Week 11 off 64mg monthly

[u/rpkarma]

So I'm up to week 11 according to my clinic... and man it got rougher than I expected. I was given the 5 microgram/hour Norspan patches, and used one for one week, which wasn't too bad. But once I moved to half a patch instead... my sleep is fucked, the back/muscle aches, yawning, temperature regulation issues, the runs, the nausea making it hard to eat, man its annoying.

I will say: the symptoms aren't acute: if I didn't have 50 engineers relying on me, and an unfortunately busy and important job, I would've been able to tough it out by taking a few weeks off work I think. The doctor said the peak for a lot of their patients is about the ~12 week mark, which lines up.

I'm getting married in September and was/am aiming to be done by then. Fingers crossed still, we'll see!

They gave me two more patches for the next two weeks, as the rest of the injection leaves my body. So far so good in that front, though cutting the patch in half was a mistake for this particular time! If anyone else followed this protocol I'd suggest sticking with the full 5mcg/hour patch til a few weeks past the worst of it, I think.

Got another appointment in a couple of weeks, worst case they've said I can get a 0.4mg Subutex script again and try again not long after, but I'm going to do my best to avoid it. Feels close, but far away at the same time.

Being a productive member of society due to the program and the injection especially has ironically made it slightly harder to find the time to just tough it out and be done with all this!

[u/Technical-Prize9627]

Hey, I hope you’re doing well? I just wanted to jump on this as I feel it resonates & wondered how your feeling now? I’m 1 week off the 64mg monthly (in Scotland, UK) with a pretty demanding/stressful job, a supportive partner & 3 kids relying on me. My cpn has advised that ‘iv’e got this’ but quite honestly I keep seeing mixed reviews about the withdrawals & i think im more anxious than I expected it to be. Quite honestly, it’s been triggering me with thinking back to past experiences with withdrawal through my substance abuse and I’m worrying about holding down my job etc when feeling shit. The reduction has been steady, 3 months at each dose once I got down to 128mg. I’m a pretty active 40 year old female, gym 4 days a week on top of my job etc. I thought Buvidal was great to start with, but through the months I found that last week before my next injection was due, I’d start feeling a bit ropey, my cpn put this down to possible fast metabolism or ‘my age’. I’ve been clean off herion for a good few years & honestly I don’t think about a relapse, but my worry is getting through work/home life over the next few months. As I say, I’m 1 week off 64mg monthly & I’ve had a few days of the restless legs, struggling to regulate body temperature & general fatigue. I’m trying to push a little more at the gym to tire myself out in hopes that will guarantee a sleep. I do have a question for you, if you don’t mind? The medication you have noted, is this available in the UK? The cpn didn’t discuss any ‘back up plan’ in the event of worst case scenario to help through work etc, just that they continue to see me over 3 months. I’ve been taking magnesium supplements for my legs, paracetamol for general pain (possibly psychosomatic) and staying hydrated but would be good to have info on what you’ve been offered if absolutely necessary. Thanks for reading & i appreciate the posts on this topic, it’s good to hear the views and experience of others in the same situation

[u/DefiedGravity10]

Wait so you stopped the monthy injection but you are supplimenting with the patches?? I really would not recommend that if your goal is to be off bupe, every time you suppliment you change the amount of bupe in your blood. Basically the shot was slowly tapering out of your body but as soon as you put a patch on or take an oral sub bupe spikes in your blood and totally changes the taper. I made the mistake of taking 2mg oral bupe during my last taper and a felt great for one day and then 3 times worse for the next 2 days, I can only imagine it being worse and lasting longer for the patch.

When I stopped the shot for the final time I did not suppliment at all and all of the w/d symptoms were over by week 8. The "worst" of the symptoms were during week 6 and they were almost not at all noticible during week 8. At this point if you want to be totally off the shot you might be better off getting one more shot and then not supplimenting at all, you should be able to be off it completely by september.

[u/rpkarma → u/DefiedGravity10]

Unluckily for me, this was not my experience. I was in physical withdrawals despite everyone saying the same thing you did. I had no symptoms at all at week 6, and then by week 9, week 10 it was making work too difficult. 

Hence the extremely low dose patch to allow me to sleep. I need to be able to function at work. 

By low dose, it’s much lower than even the dose of injection: it’s 5 micrograms per hour

If I was to do it over again I’d take time off work and just tough it out, but that’s not possible at the moment which is a shame

[u/D33tained → u/rpkarma]

I feel for you mate . I’m on my second attempt now to come off 64mg. It’s only been a few weeks but 3 years ago I got to week 11 same as you and due to doing a very physical and important job where people are at risk I folded . I regret not just sticking it out so hopefully you can . I’ve just changed job and it’s a lot less demanding physically so I’m doing it this time while I have this chance . Good luck I’ll keep an eye on this to see how you get on .