Question about METHODONE clinic

[buglebe]

Can anyone share any information about using a methodone clinic to get past drug use or more truthfully , changing from illegal drugs to legally obtained methodone? I would like to know as much as anyone can tell me about it both good and bad.
I am so proud of my child I could scream from the roof tops but I do want to know what to expect also.
Is there anyone who can help me?

[buttrfli]

There is a group called 'we speak methadone' that share a bunch of info about it. I don't know if they have a website or not, but might be worth looking into.

[YNKYH8R]

(Sigh) Well if given the option I would never be on Methadone. On Tuesdays we go to our other office and 90% of the clients are health and welfare patients. Of those people 60% are on Methadone. They are VERY hard to work on. I don't know how much your relative will be on, but we have patients who are on as much as 240 mg a day. They were either former drug users or have been addicted to Oxxys or Hydros. (they come in looking for scripts for either 'Vics' or 'Perks')
Why are they hard to work on? Because we have to use 3 to 4 times the normal amount of Sodium Pentathol and Fentynal to get them to sleep. Even then they're still pretty lucid or in a dream like state. The Methadone gives them such a high tolerance to pain meds that Oral Surgery is very difficult for both them and for us. During surgery they tend to be combative and lash out uncontrolably. And even if they make it through surgery they are soooo miserable afterwards.
Other than that there isn't too much I can tell you. Good Luck.

[buglebe]

Thank you so much. This child is 34. A hip replacement is going to need to be done as soon as possible. Hopefully it can wait 8 months until the spouse graduates from school because the surgery will require 6 weeks off work and the job is an on your feet all day kind of job. I had already wondered how surgical pain would be controlled. Thank you for your help.
Thank you all for the advice. Any thing anyone can add will be so helpful.
Thanks.

[Njean31]

Thank you so much. This child is 34. A hip replacement is going to need to be done as soon as possible. Hopefully it can wait 8 months until the spouse graduates from school because the surgery will require 6 weeks off work and the job is an on your feet all day kind of job. I had already wondered how surgical pain would be controlled. Thank you for your help.
Thank you all for the advice. Any thing anyone can add will be so helpful.
Thanks.

even if at the time of surgery he's clean, the anesthesiologists will still have a challenge sedating him. even clean addicts and alcoholics require more anesthesia due to the build up of tolerance levels to narcotics/alchol over the years. methadone is better than heroin but only if he's ready to accept he has a problem and take all the other necessary steps involved in breaking free from it. good luck.

[dv8grl]

My sister is on methadone., shes a former heroin / coke addict + she "fell" out of a 2 story building (10 yrs ago). She'll be on methadone her whole life, shes been on it for @ least 3-4 yrs now, ever since she moved to San Fran, where her Pain Manager thought methadone would be better than the other regular darvacet /percacet /percadans were doing for her + she has to take a ton of meds just to fall asleep, like YNKYHR8 said.

Methadone is more addictive than heroin., its just a pure-er form of it, so its "safer" to take.

[grammieg]

i think in part how well you do with meth depends on how much you want to stay away from other drugs and the type of clinic you go to. i worked in a very strict clinic. we had frequent random observed urine tests. pts had to take their dose in liquid form right in front of us. no take home bottles,etc. we were actually told by some of the guys that they could get their dose more conveniently elsewhere they continued to come to us because they felt they needed the rigidness to keep straight.
had a friend who wanted to quit meth but couldnt. said it was too painful. hurt down to the bone.

[Shancopp]

Methodone isn't just used to get off of heroin or other drugs. My friend was on it for pain. Long term, chronic pain. Now I will say, she got addicted to the methodone. She was on other drugs (prescribed) like Darvocet with it.

I said "was" because she OD'ed in Nov and is now dead. Not sure if it was accidental or intentional. RIP friend....... :(

[Njean31]

Methodone isn't just used to get off of heroin or other drugs. My friend was on it for pain. Long term, chronic pain. Now I will say, she got addicted to the methodone. She was on other drugs (prescribed) like Darvocet with it.

I said "was" because she OD'ed in Nov and is now dead. Not sure if it was accidental or intentional. RIP friend....... :(

i'm sorry to hear that. methadone should not be taken or prescribed lightly. look at anna nicole's son and it possibly even had something to do with her death. i don't think addicts should be prescribed it without extremely close monitoring of it by a clinic or doctor. when it's prescribed for chronic pain control, the user usually gets addicted to it.

[YNKYH8R]

We had a patient in who was 5 months pregnant on 240 mg of methadone a day.

[YNKYH8R]

Methodone isn't just used to get off of heroin or other drugs. My friend was on it for pain. Long term, chronic pain. Now I will say, she got addicted to the methodone. She was on other drugs (prescribed) like Darvocet with it.

I said "was" because she OD'ed in Nov and is now dead. Not sure if it was accidental or intentional. RIP friend....... :(We get a lot of paintents who ended up addicted to it from long term pain as a result of back surgery or many other issues. Like I said I would not go on it.

[Njean31]

me either ynkyh8r!