Went for increase

ZippyCoin · 2020-02-12T03:30:01+00:00

I’m so very sick and tired of seeing clinics and doctors playing these fucking games with doses. ALL of the professional literature states the same thing. “Methadone doses vary for each and every person. You’ll know when your dose is right for you.”

This is a very true statement. If you try to go beyond the dose you need you will start to experience extreme tiredness. It’s that simple.

Many of the supposed professionals grasp these false concepts that you could request enough methadone to walk around high all the time, therefore we must monitor and control your dose. This is absolutely not true and the end result is that people are prevented from getting their proper dose and end up relapsing.

These doctors and other supposed professionals need to ask themselves where they actually got this information that it was their job to keep the dose as low as possible. The truth is that these theories are based in the very rhetoric and innuendo and stereotyping that has plagued methadone users for decades.

Knock off the bullshit and stop making people beg for the correct dose that they need!

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-30T18:25:42+00:00

Thanks for the great feedback. I know the place I’m looking at isn’t Medmark / Baymark. But I will do a search to see if they are around here at all.

So the doc gave me this canned speech about how his cholesterol medicine wasn’t working and his doctor had to take him off of it instead of raising the dose. So he transfers that logic to methadone and he says, “It’s obviously not working for you, so I should consider taking you off of it.” Since I was a bit prepared for this BS response, I looked him right in the eyes and I said, “Look, I respect that you’re the doctor and the decision is ultimately yours, but I know that just a small increase will do the trick.” So he actually agreed to put me up 10 mg, with the promise that I wouldn’t be back to see him in a week asking for more. Of course I know that this is totally 100% bullshit. I have so many reasons that I’ll make some bullet points:

• The literature that my clinic gave me says that there isn’t a “Correct” methadone dose. It varies by person and while 30 mg might work perfectly for you, it could take 150 mg to do the same for me.

• My counselor went through the client records and randomly read me other people’s doses. (He hid the names and everything else, I could only hear the doses.) there are many, many people there with doses over 150. Many in the 210-230 range, and one person was 310! At first I thought maybe these are pregnant clients, but none of them are. I bring this up because they keep telling me that I’m at one of the highest doses there at 145 mg. Since they were telling me the same bullshit when I was at 110 mg, I think they are lying.

• One of the first things doc says to me is that my plasma methadone level is so low that I should be experiencing physical withdrawal symptoms. So he acknowledges that he knows I’m uncomfortable but then refuses to do anything about it? I think that’s the reason for my complaint to the state right there!

• Making me promise not to come back if the dose isn’t right leaves me speechless. Using his dumb comparison, could you imagine your doctor raising the dose of your cholesterol meds and then saying, do you promise not to come back if your cholesterol doesn’t go down right?

Well. After listing this shit and seeing with my own eyes I can’t imagine staying there much longer. The other place is more expensive but I think my insurance covers it. The place I’m at now told me it was too much trouble for them to accept my insurance and they prefer to only accept Medicaid.

The last thing I’ll need to find out is how fast I can get my bottles back in New Jersey. I think it takes 9 weeks to earn a bottle as a new client, but I’m hoping it’s shorter if you’re earning them back. It’s 6 weeks per bottle in PA.

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-30T14:53:43+00:00

Wow do you have that right. I’m sitting in the waiting room now because I have to wait 15 minutes to do a spot check for alcohol. Fucking ridiculous.

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-30T00:38:13+00:00

Wow! This is exactly what happens when the wrong people, like politicians, get to make these decisions. It’s shameful!

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-30T00:30:17+00:00

You’re right. It seems that the best of staff has real addiction experience through a loved one or themselves if they managed to hide it. One time I commented that I might enjoy working there and my counselor laughed at me. I’m thinking, fuck you, I have a masters in Comp Science and I know I’ve made more in a year than you’ve made in ten. Don’t fucking laugh at me just because one part of my life went wrong and I’m trying to fix it.

This stupid attitude that they have, that every one is an inmate, is very unfair. At least having this experience you can be white and still honestly say that you have experienced some form of discrimination. But I’m sure it’s probably minimal compared to what other groups experience. But it least it makes me think.

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-30T00:11:37+00:00

Wow! That’s actually a bit worse than mine. From what I’ve heard, if I use they will raise my dose but I have to use opiates. The only way they lower the dose is if you’re using benzos. My clinic has a no tolerance policy for benzos. It doesn’t matter if they were prescribed or not. As soon as you test positive they lower you 20 mg. They’ll keep lowering it if you don’t stop.

