Help

[[Ch...]]

Anyone having teeth and gums issues. I am on my 4 th root canal and my gums are juryinb

[[An...]]

Pam is right on as usual. Detox is safe. They will monitor you and give you other meds to prevent seizures and mitigate some of the w/d from the Klonopin detox. Inpatient detox did not help me, but it did in a way. Let me try to explain. I was on Klonopin when I entered. They took me off rapidly. They gave me other meds (off-label) for anxiety, meds to prevent any seizures, and inderal to prevent fast heart rate and blood pressure spikes. I was miserable the entire time I was there but it allowed me to get off the Klonopin and I was able to go to my PCP after discharge and I asked him to put me on a low dose of valium and it worked after the valium built up in my system. I started on 20 mgs to get it in my system quickly and then went down to 5 mgs and that was where I stayed. I had tried Valium in the past while I was still on Klonopin but never could get it to work. I think it was b/c Klonopin was so much more potent.

Valium is no cakewalk but it is much easier to slowly come off via a direct taper than the more potent, shorter half-life benzos like ativan and xanax. Klonopin has a medium half-life but it is super potent and far from ideal to do a direct taper from. The biggest mistake I made was that I just decided to stay on the valium after the traumatic Klonopin experience I had while in inpatient detox. Like Pam said, detox has both Pros and Cons.

[[Ch...]]

I have to make a decision. I don’t think I can be put on Valium by my provider. I am so lost with this. The fear of the unknown is taking over my life. I am in tolerance withdrawal bad thoughts need cataract surgery abd looks like another root canal 4th since March(no debt am insurance for 3. Check engine light is on doc did not call my prescription. I am in stress overload. 

[[An...]]

It sounds to me like in addition to the Klonopin, you are also being overwhelmed with financial problems. You lost your job, and just started a new one. You now need two eye surgeries and you need to see the dentist.  You are forced to try to continue working (sick from the klonopin tolerance) because you need to keep the medical and dental insurance provided to you by your employer to help defray expenses from these medical procedures. Now, the check engine light is on in your car. Unless it starts to flash, the check engine light is usually not a real emergency. Go to your nearest AutoZone or Advanced Auto and have them connect their OBD Scanner to your car's ECU and they might be able to give you some insight as to what might be causing the CEL (check engine light) to come on. They will do this diagnostic for free. The most common cause for a CEL is a loose or faulty gas cap. That is a very easy fix but it could also be a myriad of other things too. In my case, it turned out to be a faulty ignition coil.

The very 1st thing I would do Monday is call the doc and get the Klonopin refilled. You definitely do not want to run out of that. You may also want to consider putting your klonopin taper on hold until some of these other stressors can be reduced in your life.

 

[[Ch...]]

I am getting worst every day @[An...]. I can’t continue like that. 

[[Ch...]]

I feel like I need to take something to calm me down.  

[[An...]]

Don't you take your two mgs of Klonopin all at once? Have you ever tried to split the doses up?

[[Ch...]]

I tried and was not good. 

[[Ch...]]

My friend doctor recommended Electro shock therapy for my depression today. @[Pa...]  @[An...]

[[An...]]

Personally, I would not consider ECT unless my depression was severe and all other possible medical treatments had been tried and failed. Chantal, isn't your primary problem and concern tolerance to Klonopin? Currently, you are only on the drug Klonopin, correct?

[[Ch...]]

Yes I need to taper. 

[[Ch...]]

I have no doctor to help me. 

[[Pa...]]

12 hours ago, [[C...] said:

My friend doctor recommended Electro shock therapy for my depression today. @[Pa...]  @[An...]

I agree with @[An...], I’ve been reading about more effective treatments for depression and unless your depression is chronic, I’d look to eliminating the possible cause of it which is your tolerance to Klonopin.

Do you expect to get your prescription filled soon?  It look like you may need to start your taper before your friend arrives, waiting seems to be causing you more  distress. 

[[Ch...]]

I need to find out why my doctor did not prescribe my K. I looked in my portal and there’s was an older script and I called and was still good. But maybe he cut me off. If I can’t work I can’t even afford the cost of the meds. My family unable and unwilling to help. My daughter just told me I was on my own and to fight it??  If I want to start without scale do I just shave a little bit?  You guys are my only link to reality 

[Guest [...]]

