Weaning off Hydrocodone

Pain management doctors are only human, and all have different ideas. Is your aim to wean off the hydrocodone and try some other pain relief? The detox going cold turkey is a nightmare and is not recommended unless you have 4-5 days to suffer intense sweats, vomiting, nightmares etc. Been there and done that never again. You can start to halve your dose week by week, so your body starts to function without it. That worked much better for me.

What options do you have for other pain relief -

Buprenorphine patches 10mg is one way, which means no tablets to worry about. If you go down that path always leave your old patch on for an extra 24 hours after you put your new one. This keeps your level constant and reduces any nausea you may experience.

Memantine - this has the added benefit of helping reduce your fatigue. Read up about it and acts a bit like ketamine without the side effects. Is far cheaper than ketamine.

Ketamine - very effective, especially in wafer form, but only works in 1/3 of people, may have long-term side effects, requires blood work regularly, and is quite expensive. Search for threads on ketamine Mayo Clinic pain groups for more views.

Cannabis - gives only short-term relief in my view, not very effective, but you can read about it in threads throughout the Mayo Clinic pain groups.

Unfortunately, there are not very many options, and the Government continues to make it hard for those who have long-term chronic pain.

I hope this helps..

That sucks and it's so sad they give you so much to keep you from having pain but then then cut you off knowing it's going to make you feel worse and you need them now I don't no who at the drug control board or who ever controls it had ever had any pain with meds then got them took from them never so it's easy for them to say it is possible but it is dangerous and more painful and emotional and makes you very jumpy and edgy all I can say is pray alot and try to survive I will pray for you to

Thanks for the prayers! The pain mgt dr tried Nucenta and it made the pain worse. So I am back on the Hydro even though it does not hold the pain any longer. At least takes the edge off.

I've been on hydrocodone for over 20 years and take them every 6-7 hours. I see pain management also. I weaned off 1 mg xanax by going from half in morning and half in evening for about 6 weeks to 1 in am and half in pm for a month then down to just 1 in the morning and a month later a half in the morning. I started them back because of the potential benefit for tinnitus but if it doesn't work I'll wean off again. The pain meds were prescribed every 4 hours. I took them every 6. Then I decided to go to every 7 hours. I can't take anything else that works for my pain. I have severe back issues. I was getting 120 a month, I'd see Dr every 2 months and he'd send rx to pharmacy and one would go on file. I always had to move my appt out because of excess pills and when I moved it out a month, I was told I couldn't do that, I needed to see him every 2 months not 3. That's when I suggested doing just 90 pills but that isn't going to work because some days I need them more often than every 6-7 hours and 90 would make me short where as the 120 I had enough if I needed extra. I would suggest spacing them out by an hour for awhile then go another hour until you are at the place they still work but you have no side affects from them. The only time I got nausea was ONCE when I took them too close together. Now I write down the time so I don't have to remember.

You might consider having your surgeon or whom ever is currently writing your pains meds to consider buprenorphine patch for your pain or refer you to someone who can prescribe it for you. I have chronic pains due to osteoarthritis of my spine and chronic pain and I was switched for morphine to buprenorphine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4675640/

My pain meds do not take it away completely. I can only imagine how much worse it'd be without them.

How much are you taking?