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What rate to taper at to reach 15mg by a certain date?


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Hi BB

Colin you should know that i am tapering with 1 x 5mg Valium pill, crushed in 28ml of milk, and I'm suck somewhere in there.

 

I now HAVE to get down to 15mg of Valium by the 14th of September because my psychiatrist decided to cut my Valium intake in half from 30mg a day to 15mg a day, and upped my seroquel to 300mg a day.

 

This was all done telephonically via his secretary so my hands are a bit tied. I cant go and see him as i live far away from him and usually see him a couple of times a year.

I have 28 x 5mg pills left. For the life of me I cannot think, I know it's going to be tough going.

I do need the formula please.

I am in a bit of a state here, and I'm emailing him to try and get the 15mg re instated.

Hope you can help

 

Peace

Dena

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Hi Dena,

 

First, I need to know exactly what's happening with your taper. From memory, you take six 5mg tablets (30mg Valium) per day. You are titrating one of these tablets by creating a benzo-milk mixture of 28ml. When you make up this mixture, how much of it are you disposing of at the moment?

 

Once I know where you are at with the pill you are titrating, I will be better able to advise. What will give you more time is to stop the titrating, and use pill splitting instead. This means that you will not be wasting any benzo by disposal.

 

It is precisely because of these kind of situations that people are best advised to think about withdrawal from their benzos. However, once we are dependent/addicted, withdrawal should be up to the patient. Doctors too often force their patients off. Withdrawal is difficult, and if carried out in a cavalier manner, torturous. So, your psychiatrist, without seeing you or taking to you, has decided to change your meds. Shocking!

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Hi Colin

I am still on the first 5mg pill and i have disposed 17ml, as i said those are all the pills i have left. Is there anyway i can titrate ?

If pill splitting is the only route, it will have to be done.

I know my P/doc is a bloody Ahole for doing this to me, i cant get hold of him.....

anyway..

 

 

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So, you make up 28ml mixture, and are disposing of 17ml at the moment? You take 11mls, yes?

 

You have to taper off nearly half your dose in 18 days. That's is a lot! I think the first step would be to stop titration of the present tablet. Your are more than half-way through titrating this tablet, so the next logical step would be to take just five whole pills per day (25mg). Stay at that dose for two days, then reduce by a further 1.25mg (a quarter of tablet) every two days until you are taking just three tablets (15mg). This taper is way too fast. It is not dangerous as such, just way too fast. You may not suffer as much as you envisage, but this is not a situation that should be forced upon you. Is it worth contacting you psychiatrist again to see if you can have more time? An extra month would make big difference.

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Dena,

 

I need to recalculate.

 

How long do these 28 pills have last you. When do you receive your next prescription, and for how many pills per day will that prescription be.

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Colin,

 

28 x 5mg pills (may have caught the hand in the cookie jar) have to last till 14th September.

 

Next Rx 14th September will be 15mg per day per month

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Hi Dena,

 

Even if you cut to 15mg today, those 28 pills would last less than 10 days. You need to sort out a new prescription.

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sorry Colin, my screen froze there a min.

 

i have a bottle i carry in my bag, my mistake

it has 19 pills in it

does that help?

:o

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Oh and Colin

 

We can get our scripts a few days earlier, i could get mine on the 11th of September.

 

Sorry i am all over the place, i am tapering off other meds too.

 

 

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Dena,

 

It is 18 days until yournext prescription. If you get it three days early, that's 15 days at 6 pills per day = 90 pills! If you cut to 15mg (three tablets) per day today, 47 pills are just enough to last until the 11th Sept. This means that you will have no taper at all!

 

Have you lost or misplaced some pills?

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Colin I have no explination as yet, i just don't know..I may have left them at my brothers, i have bottles all over.

 

Lets work on the titration as is 30mg a day (assume i have all the pills)and the way to get to 15mg on the 11 of september

 

Please

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Well, if you are going to taper down from where you are at now, to 15mg by the 14th, just follow my original plan. I was hoping that you would have enough pills for you to mange to extend the taper period because as you taper you would be using less pills (and not wasting any through titration). However, it seems that you are short of the pills you should have. If you find or get hold of some more pills, we can extend the taper period accordingly.
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