5 months on ativan for throat condition. I am very fearful

Hello,    i have been on 2-3 mg of ativan daily for 5 months for a throat condition caused by a medical procedure gone bad.  I have a swollen larynx which makes me feel like im choking and i have lost my voice too.  The ativan still helps some, but it is causing me other health problems like being up all night peeing.  I cant seem to get below 2.25 mg per 24 hours and after reading all of the horror stories about tapering in such small increments and the withdrawal, i have no idea how im going to do this when the throat condition is driving me crazy even on the ativan.  Any advice is greatly appreciated. 

I am tapering Ativan and I have found out the hard way that you must dose every 6 hours.  If I'm even 30 minutes late I feel it! (In fact I feel IDW starting to rev up at about 5 hours so I am already watching the clock closely at 5 hours off)  An Ativan taper is workable if your willing to dose every 6 hours

 

I take my daily dose and put it into 8 oz water thickened with few pinches of xanthan gum.

 

Then I pour it into four equal 2oz. doses in medic bottles I got on ebay and drink one every 6 hours. Its workable and if you go slow enough you may not even feel the taper.  For me it feels like I drank too much coffee  (about 20 cups too much ) and that's it. No need to suffer too much and lack of sleep and tinnitus are pretty normal, hard to avoid those s/x

 

Good luck

Hi,    thanks for the response.  I wish i had never taken the first ativan they gave me at the ER, but i have a throat condition and without the ativan i would not be able to handle the choking sensation.  I have no idea if or when they are going to be able to fix my throat.  My larynx is swollen and it makes me feel like i have to swallow constantly and like im going to gag, or choke to death.  The ativan does help, but i am trying wean down anyway.  I got down to 2 mg, but some days i have to take closer to three depending on how the throat feels.  I see no way to get off of it yet.  Im in a real mess.  I was also prescribed Remeron but have been hesitant to add another pill.  My body does not handle drugs well and i may also have to take neurontin in the future so i didnt want  to be on 3 different meds.  How do you like the Remeron? Does it help you sleep?    p.s.  i try to take my ativan in equal doses throughout the day and night.  One thing that really worries me is it seems to be causing fluid retention during the day and then i am up all night peeing.  Alot!

Hi,    thanks for the response.  I wish i had never taken the first ativan they gave me at the ER, but i have a throat condition and without the ativan i would not be able to handle the choking sensation.  I have no idea if or when they are going to be able to fix my throat.  My larynx is swollen and it makes me feel like i have to swallow constantly and like im going to gag, or choke to death.  The ativan does help, but i am trying wean down anyway.  I got down to 2 mg, but some days i have to take closer to three depending on how the throat feels.  I see no way to get off of it yet.  Im in a real mess.  I was also prescribed Remeron but have been hesitant to add another pill.  My body does not handle drugs well and i may also have to take neurontin in the future so i didnt want  to be on 3 different meds.  How do you like the Remeron? Does it help you sleep?    p.s.  i try to take my ativan in equal doses throughout the day and night.  One thing that really worries me is it seems to be causing fluid retention during the day and then i am up all night peeing.  Alot!

 

About the peeing thing, well you just have to work around it.  I never drink after 9:00PM

and I keep Halls vapor candy by the bed for the dry mouth.  Xanax users have the same problem. The pain of a full bladder gets really intense and then when you go to pee it's like 5 teaspoons full only?  I mean, really!  All these side effects suck! If I go on a jet I eat some salt and that will stop the peeing for about 4 hours and you will get dry mouth so keep some candy handy

 

I like remeron for sleep but only small doses like 4 to 7.5 mg max. I would never go over 7.5mg.  it's not addictive in the same way a benzo is but has its own problems when coming off

 

Neurontin is a common trick these days for getting people off benzo's quickly in under a month or so but then your have to slowly cut the neurontin and its not fun either.  Best just to slow taper the benzo's but drs. are little help here.  They love to use neurontin (gabapentin) for some odd reason.

 

You may be getting close to tolerance by now so I'd just keep the doses even and steady until you feel like making the long journey down.  You can stay on an even dose for a long time before it finally does nothing except stop the withdrawal. This stuff is pointless as a long term fix.  Avoid up dosing as every time you do you will pay for it in the next days to follow.

 

I hope your throat gets better soon.

 

Hugs

 

Bird

 

 

Birdman,    right now im in a no-win situation because the only thing that helps my throat is the ativan, however it is keeping me up half the night and drying my throat out, which may be preventing healing (cant use Halls or anything like that because it burns my throat) So, i drink alot in the middle of the night.  I can tell when it wears off because my throat gets tight and the swelling feeling and pain is horrible.  Im having an endoscopy on thursday to look for damage from the probe they put inside my esophagus.  My ENT is suggesting i try neurontin for the throat pain, not the ativan.

