Posted by MB on July 20, 2001, at 2:06:33
In reply to Re: Ultram withdrawal! » MB, posted by Elizabeth on July 19, 2001, at 23:31:31
> > So that's all it is? Just takes time to reach steady state?
>
> Yes, I think that's all.
>
> > The way the nurse described it, I thought she was talking about "stacking" (is that the right term?)...you know, when it stores up (I don't know where) and is realeased slowly?
>
> Methadone is long-acting; it's metabolised and eliminated very slowly. When you take your second dose, some of the first dose is still in your body, and so forth. After a little while the level is roughly constant (although it always will have some peaks and troughs).
>
> > Right, supposedly a patient on MMT could miss a day and still come back "well" 48 hrs after their last dose. I see that far fetched.
>
> I don't know; I've never taken methadone. I think it would be nice to have a pill that I could take once a day, though (forget about skipping days).
>
> > I tried so hard to get them to give me a divided dose, but they were fixed on the idea that I was a charlatan and that I wanted to sell my second dose once I got out of the clinic with it.
>
> I think that might be a rule that all methadone clinics have to follow, but I'm not sure. They do treat you like a second-class human being, don't they? :-( (I think that's how drug addicts are looked at in general.)
>
> > I somewhat understand that they might be wary after working with junkies for years (who often *are* charlatans after having to survive on the streets).
>
> You can sympathise with that, though, right? I don't think the people who run the clinics ever think about what it's like to be on the other side, they just feel superior.
>
> > It really was a nightmare. And as sick as I was getting staying on the *same* dose daily, there was no way I could handle one of their tapering schemes. It was the most trapped I've felt.
>
> So you did the only thing you could: you left the program. Jeez. That should *never* have to happen -- a person who's on MMT and genuinely wants to be shouldn't be forced out.
>
> > > That's an old trick! I guess it didn't work, though. I'm not sure how much cimetidine you'd have to take.
> >
> > It actually did help a little. It kept me well through the afternoon, at least. Night time and the next morning were still bad, though.
>
> How much were you taking?
Oh gosh, I don't know. The boxes came in different sizes. I'd buy the box with the single blister-pack of pills (I think the smallest box)...maybe twelve. Does that sound right? I don't remember how many milligrams of Tagamet were in the over-the-counter preperations.
> > > I guess you couldn't continue on MMT and use heroin as your nightly dose (because they test your urine for 6-monoacetylmorphine, presumably)? No way to win.
> >
> > No, it would have taken a *lot* of heroin, at that point, to do anything.
>
> It's true; methadone effectively prevents heroin from working at reasonable doses because methadone's affinity for the receptors is so high.
>
> > I remember eating a handful of seven Lorcet (10mg hydrocodone each) one night when I was hurting, and it didn't even take the edge off.
>
> 70 mg? God. You could cause liver damage from taking all that Tylenol that they put in the pills with it.
Yeah, I think each tab had 650...maybe 675 mg of acetaminophen in it. I think I *am* pretty lucky regarding the amount of tylenol I used to consume. I used to take a lot of N-acetylcysteine with the Lorcet. I went through a bottle of 30 vicodin in a 24 hour period once...without the N-acetylcysteine. I was pretty worried, but I think spreading it out over the 24 hours kept me from getting hepatatoxic.
> > Actually, I lasted a month off of the methadone before turning back to illegal stuff. I *did* try...
>
> Of course you did. Nobody *wants* to be a drug addict.
Well, I didn't mind being dependent...as long as I had a steady enough supply to keep me doing well. I didn't want to be a criminal, though, which was what I became using the heroin. No telling what that cr*p (tar) was cut with. Pretty dirty stuff. Glad to be off all that stuff, now.
> > > Maybe; or maybe other people are just so fed up with life on dope that they're willing to put up with all the cr*p.
> >
> > Yeah, a methadone clinic beats life on the streets hustling for a fix. I was never there, though. I was a nice upper middle class addict. Their cr*p wasn't worth it to me.
>
> I suspect there are a lot of people out there like you who have money so that they can buy dope and not have to steal, etc. (I knew some of them in college, come to think of it).
Yeah, I didn't have to steal, but the people I came in contact with were pretty scary. It's not like the pot scene...we're not talking about a few dead-heads with dreads. I had to interact with some pretty iffy characters. The scene was, well, lame.
> > > Always peace. It's just a rant, after all. < g >
> >
> > Heh...cool.
>
> I just don't consider ranting to be a form of violence. :-)
>
> -elizabeth
poster:MB
thread:70206
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010714/msgs/71022.html