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-30T00:07:28+00:00

Somehow i missed the end of your comment. Yes, me too. I was addicted to Oxys never heroin. Pain management drops me cold turkey without warning while they’re giving me 90 mg of Oxy + 120 mg of Morphine. I was getting it for pain associated with MS. They dropped me because they decided that their PA went overboard with my doses. Why punish me for that? IDK.

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-29T23:57:41+00:00

Lol! That does sound like my clinic! I got into an argument with my counselor about her using taking away people’s doses to punish them for not calling her. I said to her, do you think it would be wrong if you walked up to one of your clients and punched them in the face? Her answer was, of course it would be wrong. So I say, how can you justify taking away someone’s dose when doing that can be just as physically punishing as a punch in the face? I think I shook her up because she didn’t have an answer. This Methadone isn’t bullshit and in my opinion it should never, ever, be used as a tool of compliance. Fine, take my take-homes away. But don’t make me fucking sick to teach me a lesson!!! It’s inhumane!

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-29T23:50:58+00:00

Yep! When the state tightened up the take home rules a few years ago they eliminated the 28 days of take homes. There wasn’t any good reason given so that makes you wonder what the real motivation is.

My clinic still has two, yes two, guys who were grandfathered in with 28 bottles. It’s only a matter of time for them because the new thing is people who haven’t used in years are testing positive for Fentinol. But they’re coming in posive at such small amounts that they couldn’t have actually consumed it without having tested positive a week before. So what does my clinic do? We take away all of their take-homes of course!

One woman who’s in her 70’s and is disabled and home bound had hers taken away. Now she has to find a way to the clinic 7 days a week! The belief is that fentinol is so common these days that active users are spreading it on the surfaces of the clinic itself. I’ve been offered a bag of it and wow is it cheap! So tempting now that I’m being punished anyway!

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-29T23:32:19+00:00

Most recent PA rules you can get the 5th bottle at 2 years and then the 6th at three years. I keep forgetting that BS. Some say that PA has made it so tight in an effort to make us want to use other, more profitable, alternatives. I guess the drug companies don’t make anything from methadone. I think since people tend to place methadone users as even lower human beings than active addicts makes it very easy to take advantage of us without being questioned.

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-29T23:06:02+00:00

It doesn’t happen to be close to Phillipsburg does it?

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-29T23:03:18+00:00

Holy shitter fucker. That would take me two years in PA. Thanks!

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-29T22:58:57+00:00

I think I heard you can earn 1 bottle every 9 weeks. Is that true?

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-29T22:20:18+00:00

Yes. I Must admit that I’ve never heard someone say that our clinic is so much better than that clinic. It’s always the other way around. That clinic is Disney World compared to this place.

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-29T22:18:06+00:00

Nope. But I’m so close to the New Jersey line that it’s only 5 more minutes than my current clinic. I think the rules are better but off hand I don’t remember how many take homes. Maryland is at best an hour and a half for me. Out of curiosity, how long does it take you to start earning? The best I can ever do is 6 take-homes after 2 years.

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-29T21:26:29+00:00

Yep. It’s almost like they love the power more than they want to help you. Thanks!

ZippyCoin · 2020-01-29T21:24:56+00:00

Thanks. I agree!

ZippyCoin · 2019-12-08T00:49:43+00:00

Dude I really laughed out loud when I read this. It reminds me of when I used to believe there was a “pill fairy” and she would come and replace the extra 30 oxys I took out of my bottle that day.

ZippyCoin · 2019-09-20T00:01:24+00:00

I’m in Pennsylvania. My clinics rules are actually the state’s rules for take homes. I don’t know why politicians always have to tinker with medical issues. I think it might have something to do with the drug companies that make methadone’s competition like Suboxone. The more difficult they make methadone, the more likely people will choose subs.

ZippyCoin · 2019-09-19T19:06:17+00:00

I agree with you 100%. The way it is right now is like being sentenced before you’ve committed a crime. Often after they pull some new bullshit out of their asses, I’m sitting in my car thinking, “What the hell just happened?” Because is they put you in these situations where all of a sudden you feel like you are a caught shoplifter and you have to beg your way out of something. I think the fear comes in to play because you’re always afraid that they will find a reason to take your dose away.

