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Eight Days Off


[he...]

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Well, I made it! I took my last dose (.050 mg K) last Thursday night, so last Friday was my jump day. I had decided a couple months before that I would jump at .050 mg (Ashton 1 mg V).

 

Friday was a tough day at work due to symptoms, but I got a 90-minute window when I went for a walk at lunchtime. Saturday, I was gifted a huge full-day window and got to take my kids to breakfast and to the farmers market in our downtown square, I played a lot of guitar and sang throughout the afternoon, and then my wife and I took the kids that evening to hear some live music downtown. I wondered if maybe just getting off the drug was all I needed, but then... reality set in... By noon the next day, I was back to having my head symptoms (floating, pressure and ache), and I realized I still have more of this journey to walk. This week has been tough. Yesterday was the worst day yet. My symptoms are still the same, but they feel different, stronger in some ways, and they're still following the same schedule and easing up by late evening before bed. My sleep is also still really good, which I'm hugely thankful for. And the best part: that "ick" of withdrawal I felt all throughout my taper has been gone since I jumped. Completely gone! So while symptoms are still hitting me hard and making my days and nights tough, I'm encouraged that I'm healing and thankful I never have to drag out my scale to make doses and never have to worry about any more alarms for taking pills.

 

Thank you to all of you on here who have helped me along the way. You have been a true blessing to me.

 

I will be on here periodically to provide updates and support.

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Isn't it so freeing to not have to weigh out doses? To no longer be taking that benzo? Just remember that Klonopin has a 100 hour half-life, so your body is still dealing with that remaining bit to drop. I'm 5 weeks out, I can tell you it does get better. My first week post NAD+ treatment (A week after jumping), was bad, but each week I notice small improvements. So, look for the improvements. And congratulate yourself for getting there. I feel a lot of healing as the weeks pass, and I feel more hopeful and positive. Tapering itself is overwhelming and tedious. It has helped me in acute, to keep positive and look for the improvements. For me, the tinnitus is finally easing a bit. I'm eating more varieties of food. Headaches are infrequent and short-lived. You will notice them as the weeks go by.

 

Congratulations on being finally benzo-free! :yippee:

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I’m happy for you and encouraged by your post, thank you for describing it so well, what you write will bring comfort to others facing the end of their taper.

 

Playing and singing, wow, thats an amazing first day off the drug, you rock!  :thumbsup:

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Good for you!  Will be following your periodic updates, and praying for your quick, full recovery. 

 

I'm sure not going to miss cutting and weighing pills either, I always feel like I'm some sort of mad scientist, going from dry cut, to water taper, to now micro cut.  Glad you are done!! :smitten:

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Hello again, hereforhelp.

 

I watched an encouraging video last night that I thought you might find of interest.  The speaker is Dr. Josef Witt-Doerring, a ‘benzo-wise’ psychiatrist.

 

How Will I Feel After My Benzo Taper is Over?

 

PS  I noticed what appears to be a typo in one of the posts upthread.  As I’m sure you are aware — but other readers may not be — the elimination half-life of clonazepam is 30-40 hours, not 100 hours.  Using the pharmacology rule of thumb that it takes 5 times the half-life for a single dose of a drug to be eliminated, clonazepam should by eliminated between 150 to 200+ hours after the last dose (the reason for the + is because elimination may take longer if the drug was taken on a chronic versus one-time basis).

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Thank you all for your kind words, encouragement, and resources. This weekend was a bit rocky with some short windows mixed in, but I'm making it. Hoping for some more improvement this week. Today is day 11.
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Congrats!! I’ve been off here for a couple months but great to see this now that I’m back on! Happy for you, and you give me hope!! Keep persevering and know your full great days are on their way and getting your life back! So happy for you being done takimg the poison!!
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  • 4 weeks later...

I had some big windows this weekend after a pretty rough week las week. This weekend, my typical symptoms would show up but then go away quickly. Nothing would stick. I never felt any head stuff or chest pressure for more than 30 minutes at a time, and often just for 5 minutes or so. Palpitations were the only thing that lasted longer, but I'm rather used to those, as uncomfortable as they can be.

 

Oh, also, I accidentally missed taking my morning dose of diltiazem (calcium-channel blocker for arrhythmias) two Fridays ago and had a better afternoon and evening, so when I got to my evening dose and realized what had happened, I wondered since I'd felt better...what if? So I skipped my evening dose and decided to continue the experiment. The next day, I had a full-day window, so I continued going. Things were not as good that Sunday and then were pretty crappy the rest of the week, with increased palpitations and a lot of head stuff and my usual assortment of junk, but I kept going wondering if I should have tapered off instead. I'd read on here that calcium-channel blockers possibly mask benzo-injury (BIND) symptoms and/or make recovery harder, and I'd always thought this drug was complicating my taper (it inhibits the CYP3A4 liver enzyme and thus ups the level of benzo in the blood) and have wondered if it was complicating my recovery as well. Sometimes my heart would be in normal sinus rhythm only to start palpitations 10 minutes after taking the diltiazem, which was always frustrating. So, I decided to CT the drug I'd asked my doctor for because I was so afraid of being shocked by my ICD (defibrillator) again. I'm thankful I did... Things seem to be getting better, and now I'm off all meds.

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Congrats HFH! I took a heart med once some years ago (the cardiologist gave it to me for sharp heart pains and weird heart rhythm but he couldn't find anything on the scans so I didn't continue taking it and it turned out to be a rib poking my heart instead) and it also made me feel weird immediately. I was smarter with meds then.
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