worse. One year to date post-surgery I retired on a disability. In the 7 years since retiring from my job (I was the head of a branch library on the University of WI-Madison campus), I've experienced the "typical" downward spiral with severe neuropathic pain. First I was on gabapentin (still am, @900mg/daily), then Fentanyl, then off Fentanyl and on morphine + hydrocodone. My psychiatrist prescribed antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and methylphenidate to eliminate some of the opiate fog and help me focus better. At the highest levels of meds, 2 years ago, I was on 120mg Kadian daily, 2700mg. gabapentin daily, 50mg methylphenidate daily, up to 4 hydrocodone daily, plus various antidepressants and benzodiazepines for anxiety. Today I am opiate-free for 4 days, off the methylphenidate, sustaining at 900mg of gabapentin, plus effexor and sertraline for depression. Although I'm still experiencing fairly bad pain (peaking at "8" yesterday, "7" today), overall I'm thrilled to have my brain back!!! Today I was able to walk 2 blocks, and drive my car despite the pain.

My pain is located in my right buttock (sometimes the left side too), my right hamstring (sometimes the left one too) and the bottoms of both feet. It hurts to stand, walk, and sit. Because of nerve damage on the lower, backside of my body, some core muscles that normally would be firing to support my back, don't work right now. I'm greatly looking forward to working with PTs when I come for pain rehab.

Feel like I've written a novel here.... I'll close now. Thanks again for answering my post!

--Elsa

OMG! I wouldn't have thought coming off Lyrica would create such severe withdrawal symptoms! I'm so sorry for all you've suffered! I've only had withdrawal symptoms for 2 days now, nothing like your several-month ordeal!! I hope tapering off the last 50mg is somewhat easier for you.

I'm glad you have a supportive husband to help you through the withdrawal! What I've learned from being on a whole mess of different drugs I've taken concurrently to manage pain, depression, anxiety, brain fog, is that they can turn who into a bit of a zombie. Now that I'm completely off the opiates, I feel like I finally woke up from being in the fog! I'm much less forgetful, I can actually plan tasks and execute them. It's like having "mission control" back! 🙂

BTW, I took Lyrica (a starting dose, I presume,...was 7 years ago) and I quit it after a couple days. My brain couldn't take it. Felt like I was up in the ether.

Happy that you're almost done with this journey. You're a strong woman!!

@elsa

I hadn't heard that Mayo required that those going through the pain rehab be off opioids. That seems like a kind of strange requirement. Do they give a reason for this?

Jim

My withdrawal from Gabapentin (generic for Neurontin), the precursor drug to Lyrica developed by the same pharmaceutical company, was extremely difficult. And, my pain doctor was not helping me. I was on 900 mg and he told me to just stop taking it. Fortunately, I had read on this site about the horrible time people had withdrawing. I contacted my pharmacist and he helped me work out a schedule for withdrawing. I had a hard time, but I really wanted off, and if I went down a step too soon, I just went back up to the previous level for another week. I'm so happy to be off it. I personally think that it's a dangerous drug. I actually had less pain when I got off it.

Gail B
Volunteer Mentor

Gail Dr.had me on Neurotin but in the first couple of nights my mouth@throat where so dry I thought I was going to choke so she stopped it

I was at the Mayo Clinic in November. One of my appointments was with a psychologist with the Pain Rehab Center. She told me that if I enrolled in Mayo's 3-week pain rehab program that they require that you get off your opiates and they will help you to taper off. I just stated what I was told.

I can't find the discussion about Kratom ,but Dr.Mercola .com has a good article about this today and how the FDA is calling again for it as dangerous drug ,they want to ban it.very interesting article.