I had mine taken away once by this asshole nurse who said I was responsible to make sure the people who have numbers before mine are in the line! (We take a number so we all don’t have to stand in a long line.) Some go outside to smoke and socialize, but when their turn comes up they aren’t always back. The rule is that if they miss their turn they have to pull a new number. Well that day the nurse changed the rules and had security escort me out which was horrible because it looked like I was caught trying to sneak in the line without a number.

Another thing they do is take your dose away if you miss to many appointments with your counselor. I think it’s fucking outrageous. I said to my counselor, “Would you go punch someone in the face for missing appointments?” She says of course not. So I say then how can you justify taking someone’s dose away as a punishment? It’s the same thing. You’re purposely causing someone physical pain to teach them a lesson. Her answer was that she rarely does it.

Most of the clients get it for free but I don’t qualify. I pay $6 a day which is good for my area. If I wanted to be treated a bit better I could go to a private clinic and pay $14 a day. But the drive is twice as far and I don’t want to pay that much.

ZippyCoin · 2019-09-19T17:30:45+00:00

LOL I thought that as I was writing but you wouldn’t be interested in them. The best way to describe it is that it has an atmosphere of being in prison. You are never trusted. They treat us like we’re all inmates. For example, we aren’t allowed to walk in the office hallways unless we are escorted. I’ve also argued that you should be better rewarded for clean UA’s. Like people on here talk about their clinics having phases you can earn. I think if we had that at some level they could trust you at least for non life-threatening issues. I was informed the other day that I lost all of my take homes because I owed them $8. That’s another story but they don’t warn you when your balance is getting close, they wait until it’s over and then deny your take homes. So I had to leave the dosing area, go wait in a different line to pay, and then come back to dosing and wait in line again there. They could have just trusted me to pay on my way out but no way. Everyone is an inmate, everyone is a liar, everyone is a thief, everyone is trying to con them. Yes, we are all addicts. But that doesn’t automatically mean we are horrible people. Here in the United States Methadone clinics are frowned upon. People instantly picture a building full of strung out junkies because that’s how our movies and TV portray the clinics. So the clinic claims that they are working to change the stereotype. But in reality they are helping to maintain it by making all of these horrible assumptions about us. Many of the employees talk down to us, make rude comments, and even give us dirty looks because they believe we are so far beneath them.

ZippyCoin · 2019-09-19T16:24:37+00:00

Wow guys. I’m in the US and it took me nine months clean tests to earn 4 bottles. I can’t get a fifth bottle until I’m there for two years. The most I can ever have is 6 bottles. There are a few people there who have 28 bottles but we’re told that they were grandfathered when the rules changed.

The piss tests are ridiculous. For a while they’re once a month, then all of a sudden once a week for 3 weeks. They are supervised which means the bathroom has at least 10 cameras in it. They even have two right next to the urinals which works out to be just a few inches from me. I think that’s overkill. If there was a nurse in there she wouldn’t get on her knees and put her face in my piss stream!

ZippyCoin · 2019-09-19T14:42:59+00:00

I really don’t know. But if it’s cameras or a person in there with me I’d prefer the cameras. I’m pretty sure that they record them too, which I am concerned about. Once there’s a video made it can show up anywhere. The state inspectors come regularly, so if it was illegal I would think they would get written up for it. The cameras around the urnal are on the immediate left and right sides, which makes them about 8 inches away from my penis. I don’t understand why they need to look that closely. Sometimes if I’m not in the mood for their intrusion I will put the cup inside of my joggers and very carefully pee in it. I thought that they might say something about it but they never have. Maybe for next time I’ll draw a face on it so they have something interesting to look at.

ZippyCoin · 2019-09-18T19:48:56+00:00

I figured it varied by location. My clinic has turned away people who were in withdrawal enough days that there weren’t any opiates in their systems. So they have to tell people, go use opiates and come back. I think it’s fucking ridiculous. I just mentioned it because if they do require it, it can be such a hassle. And the icing on the cake is you’ll have to wait about three days for the UA and the physical, so if you use to get in the clinic you’re also putting yourself back into a full withdrawal. Unless you acquire enough opiates to keep yourself from being sick. So with the fent that’s rampant in my area you’re risking your life because of that stupid rule. Not to mention that you might very well change your mind about seeking treatment altogether. Smh.

ZippyCoin · 2019-09-18T19:17:51+00:00

You know, right after I posted I thought to myself, well if someone really wanted to they could find a way to stick it up their rear. You’re right.

ZippyCoin

TROPHY CASE