I’ve been on Methadone for about 4.5 months and have been on a “stable” dose of 100mg for the last 2 months.
I had to have an ECG to go from 85mg to 100mg and the “interval” number thing was a little high. I think they said 150 is the bottom of the “high scale” if you know what I mean? Mine was 143 at that point. They still said it was like a yellow flag and that I’d have to have ECG’s before each increase going forwards but he was still happy for me to go from 85mg to 100mg.
I then had to have an ECG a couple of weeks after that increase at which point the number had gone up to 153. I’m sure I remember at one point him saying that it would only actually stop me being able to increase if it was above 180, but I could have misremembered that.
I also increased my Pregabalin dose from 200mg to 300mg, so the increase in the ECG number increase was likely due to both the Methadone and Pregabalin increasing at the same time.
I didn’t initially ask for an increase as I hoped 100mg would be enough and that maybe split dosing once I was able to get take-homes would make it work better. But he did say that had I asked he would have said no. Although I think the procedure would be to contact a cardiologist or just another (senior?) doctor to confer before deciding on if I could increase or not.
I say this, because he did in fact say he would email a cardiologist anyway but for now would leave me at my current 100mg dose (not reduce me back down) and it’s been a month since then so we can assume the decision was it was okay for me to stay at that dose.
Winding forward to Monday this week, I decided after this latest weekend that I don’t think 100mg is enough.
I’m not saying I’m having severe withdrawals, but for instance one thing I’ve noticed is that I seem to sweat a LOT and it’s after like the tiniest amount of exercise.
It happened to me today and it made me completely freezing cold. So it’s like a cold sweat. I’ve also noticed my mood not being as good as it was. I used to feel quite motivated after taking my dose, now that doesn’t seem to happen.
I’d probably say my mood is lower in general but I do feel like it improves for a short time after taking my dose.
This weekend I made a silly decision to take both my Saturday and Sunday dose on Saturday. Although almost 12 hours apart, like 8am and 8pm.
I actually felt quite euphoric after the second dose for a few short hours. However the next day was not great. Well it was pretty bad. But the thing is, I only really, if you think about it, took my Sunday dose 12 hours earlier than would have been reasonable to take it on Sunday. 8pm Saturday night instead of 8am Sunday morning.
Despite this it really seemed to leave my system quite quickly.
The main thing that made me notice this, was my sex drive came back big timeee (like 2 wet dreams kinda sex drive rebounding lol).
You could say “well, having your sex drive back isn’t that bad” but firstly, it is. Because no one wants to have to change their underwear twice in the early hours of the morning lol.
But also, my point is mainly that this shows that the Methadone was obviously a lot more out of my system than usual.
Basically, from my experience, I’d actually say that it felt like taking that double dose, somehow caused me to go into withdrawal when I wouldn’t have usually. Like not that quick. I don’t ever have wet dreams and yet occasionally I’ll take my methadone as early as like 930/10am.
Just trust me on this because I’m probably just explaining it badly. But basically it does feel as though somehow larger doses, leave my system more quickly than smaller doses.
Has anyone else experienced this?
Finally, do you think the sweating and mood stuff is likely withdrawals? Do I need to be on a higher dose? What can I say to the doctor to get a higher dose?
I know they want me to do another ECG and I’ve booked one in for the start of October, but this is a longggg time away and also, what if that number gets even worse?? And they just refuse to increase my dose??
I’ve heard of people in the US being on really high doses like 250mg, do they all really “pass” the ECG at doses in excess of 200mg??
If anyone has any info about any of this or just wants to share their personal experience, I’d be thankful/interested to hear in either case.
Cheers!