DiegoGirl,
I'm really sorry about your accident. And I hope you recover well. Be patient with yourself. It takes a long time to get over this kind of thing, longer than the doctors realize. In my case, it was several years, but I now think that being on the fentanyl slowed my recovery. So you are doing the right thing.

I'll tell you what I know based mainly on my own experiences. First, do not use the valium more than once or twice a week. Getting off a valium addiction is Harder than getting off Fentanyl. They put me on valium for five months and when I weaned myself I had terrible anxiety and nobody warned me. It lasted about a month. So if you have anxiety, it could be a reaction to the valium. I don't know anything about oxycontin, except the obvious, that it's addictive.

You can get off the fentanyl. It was not nearly as bad as I expected and not as bad as the methadone turned out to be (I was taking only 2.5 mg of methadone for pain most of the time). I think if you are going to be on a patch at all, use it every 48 hours. Otherwise, it's all ups and downs. Exhausting withdrawal.

I was on a 75 mcg patch and went to 50. I was on 50 for a long time. Then I went from 50 to 25. I did not taper. I just took off the patch and went without a patch for as long as I could stand it and then put on a 25 mcg patch. I personally wanted it to be over with, so I was looking for how much withdrawal I could stand at once. Like I say, most of it was not that bad.

I only had one bad spell, late one night about 40 hours after I took off the 50 mcg patch. I had what the junkies used to call the heebie jeebies--a feeling of intense apprehension. Plus my legs kept kicking. You'll know what it is if you get there. I hated it, so I took a valium and a vicodin, which brought me right back up to a tolerable level and I could sleep. The next morning it was just sleepiness and withdrawal. My pain was not a lot worse.

Rent a bunch a movies, stock the house with food and just plan a 4-5 day vacation with no obligations. Ideally, you'll have company, someone to give you hugs and bring you tea. It's not that bad. I felt half decent by the end of the week, although not myself for another couple of weeks. Then I went from 25 mcg to zero. Same story. NOT that hard. I'd say once I was off completely, there was vague residual feelings for a few months. But most of that was minor compared to the first week.

If I'd known how easy it would be I would have done it years earlier.

My fusion was in November 2004 and I was still on fentanyl in early 2008. I can definitely say that I have less pain without the fentanyl.

Good luck!
I'll watch for posts here if you want to talk about how it's going.

PS. I would take the Clonidine. Get the prescription now and then use if you need it. I asked my doctor for it when I was in methadone withdrawal and she would not prescribe it over the phone and I was too tired to go in and get it.

My kids were great. I'm a single mother with two teens. They helped me through the first weekend of withdrawal and were really sweet. I did the second weekend at a friend's house to spare them. I'm not sure I needed to do that. Another consideration for me was that their father would find out and accuse me of being a drug addict and try to make trouble for me. But I don't think they ever told him.

I was talking to them recently about it. I said I was embarrassed about it and they said, basically, "Oh, no! We think you were really brave. It was not your fault." so I'm hoping your kids are the same. :)

Hi there: I have been on the Fentanyl 75 for 5 months - I went cold turkey this morning - I am on it to control pain but my pain goes into remission and I don't need the pain meds around the clock so I want to get off this 24/7 medication - I have read a lot of pros and cons on going cold turkey but I think that will be best for me. It has been 3 hrs now and I have had the chills and I am axius but I feel this will pass - I will keepyou posted if you like :-)

Please do. Anxious to hear how you're doing

Hi Jasmine.
Good for you! Do you have any patches that are lower dose? I think you should attempt the cold turkey if that's what you want to do. But it would be easier to do it in stages. I went from 75 to 50 and from 50 to 25, then off completely. It was not nearly as bad as I expected.

The worst part for me was intense anxiety, which came on about 24 hours after I took the patch off. I had some valium. A single 5mg valium and one vicodin, to take the opiate withdrawal edge off, made it possible for me to get some sleep and get past that one bad stage.

Anyway, if you have trouble with this, I highly recommend trying again with some pharmaceutical preparation.

Good luck! We look forward to hearing how you are doing.

If you have insurance go to a withdrawal spa, and don't suffer. If you have a will to live do it painfree. Pray for God to lead you and listen quietly for his answer.

