Shook Off the Vicodin But It Was Not Easy

Last Tuesday night at 3:30 a.m. I took my last Vicodin (5mg Vicodin, 325 mg Tylenol). The last six days I've been feeling pretty poor. When I recognized that I was taking Vicodin to control feelings of malaise, chills, emotional downs -- symptoms of opiate withdrawal -- rather than to control pain, I knew it was time to get off the Vicodin.

Previously I had been trying to wean myself off the drug but successively longer periods of time between doses. But that only caused me to experience the repeated beginnings of withdrawal numerous times without acheiving my goal of Vicodin independence.

So, I stopped taking Vicodin altogether and determined to deal with the withdrawal over a period of days. And it did take several days -- days of feeling pretty crappy, poor temperature control (usually cold), feeling down. But I think I've come through it now, some six days into the process.

I've been dosing with 500mg Tylenol tablets, one every four or so hours. That's 3g per day total, versus a limit of 4g per day of Tylenol.