Tramadol Taper - Need Help From a Veteran Who Tapered From It

Hello BenzoBuddies Peeps,

 

Been taking Tramadol for 6 years. 

Dosage is anywhere from 25mg to 75mg daily or every two or three days apart. But most of the time it was daily.  I've gone two weeks but always go back to the Tram Monster because the withdrawal pain is too intense.  In recent months I upped the dosage to 50mg to 100mg daily.  But three weeks ago I caught a nasty cold/flu thing and decided to stop the Tramadol during that time.  I just didn't feel like taking it.  I didn't seem to miss it or have any pain, actually felt pretty good.  But then the world came crashing down on me the following week.  I felt terrible and have been getting worse since.  It's now been 18 days cold turkey and I'm having serious symptoms.  Diarrhea every morning (although, I have kidney disease and a kidney transplant and the immunosuppressive meds mess with my gut) but this is different.  Also, suffering extreme muscle and joint pain and tenderness that gets worse as the day goes, brief moments of anxiety, nerve zaps (sudden pain in a random parts of my body...usually legs, hands, arms and feet), tinnitus, brain zaps and nausea.  But I'm not throwing up...which is good.  The worst of it is the aches and pains.  Granted, my dosage is a lot lower then most people on BenzoBuddies, but I've been taking this drug for almost 6 years with only a few days break in-between.  I started taking Tramadol to manage kidney pain, but then started taking it for whatever ailed me.  That was my mistake.  I have to say that it does work well for pain and gives ya nice happy buzz, but I don't like the roller coaster ride of side effects anymore and would like to get off this drug completely, or get to a point where I only take it when my kidney pain is too much for me to handle. Luckily for me I don't get as much kidney pain as I used to. 

 

So, do I continue to stay off cold turkey and suffer through the pain and symptoms?  Or, do I go back on it and start a taper.  Maybe start at 50mg or 25mg and taper?

 

5 years ago I tapered off Lorazepam.  It took 6 months and I was only taking Lorazepam for 6 months. 

It also took 1.5 years to elevate all the symptoms from it.  Cray cray! 

 

Do not know how to proceed.  Any seasoned Tramadol taper vets have any ideas for me.  Or, a possible taper plan?

 

Also, maybe ideas to help if I decide to stay off cold turkey.  Anything to help elevate pain and suffering. 

 

Please Help, Bandman

I CT’d Tramadol in 2017 - was bad for about a month and then ok but I was on diazepam at the time.

How long were you taking it?  And at what dosage?  So, do you recommend me tough through it since I've already gone 18 days.  Yesterday was probably the worst.  Did you notice it getting worse in the third week?

 

Thanks, Bandman

BTW Good profile pic.  Yeah, the chemtrails suck don't they?  That shite pisses me off, yet nobody seems to notice. 

Hi Bandman!  English is not my mother tongue, so I may have misunderstood?

 

But as I understand, Tramadol is your problem? It's a synthetic opioid, and here we discuss Benzo.

 

It may explain why you have not received an answer. I hope you find a forum about Tramadol. And of course that you feel better soon!

 

Anna