There's a way to get off opiates if you are dedicated and have control. Here is something that has worked for a few people I know that are very close to me. One person was highly addicted to 80mg oxy's. What he did was stop taking the oxy until you are in full withdrawal than jump on suboxone (wutever dose your dr gives u) take that for about 2 weeks. What the 2 weeks of subs is doing is killing the oxy withdrawals. Now the 3rd week you can either quit the subs or drop down to half of your dose than quit. You will have some sweating and minor discomfort for a week or 2 after but you will notice that you feel a lot better by the end of the months. During all of this its good to be taking Wellbutrin for anxiety and depression, also take ibuprofen the strongest you can find at your local drug store. Take the ibuprofen for pain and hot flashes and cold sweats.

Essentially you can do this with any opiates. For example you are dependent of fentanyl so you would be able to take lets say 20mg oxy or 40mg oxy's for 2 weeks to kill the fentanyl withdrawals than quit the oxy. Than deal with sweats and minor discomfort for a few weeks.

I AM NOT A DOCTOR lol and I am only speaking based on my personal life experiences...

I've been using the Mylan brand of the fentanyl patch for a year now. I had my tailbone removed, and then 8 months later had to have a hysterectomy and other work done in the same general area. I was on 250 micrograms for most of the year, although I bumped up to 275 shortly after the second surgery.
I started physical therapy and began to feel a bit better. Then, one weekend while packing to camp with the kids (my first big excursion) I misplaced my last 250 patches of the month. I had one day of cold turkey withdrawal until I could see my doctor to get more prescribed. That day, and my ongoing physical therapy, made me decide to get off the patches. I was surprised when my doctor was vague when I asked how long it would take me to titrate. She kept answering, "It's different for everyone." she prescribed 200 mg that day and it was my pharmacist who gave me advice. He said, "When it's time to put on your next 200, try 100 and see what happens." Surprisingly, NOTHING happened!
However, after that, it did begin to get more challenging going down. Because I have the MYLAN brand, which is one, flat sticker, (not the patches with the plastic reservoir) I am able to CUT the 100 patches into quadrants and titrate as quickly or slowly as my body can take it. For me, I have gone down so far from the 250 I was on to 12.5 micrograms in 22 days without too, too much misery. I am changing them out every two days and going down about every 4 days. I did 100, 75, 50, 37, 25, 18, and now 12... I plan to do 6 mg for a few days and then go off. I tried to go even faster, for example, from 100 to 50, but the cold sweats and exhaustion were too much for me that way.
Since getting down below 50 mg, my pain has become an issue again, and I have used 1-2 dilaudid for that. (I had been averaging one dilaudid per day for breakthrough pain.) So... That will be my next one to taper off, but I've been on and off 1-2 pills per day several times, so I don't expect it to be anything at all as difficult as the patches have been. The PT is also continuing to make a difference, so I am hopeful.
I read people say they would never have gone on them if they knew how difficult it was to get off- I don't feel I had any choice at the time given the level of pain the surgery created. (the tailbone was removed as a last ditch effort by the Mayo Clinic to end a year on sudden-onset pain with no known reason!)
Oh, the best thing is that my appetite has been extremely affected and I'm losing some of the weight I've gained since being so immmobile.
I hope this is encouraging- you CAN get off- it takes determination- and I never went back up to a previous level once I came down- the bad feelings of adjusting to a lower level passed after about 2 days, and then I just went down again, which is why it's gone relatively quickly for me. I wish you the best! You can do it!

I have been on the patch for 10 years up to 100 every 48 hours . I got off 12 years ago and almost died I lay in bed for 4 months and cried like a baby I lost my family and my life. I was then in a head on collision and was injured badly the girl who hit me died, I have now been on the patch for ten years and do not want to go through the withdrawals again, I think about dying constantly but tell no one . I need help but cannot afford the 35000 for the Wiesman method . I am a veteran so the meds are free but I know I cannot go through reducing the amount I take because it would be a one year of hell. You cannot reduce the amount because it is like a slow death, I know I tried . If anyone can pray for me I would appreciate it. If anyone can help me please let me know . Thanks for reading this and I am open to any help . GW

Fentanyl is a sleeping monster I have been on it for over 6 years I tried to change meds I was on the 50 patch they put me on loratab 20 which has to be hand made and I went into withdraul in 3 days it was the most suffering I ever went through I had to go back on the fentyanyl in a week I could not take it then again I wanted off and they tried 30mg morphine same thing other drugs are like taking water with the tabs and the morphine I cramped my whole body ached I would be cold then hot had fazes of weakness and sweating felt confused and disorginized could not sleep which I hardly sleep when on the fentanyl I also have kidney stones on a regular basis and when I go to rthe emergency room the meds they give hardly work only delodid works and that is hard to get so this has been really bad I know that it's the same as herion and getting off that is said to be one of the worst to quit I am studding on getting off the fentanyl patch I am on the 75 patch every 2 days and now its starting not to last but one day and I am going into withdrawl every time this has happened they have went up on the dose I am now to the point where I want off but I do have really bad spinal pain so I just don't know what to do I may have to go into the hospital this time if you are thinking about getting on this drug fentanyl I would advise you not to itsa monster david

