suboxone losing effects

[opiobsessed]

I worry alot, especially about running out of or not being able to take my dose, anyway I'm noticing a strange problem with my daily routine. I'd appreciate if someone could clue me in on what could be happening here. I'm taking 24mg suboxone daily, I spread them out, 1 when I get up, another at supper and the last around bedtime. Lately I have been craving opiates alot and daily thinking about how it would be so great to get buzzed on a full agonist everyday,worse I am starting to wd a little everyday when I wake, slight runny nose, yawning and chills. sad feeling starting in after my last dose or anytime during the day comes and goes. I know tolerance is a problem and I've tried cutting my dose and bumping back up again to little or no avail. Main thing I wonder is if I did something because I relapsed a few times since I've been on this stuff. 3 times since I've been on it I quit till wd set in so I could take hydro again and then when I ran out of hydro I would wd again so I could get back on the subs. each time I've done this, the suboxone takes longer and more dose to shake the wd from hydro and the last time I relapsed I had to take 3 all at once every 4 hours the first day I went back on them, then it took a week to feel completely normal again. Once in a while I get a good day where the subs kick in it seems and they work real good for a day or maybe two if I'm lucky. However for the most part, its been a long time now since I relapsed and the subs are seeming to lose effect more lately. Any suggestions what I should do before I make the methadone switch?

[Coddfish]

I'm not "trained" or "certified;" I may not "know what I'm talking about," and I may be "borderline retarted." But I do have a Ph.D. in Pain, so I'll do what I can.
If I had to suggest something I would say change your schedule a little. One when you get up, one before lunch, and one in the late afternoon, ie., between 3 and 5. This is what I do and it works for me. Why take a dose at bedtime when you won't be awake to benefit from its affects? You may or may not know this, but it is often very easy to sleep when one is in the VERY beginnings of withdrawal. That stage is longer with bupe than with most things, so I get a good night's sleep even though I wake up with some of the symptoms you describe. That, in turn, lets me register the 'bump' when my morning dose finally kicks in. And don't forget, if your ultimate goal is to get off of all this stuff, then withdrawal symptoms aren't entirely bad things. You say you relapsed, but you didn't give a time line or whether or not you had to take more in those lapses than you did prior to getting on bupe. My guess is that you have not been stable in your medication long enough to FEEL stable. The BEST advice I can give is 'don't fuck with your dose.' That includes taking extra one day thinking you will take less on another, or taking two early thinking you will just wait a while to take the third much later. It's too easy to get screwed up and lose focus. Take the suggestions you want and leave the rest.

[opiobsessed]

Thanks for the suggestion, that definately makes alot of sense(why take a dose before bed?), I did forget about the day or two that I changed my dose around a bit. I thought about how I may not even be getting much out of my dose I take 2 hours before bed and one day or two, I took my normal dose at noon when I get up, then took another around 4 pm and then the next after supper, however I had saved up another pill from the night I went without my dose and took that as well at 10 pm, making 4 pills I had taken in a day. I actually didn't feel much from that 4th pill that night and actually started to feel a little sad feeling sort of and just kind of blah. I wonder if there is something that happens when we take too much of an opiate? or if thats an effect of overloading the receptors or something. Now I see what you mean about how we get all messed up when we mess with our dose. I'm going to try and stick to what works best, sounds like the way you dose would work best for me, because when I skipped my 10 pm dose a few times, I didn't feel much worse than now when I get up for my noon dose. I forgot to mention my lapse patterns. When I lapsed I would stop my subs for 24 hours, take 1 vicodin to be safe, when I feel ok, I would take 3 or 4 more, then end up taking 25 to 30 a day, 7 or 8 at a time throughout day. Total of 120 pills I would go through in 6 or 7 days max, then when I run out, wd for 24 hours and go back on sub. Go maybe another month or so, find out about more goodies, relapse the same way again, I really should do a cwe on the 10/500 watson's I get but I never did it before and thought it would waste too much hydro in the process of cwe them. What's the tylenol in hydro for anyway? does it potentiate the hydro at all?