Hi all,
Hope you are having a good day. It is quite lovely here in Connecticut today, still alot of beautiful foliage left on the trees and it got to 68 today.

Just wanted to know if anyone has gone somewhere to help detox off their pain meds. When you call these detox/addiction places they sound like prison and you have to attend all these addiction group therapies sessions and spend weeks and weeks there. I am not addicted, I am just choosing to go off my pain meds, if I can.

I have done this twice before at a holistic health center where you do alot of wheatgrass and vegetable juice and colonics, etc. at a place in Florida which has now become too expensive and just too everything for me.

I just wanted to know if any of you have gone to a spa or wellness retreat or any place like that to assist you with the withdrawal. I have gotten off lyrica, which was not fun but now have a few other meds to get off and I just cannot do it at home and manage my life and family at the same time. A few places in Costa Rica look promising but not sure i can sit on a plane that long.

Thanks for any suggestions or input. I live just outside NYC.
Take care, Diandra

Detox sucks. I quit my oxycodone cold turkey and my dr gave me promethazine for the nausea, a pill for the poopies, and xanax to help control the shakes and most importantly, to sleep. If u can, lock yourself in bed for a few days and try to sleep through it. The cold sweats, shaking, and overall feel of the worst flu ever only lasted about 5 days for me. I have a small child so I couldn't hide. Longest 5 days of my life. But its way cheaper than any sort of resort. I also found that smoking a little grass was a lifesaver! Above all, get something to help u sleep. Otherwise the 5 long days are never ending bc u will NOT sleep without some assistance.

After u get through it, u will feel like a champ! I haven't taken a pain pill since april 2nd and I will never forget that date. Dealing w the pain was an entire new battle, but I did a ton of research and w the advice of the ppl on this site, I actually have my pain under control enough to get a job! I have dealt w chronic pain for over a decade and now, after diet changes, light weight lifting, swimming and knowledge, I'm great. I was so miserable and depressed for 10 yrs and now I feel so good and alive! I never thought that would be possible for me. I still have bad days, but only a handful a month instead of everyday and that's a deal I will make any day!

thanks for the advice but doing it at home cold turkey I did not feel was a good option for me for health reasons. I weaned off of most of my meds before I left and did the final step off in at this health center in Pompano Beach. It was very very helpful, I did get off everything BUT, 2 days before I left, I was simply doing an easy stretch class and either blew a lumbar disc or tore a muscle, I have an MRI tomorrow....so now I am on a new drug called Mobic, an anti inflamm drug. I tried to last without any meds but I could not sleep or get out of bed or rise from a chair without help, not to mention getting to the airport and sitting for hours on the flight home. Oh well, a few steps forward and one back...there is still progress and this too will get better.

I did have to keep reminding myself that opiates shutoff the body's natural production of endorphins so the pain is alot worse at first and it takes awhile for the enorphin production to kick back in, my pain doc said it could be weeks.. Overall, I am moving in the right direction. I am not sure I can stay off all the pain meds and I am sure Mobic is masking alot but I only have to be on it for a short while. I have reached my goal of getting off the meds so I can assess what my true pain issues are. I have been layering drug on top of drug for so many yrs I don't know what is causing my issues anymore like high bp, headache, digestive issues, insomnia, muscle cramping, etc.

Wishing everyone well. All my best, Diandra

I had and the Boston Scientific precision Spectra inplant Nov.23 2013, to help with my pain. The recovery was very painful but, on week 3 even though my unit is only helping part of my pain due to/hopefully tweaking, I have managed to wean myself from 3 -4 percs a day and 2 morphien a day to on most days 1 morphien a day and maybe 1 perc every other day. That part has been easy, however trying to wean off Lyrica again is w/d hell. I prefer to take tramadol for pain but, pharmisist says tram and lyrica are not a good combo. Something about brain damage he said. I was on 240 tram and 120 perc,s a month for about 6 years. Know wonder I have short memory problems. Since then the doc, about 2 years ago took me off tram and subed it with percs and morphine.

I am so glad I had the sergery, but I really need to get off the lyrica, so I can just take tramedol when I need it. This is the worst drug to get off of.

I'd be interested in more detail. I just checked a half dozen or so online interaction sites, and none of them mentioned any interaction between tramadol and pregabalin (except one—in combination with alcohol).

Is it possible your pharmacist meant there would be an interaction between one or both of those and something else you're taking?

If there really is some risk of serious brain damage, I think people on this site (the PN forum in particular, as so many are taking those two) would want to know.

Doc