Hospitalized Need Help!

[[Ri...]]

She is stabilizing on 5 mg on Valium, this is her second day. No longer having tremors, and agitation like on the Klonopin.

Having facial numbness, muscle stiffness, tugging feeling; these symptoms started during the final taper on Klonopin are less prevalent now after 2 days on Valium.

My thought is to stay on Valium at the 5 mg dose and re evaluate these symptoms after a few weeks before adjusting the dose.

Looking forward to feedback

Thanks

[Guest [ba...]]

Glad things are improving.

[Guest [mi...]]

Hi Richard! good to see things are improving.

 

Below there is a link to the Ashton manual where on schedule 4 it gives you a timing guide of how to switch to valium from Clonazepan. Although doses are different you can adapt the numbers to what she is currently taking. Again, it's just a guide and a reference as of how to do it.

Hope it helps!

Mice

 

https://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm

 

(look for schedule 4)

 

 

[[Ma...]]

From the history it looks like she was switched to valium once before and then switched to K in the hospital.  Why was that? It seems like she is going back and forth a lot switching types of benzos. Do you have access to an equivalency table for the different benzos? The reason to switch to valium, as you may know, ifs that it has a longer half life than some of the newer drugs.  I showed the doctor the Ashton protocol and just switched from Ativan to Valium according to her guidelines.

[[Li...]]

Thank you for sharing this encouraging news, RichardF.

 

Given the long half-life of diazepam and your wife’s recent experience with tapering clonazepam, I wonder if it might take more than “a few weeks” for her symptoms to stabilize?  (Within the BenzoBuddies community, a common interpretation of “stabilize” is “symptoms are not changing” not “no symptoms.”)

 

FYI In the US, an FDA-approved, prescription 5mg/5mL (1mg/mL) oral solution of diazepam is available.  Many members have used/are using this formulation to taper.

[[Ri...]]

The hospital doctor switch my wife from .25 mg of Klonopin to 5mg of Valium. After the 3rd day on Valium she started having severe reactions. Could it be the dose is too high or other issues.  She is becoming very sick not sure if we should go back to the hospital.

[[Li...]]

I wonder if the uptick in symptoms might be due in part to the discontinuation of the clonazepam?  Three days is in the ballpark of when withdrawal symptoms appear after a reduction of this particular benzodiazepine.  Another factor to consider is that the switch from clonazepam to diazepam was abrupt; Ashton recommended a more gradual crossover. 

[[Ri...]]

Hello Libertas

I believe you are correct on both ; withdrawal + switch too quickly.

Do you recommend going back to 3 doses with valium in the night dose with clonazepam?

Considering upping her total dose from .25mg to .375mg

Look forward to your feedback

[Guest [mi...]]

Hi Richard,

I read the previous posts and really breaks my heart what you guys are going thru. As I told you in my previous post I went thru a similar situation as far as reinstatement. In my situation it was more mental than physical but still HELL. Although I had tapered for almost 10 months it seems to me that was not enough. Now I finished my second taper that took me more than a year with an attenuated end  and I feel much  much better than when I finished my first taper.

In my humble opinion if she continuous feeling that bad, you probably have to decided for only one type of drug and stick to it. If she did ok tapering clonazepan in the past it is a good indication that what she has now is a BAD withdrawal symptoms due to a fast taper. The mix of the drugs and the short timing in the switching probably exacerbated the condition. 

Again, somehow she needs to stabilize. Up dose is not desirable but sometimes is the only option. I reinstated at 0.5 and was not enough. Had to go all the way up to 1 mg and it was not the end of the world!.

Once she stabilizes do the switch to Valium or continue with clonazepan and set out a long taper.

Most People here at BB, with noble opinions and big heart, want to start tapering immediately and reinstatement is really a bad word "but" sometimes you have to decide out of conventional.   

Good Luck!

Mice

 

PS here is a related post that may help.   

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=240942.0

[[Ri...]]

Thanks micedana,

I am I agreement to your suggestion and strategy. Currently I've set up a liquid micro taper that contains .09 mg of clonazepam + .6mg of Valium this equals approximately 0.12mg of clonazepam; we administer 0.12mg twice per day.

So far, she is stable during the day but nights are problematic with pain, sweating and no sleep. Sleep is a real problem,  she can go up to 10 days with no sleep; sleeping meds just make her drowsy but no sleep.

I feel the medical community is useless

Any suggestions or support would be appreciated

Thanks for all your help