I have been on the patch at 100 mcg/mg x3 days for years but I want to go back to driving tractor trailers and as you can guess, and as it should be, I can not get medically cleared while I am on the patch. As I read your posts I loose all hope of ever getting back behind the wheel. I am thinking the only way to do it is to get admitted to the hospital's detox program and try it that way. Have any of you tried to do it that way? If so, was it successful or not?
My prayers to ALL of you as we struggle to get ourselves off this awful drug. I also think that the doctors need to be more aware of what the potential addiction problems they are giving to their patients by prescribing this med without really, and I mean REALLY sitting down with the patient and explaining what lies ahead if they chose to use this medication, I mean DRUG!
Good luck to all,

Before committing to a detox program please take the time to confer with an addiction medicine specialist. Not an MRO or company doctor but one that is board certified and has a specialty practice in addiction medicine.

If available to you a detox program is helpful but you must also consider the possibility of re-emergent pain symptoms. That is, the reason you were originally prescribed Fentanyl (or any narcotic). Is that condition still existent and how will you deal with it?

While the term "addiction" is often misapplied to people in your circumstance it is physical dependence that is the primary problem. There is a clear distinction between the two phenomena.

Once the physical dependence is abated there is no emotional (psychological) need for the drug(s). A capable detox is very helpful in that regard as they understand, can predict and control the withdrawal symptoms and greatly alleviate the associated discomfort. Including any potential dangers.

I have been on Fentanyl 100mg for a little over a year for a broken neck and failed neck surgery which left me with chronic pain. It turned me into a Monster and I was never able to bring myself to get off of it until last week, I just woke up and went to change my patch and decided just to quit, it was time so now is day 10 and I can tell you the first two days were hard, I just wanted to go put my patch on but once I got through that I was fine until day 5 when my pain gradually started coming back and now on day 10 my pain is unbearable and I am so dizzy. I have the most trouble at night at bedtime, I have a lot of anxiety and cramps in my legs so I don't get much sleep. And then every morning at 4 a.m. it hits me again. Does anyone who's gone cold turkey know whats next for me or how long this crap lasts?!!!
THANKS GUYS!

[B]I am 48 and have been on the 100mg patch for over a year and I just stared getting off the patch cold turkey, the key to getting off is just like anything else, you have to want to and you have to work at it and different symptoms pop up everyday. My first 2 days were just wanting the patch like a smoker might want a cigarette or a drunk might want a drink. After that the third day I thought I had it licked then my pain started coming back gradually and I started feeling bad, like the flu and had trouble sleeping, a lot of anxiety at bedtime then again every morning. Then around day 8 I started feeling dizzy and had more pain and now I'm on day 10 my pain is unbearable and am still dizzy and sick feeling and a small amount of depression is setting in. I just hope it's over soon, I had to get off the patch, I was becoming a monster. I was a different person everyday, I could never make plans because I never knew who I'd be that day, it's a bad drug! If your strong and have a family to be there to help you through, you can do it, you just have to want to!
D-ROCK

I will surely pray for you, that has what's helped me these past 10 days, I quit cold turkey 10 days ago and believe me, it's not easy at all but it will be worth it in the end. I was on 100mg patches for over a year for a broken neck and failed neck surgery 5 years ago, I'd tried every drug for pain and when I found Fentanyl I thought it was great then I started becoming a different person everyday and I was destroying my family so last week I just said enough is enough and I was ready to quit so I did and it's not easy but I'm going to beat this, you have to want to do it, just like anything else. So yes, you have my prayers and there are people just like you out there, you're not alone!

Dear Asking,
I am going through the same problem that you went through but only with Fentanyl patches. I was diagnosed with IIH(Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension) at 16 years old. My doctor put me on 100mg of Fentanyl about a year ago and I have been lowering my dose slowly... My doctor said that was the only way he knew I could get off the patch. So, the doses went from 100, 50, 25, 12.5. I am now on half of 12.5 so about 6mg. And the withdrawal affects are terrible. If you have any information for me please help me...

Thanks.

P.S.
I'm 17.

Did your withdrawals get bad? I'm on 75mcg for 11 yrs & Dr. is taking me off. I've forgotten to put it on 2x and went through horrible withdrawals.