Doing Milk Titration-Need Math Check

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I was trying to do a dry K taper, but it was so tedious and I was leery of the accuracy for me.

I switched to milk, which seems to agree with my stomach, so that is a plus.

I take my bedtime dose is pill form. It will be awhile before I tackle that.

I take a morning and afternoon dose of K.

The morning dose is .368mg as of now. I cut .007mg in a week. I was at .375mg since November, when I cut off .125mg. That was way too much. I have cutting a .5mg pill in half and a quarter.

I don't feel comfortable in cutting the pill in quarters as I have no reason to believe it is accurate.

I was putting .375mg of a .5mg k and mixing it with 37.5cc of milk to get .01mg/cc. I then cut .001mg to .002mg everyday or every other day.

The afternoon dose is .5mg in 50cc of milk for a .01mg/cc. I have taken off .003mg so far.

This has been done in a week. I feel crappy. Muscle twitching, tinnitus, muscle pain, headache etc.

I have only taken off .01 in a week. Really? I am on a high dose of K. My night dose being the large one.

I wanted to make sure my math is correct and change up the morning dose by using a whole .5mg.

Also, I think I should just concentrate on 1 dose at a time.

I need some help and reassurance. It is greatly appreciated.

Libertas or Bob?

 

Thank you,

 

Dana

 

 

 

 

[[Li...]]

Hello, dear Dana.

 

Your math looks AOK to me.

 

I agree with you about making your liquid using whole rather than split tablets.

 

Can you give us a bit more information?

 

What time do you take your evening dose?  What is the amount?

 

Why did you decide to reduce your morning dose first?  Was it giving you issues?

 

Are you experiencing interdose withdrawal between your morning and afternoon dose?  Between your afternoon and evening dose?  Between your evening and morning dose?

 

Compared to your other doses (morning and evening), how much does your afternoon dose ‘help’ you?  More, less, about the same?

 

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Hi Libertas. Thanks for responding.

The reason I decided to reduce my am dose first, was because my night is high. I wanted to get the am dose to 2.5mg and then do the same with the afternoon dose. 2.5mg twice in the day.

My am dose is around 9 and the afternoon is around 4. It varies slightly. I was always on just 1 dose at bedtime, until the antibiotic setback, brand switch and the stress with my Mom. It helped to function better. I don't believe I was any inter-dose withdrawal. After the setback and Brand Switch, it caused bad withdrawal and I had to function for my Mom and my family.

My afternoon dose helps a lot. I really believe it was because I was cutting up the am pill. Not getting the same dose each morning.

I am 68 and I realize that I can only do probably about 2-3% per month.

My son and my friends question me on why I want to torment myself. My son saw me when I was in my C/T state and knows the hell I went through. I want to get back down to where I was. Thats my goal for now. I still want to function of which I am, meaning riding my bike, walking, swimming etc.

Not going out a lot because of the virus.

I just wanted to make sure I was doing the math correctly of which I am pretty good at, but it is good to have someone else affirm it.

I think I need to work on 1 dose at a time. I am not sure what you think.  I need to make it simple and avoid bad symptoms.

I really appreciate your help.

 

Dana

[[po...]]

Hello Dana, if this provides you any reassurance, I agree with Libertas — your math is on point. You do have a suspension (probably, or perhaps a solution given that you’re using milk) dosed at 0.01 mg/cc.

 

I have no experience with clonazepam tapers, but check JessicaxLynnx’s thread where Libertas recommended tapering one dose at a time (that is, your morning or evening dose). http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=268584.msg3376997#msg3376997

[[Li...]]

Thank you for the additional information, Dana.

 

I apologize, but I’m confused about your daily dosing schedule as well as your total daily dose.  Is the following correct for your morning and afternoon doses?  Can you fill in the blanks for the time and amount of your bedtime dose?

 

9am: 0.375mg reduced to 0.368mg

 

4pm: 0.5mg reduced to 0.497mg

 

Bedtime is when?  How many milligrams?  (I need this info to calculate the percent reduction you’ve made thus far.)