 

I actually pee a large volume of urine in the middle of the night.  Sometimes nearly a gallon.  It cant be good.  What a mess.  How long have you been on ativan and what are you down to?? 

Birdman,    right now im in a no-win situation because the only thing that helps my throat is the ativan, however it is keeping me up half the night and drying my throat out, which may be preventing healing (cant use Halls or anything like that because it burns my throat) So, i drink alot in the middle of the night.  I can tell when it wears off because my throat gets tight and the swelling feeling and pain is horrible.  Im having an endoscopy on thursday to look for damage from the probe they put inside my esophagus.  My ENT is suggesting i try neurontin for the throat pain, not the ativan.

 

I actually pee a large volume of urine in the middle of the night.  Sometimes nearly a gallon.  It cant be good.  What a mess.  How long have you been on ativan and what are you down to??

 

I was taking upwards of 9mg Ativan for 5 years.  I am down to 3.45mg today. It's not easy today my neck is in a knot and I feel so very uptight and can't sleep at all.  Feels like I drank 50 cups of strong coffee. :o :o  Cutting is not fun :'(

 

Did you ever try dripping almond oil in your mouth?  I have a small dropper bottle next to my bed and if I get dry mouth I put a few drops in my mouth and it soothes for about 45 minutes.

 

Neurontin (gabapentin) it's also very addictive too.  Do more research before you take any new meds.  Being on both can be a real mess.  I'd take my chances with Ativan over starting gabapentin if it were me.

 

This is a tough one since your in a bad situation that you can heal from in time on both fronts including drug and physical.  You can also taper when it suits you when the worst of your situation is behind you.  This is all going to be hard but very doable.

 

I wish you my best and I hope your throat heals soon.

 

 

osu90,

 

I hope I'm not being intrusive, but I am an SLP and wondering what happened to your throat? Did they go in to remove nodules from your vocal folds or did you have intubation trauma? The choking sensation must be awful...

 

Best,

 

W

Birdman,    you are doing very well on your taper and you have given me some inspiration.  I think i may have to try the gabapentin because the ativan doesnt really heal the nerve damage just masks the symptoms.  Im worried about adding it because my body does not like pills.  Plus my doctor wants me to try Remeron too.  What an insane mess.  I never even took an aspirin before the throat issue. Please keep in in touch.  You message me if you like.  I would like to know how your progress is going.

Workinitout,    what is an SLP?  Speech and language something?  Its a very long story, but basically i got talked into having a Bravo capsule attached to my esophagus even though i never had one symptom of heartburn or throat problems.  I was having what i thought were gallbladder pains but our local hospital miss diagnosed me and then screwed me up good.  Six days into the Bravo probe i woke up with a lump in my throat and a hoarse voice, the rest of the story is pure hell.  They put me on ativan for the lump sensation and that was 5 months ago.  The original problem was pancreatitis which could have been easily fixed, but now im in a never ending cycle of doctors visits, pills and tests because they cant get the swelling in my voicebox to go down.  I was on protonix for 3 months and it made me sicker and the throat much worse, and also gave me a systemic yeast infection.  Now the ativan is causing me to retain fluid during the day and im up all night peeing to the point of severe dehydration which isnt helping the throat heal.  I lost my voice for most of the past 5 months.  It has come back some the last 2 weeks but it gets too painful to talk by afternoon.  My life has been completely capsized.    Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

Speech language pathologist  I'm sorry you are going through this, I'm guessing the Bravo capsule has been removed?

 

 

Yes the capsule finally fell off after 12 days of intense pain.  I am having an endoscopy on thursday to see if there was any leftover damage from the capsule or procedure.  The doctor that did it has been terminated.  She has injured or killed so manly people in my small town.  Since i had my procedure so many people have come to me saying they wish they would have known i was going to her, they would have stopped me.

OMG - that is incredible! All of that and now Ativan got its hook into you!

 

Life is so darned unfair sometimes, I'm really sorry you are going through this.

Hello,    sorry for the late reply.  Yes the capsule is gone but the damage was done.  I have been diagnosed with irritable larynx syndrome which is nerve damage making the larynx hypersenstive.  My voicebox is also swollen.  So what does your job consist of?  Do you work with people who have lost their voice?

Don't know if it would help you but there have been a few times where my throat was closing up on me due to allergies and I put some Ben Gay on it (the outside of course) and it helped to open my throat up. Saved me from choking to death. Do you know if your throat is swollen or enlarged?

Yes, sometimes I work with people who have lost their voice but it is not my area of expertise.

 

What I do know is that you shouldn't be using it, but that's obvious I'm sure.

 

How are you working around your condition? Writing things down a lot? Are you working with a SLP now?