Successful hydrocodone taper?!?

[DAPR]

Hi all-
SWIM is new to this forum, but would like some advice and also to join the community.

SWIM has a history of fairly severe heroin addiction (Is there any other kind?) but has been off of the evil brown for approx 10 years. He has been on hydro 10/325 for pain approx 1.5 years with a maximum intake at one point of 80-100 mg a day.

SWIM felt the old demons calling and decided to taper off the hydro, not really expecting to be able to but over a period of months got down to 2.5 mg/day. (At beginning of taper, SWIM also began Gabapentin, titrating up to his current dose of 1200 mg/day.)

SWIM's question is this: His last dose was yesterday morning (approx. 15 hours ago) and surprisingly has not experienced ANY withdrawal symptoms yet. Is it possible that SWIM actually successfully tapered off of opioids?

He is also wondering if SWIY has any similar stories? Could the Gabapentin have played a role in this?


SWIM definitely has the "cellular memory" thing happening and looks at every sniffle, gooseflesh, etc as "it starting again"--even after 10 years off heroin.


He would also like to know if he is congratulating himself prematurely as the worst is yet to come.

DAPR added 11 Minutes and 14 Seconds later...

Originally Posted by DAPR

Hi all-
SWIM is new to this forum, but would like some advice and also to join the community.

SWIM has a history of fairly severe heroin addiction (Is there any other kind?) but has been off of the evil brown for approx 10 years. He has been on hydro 10/325 for pain approx 1.5 years with a maximum intake at one point of 80-100 mg a day.

SWIM felt the old demons calling and decided to taper off the hydro, not really expecting to be able to but over a period of months got down to 2.5 mg/day. (At beginning of taper, SWIM also began Gabapentin, titrating up to his current dose of 1200 mg/day.)

SWIM's question is this: His last dose was yesterday morning (approx. 15 hours ago) and surprisingly has not experienced ANY withdrawal symptoms yet. Is it possible that SWIM actually successfully tapered off of opioids?

He is also wondering if SWIY has any similar stories? Could the Gabapentin have played a role in this?


SWIM definitely has the "cellular memory" thing happening and looks at every sniffle, gooseflesh, etc as "it starting again"--even after 10 years off heroin.


He would also like to know if he is congratulating himself prematurely as the worst is yet to come.

Sorry...SWIM can't count. It's actually been 27 hours since his last dose.

[OhCasey]

That gabapentin youre taking could be a big part of it. Its known to help with withdrawals also 2.5 mg is a low dose so the taper probably helped alot.

[UNIBLACK810]

Sometimes what SWIM has learned with hydrocodone wihdrawl is that sometimes it is delayed. Not to say that SWIY's taper did'nt work because SWIM has used the same method before with maximum positive results. But by the time SWIY reaches this reply SWIY should know if it was succesful. If SWIY still hasn't had any symptoms by now than SWIY should be good. Physically anyway.

[DAPR]

Well, it's been a couple of days with no hydro and SWIM feels okay. Not stellar, but he's felt worse. Energy level is kinda low, a little RLS, but manageable. SWIM would like to thank SWIY for the feedback.

[OhCasey]

Originally Posted by DAPR

Well, it's been a couple of days with no hydro and SWIM feels okay. Not stellar, but he's felt worse. Energy level is kinda low, a little RLS, but manageable. SWIM would like to thank SWIY for the feedback.

Great! I was hoping to hear that you experienced no bad effects after the taper but I expected that you'd feel some symptoms of after withdrawals. Im happy to hear that it was manageable.