 

Based on what you’ve shared, my initial thinking is you might want to hold your morning dose at the current amount and try reducing your afternoon dose to the same amount.

 

If obtaining a sufficient supply of clonazepam to taper is not an issue, you might consider making one batch of clonazepam liquid a day using 1mg of drug (e.g. two 0.5mg tablets) in 100mL of milk for a 0.01mg/mL liquid. 

 

I’ve read members who make their liquid the night before to give the tablet(s) adequate time to disintegrate and for the clonazepam in the tablets to ‘affiliate’ with the fat globules in the milk (as you probably already know, clonazepam is lipophilic).  I’ve also read about members who ‘jump start’ the tablet disintegration process by adding a small amount of water to the tablet before adding the milk (e.g. you could add 1 mL of water to two 0.5mg tablets, wait a bit, then add 99mL of milk).

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Libertas,

 

You make a great point. I could drop the afternoon dose to .375mg to equal the am dose.

Thats a plan.

My bedtime is high at 3mg. I want to keep that like it is until I come down on the day doses.

Believe me, I feel so defeated, as I never thought I would get up this high, but all of the circumstances were out of my control. This happened over a period of 2 years.I was at 1.75mg back in March of 2020 and was starting to head down when she almost died from her prolapse.  I took care of my Mom after her 2 major surgeries in 2020 for a month and I was tapering during that time. I got a UTI after the whole month of taking care of her and the 2 antibiotics set me so far back. I had never had that reaction before. That was the beginning. The rest is a long story. I am just fed up with it all. Sorry to rant, but I have tried so hard for so long. Getting older makes it so much harder.

 

I continue with a bit of hope. I have always had hope. I never took a drug before I was put on this.

It was due to an adverse reaction to the patch. The year I was put on it, the FDA had just approved it for panic disorder of which I did not have. I can't keep going back and reliving, but it infuriates me.

 

Thanks for listening and helping me. Forever grateful.

 

Dana

[[...]]

Hello Dana, if this provides you any reassurance, I agree with Libertas — your math is on point. You do have a suspension (probably, or perhaps a solution given that you’re using milk) dosed at 0.01 mg/cc.

 

I have no experience with clonazepam tapers, but check JessicaxLynnx’s thread where Libertas recommended tapering one dose at a time (that is, your morning or evening dose). http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=268584.msg3376997#msg3376997

 

Thank you for your help and suggestion, Potatosaur. I hope and Pray you are doing well.

 

Dana

[[Li...]]

Please don’t beat yourself over the past, Dana.  You did what you had to do to get through an incredibly challenging series of events.

 

You made a 0.258% reduction in dose over 7 days from 3.875mg to 3.865mg.  As you know, that is well within the general guideline so my guess is the uptick in withdrawal symptoms you noted was due to inconsistent dosing and (perhaps) a dash of anxiety over starting to taper using a new method. 

 

Reducing your afternoon dose to 0.375mg is a solid ‘Phase 1’ plan.

 

You have every reason to have hope!  You are a strong and courageous woman. Indeed, you remind me of one of my favorite sayings, “Women are like tea bags. You don’t know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.”

 

 

 

[[Pa...]]

Please don’t beat yourself over the past, Dana.  You did what you had to do to get through an incredibly challenging series of events.

 

You made a 0.258% reduction in dose over 7 days from 3.875mg to 3.865mg.  As you know, that is well within the general guideline so my guess is the uptick in withdrawal symptoms you noted was due to inconsistent dosing and (perhaps) a dash of anxiety over starting to taper using a new method. 

 

Reducing your afternoon dose to 0.375mg is a solid ‘Phase 1’ plan.

 

You have every reason to have hope!  You are a strong and courageous woman. Indeed, you remind me of one of my favorite sayings, “Women are like tea bags. You don’t know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.”

 

Love this!