My mother was convinced by psychiatrists to have many ECT treatments over a long period of time before I made the connection to benzodiazepine tolerance and interdose withdrawals. Never provided any relief at all for her, and why would it have. It was all related to the medication. 
 

Personally, I think you need the scale, @[Ch...]

But, it all depends on your current dose, how much you want to reduce your dose by, the potency of your prescribed tablets… 0.25, 0.5, or 1mg, and whether or not they are scored in half or quarters? 

[[An...]]

Winters, how is your mother now? Did she experience any temporary memory loss after the ECT treatments? The possible memory loss is what scares me the most. Yikes!

[Guest [...]]

Yes, @[An...].

She experienced considerable memory loss. 

They tell you this will happen, but it’s only short term. 

I do actually believe that most of her memory loss is related to the long term trauma of undiagnosed benzo hell. 

[Guest [...]]

But, I can’t absolutely guarantee it isn’t also linked to the ECT. 

[[An...]]

@[Wi...]

Is your mom still on benzos or is she off now? How is she doing from that?

Edited October 16, 2023 by [An...]
addition

[[Ch...]]

@[Wi...]i have 1mg tablets not scored. I have the scale at home. I have no idea how to do this. I take 2mg at night. My friend will be with me soon. Beginning of November. I need catalact surgery I have a consultation on Nov 3rd. Today I did not have many symptoms because I was busy at work. But nights and weekends are atrocious. 

[[An...]]

Chantal, did you get your K refilled? I am glad to hear the distraction from working is helping the tolerance w/d SXs. 👍

[Guest [...]]

4 hours ago, [[C...] said:

@[Wi...]i have 1mg tablets not scored. I have the scale at home. I have no idea how to do this. I take 2mg at night. My friend will be with me soon. Beginning of November. I need catalact surgery I have a consultation on Nov 3rd. Today I did not have many symptoms because I was busy at work. But nights and weekends are atrocious. 

Hi @[Ch...]

My mother just had an operation to relieve the glaucoma related pressure behind her eye a couple of weeks ago without any problem whilst in benzo recovery. She’s also had no issues with her several laser surgeries within the recovery period. 
 

The instructions that came with your scales will explain how to calibrate the scales. Once calibrated, weigh your 2 tablets together to get a total weight (make sure the scales are set to grams). Once you have your weight, using a calculator, you multiply your total weight by the percentage you want to reduce by. 

Example:

I have a couple of old clonazepam tabs here. They are only 0.5mg each, so the weight will be different to yours, but it will give you an idea of how to calculate.

My two tabs weighed together are a total weight of 0.302, so here’s how you calculate your reduction.

If you want to reduce by 10% you would calculate your reduction as follows…  0.302 x 90% = 0.2718 (drop the 8 or simply round up to 0.272 because your scales wont display the extra digit).

If you want to reduce by 5%, you would calculate as follows… 0.302 x 95% = 0.2869 (drop the 9 or simply round up to 0.287). 

Once you have calculated your total weight, less the reduction, you would carefully shave or file (nail file) one of your tabs until both tablets together weigh 0.271 (10% reduction) or 0.287 (5% reduction) from your original total weight of 0.302

Once you are ready for your next reduction, you would simply use the same method, and depending on whether you are reducing by 10% or 5%, it would look like this… a 10% reduction would be 0.271 x 90% = 0.243 (your new total dose weight) or a 5% reduction would be 0.286 x 95% = 0.271 (new total dose weight). 

If you have any questions or need me to go over this, just let me know. 

[[Ch...]]

Thank you. I am having so much tolerance withdrawals now. Will they get worst. 

[[An...]]

FYI @[Ch...] :  My mother had the same operation as described by Winters over 10 years ago and she did fine. She also had the cataract removal surgeries, no issues. I drove her back home after the surgeries.

[[An...]]

Something to ponder @[Ch...] . Klonopin comes in 2 mg dosages if you could get your provider to Rx. Since you take all your K in a single dose, 2 mg tabs might make your dosage reductions as described by @[Wi...] a little easier.