Is it ok to cut the 15mg morphine tabs in half?

Question

Some people say it's ok then others say it's wrong and can release to much into your system at once. 15mg not the extended release tabs..Maybe I shouldn't have started cutting them in half.

Have a couple questions that I hope someone can answer,,,
I'm trying to taper off of 40mg a day of prescibed morphine... I want to stop, I absolutley hate this drug... Believe me I don't take it to get high!

I had a shoulder injury a year and a half ago and realized it wasn't gonna go away so went to the Dr. and he started me on Tramadol
50mgs, went a couple month's then progressed to codien for a couple months then to the morphine and it's been a couple months..If my math is accurate it's been close to 7 months since starting the pain meds..Now I want off! I'll take the pain over the morphine,,, I feel like I'm so hooked, when I tried to stop, I would get these horrible feelings, Total panic! Can't catch my breath, can't sit still, can't eat, can't sleep, severe dry mouth..I'm claustaphobic and it just intensifies that a million times..I start sobing, and I'm a 56 year old man, I shouldn't be sobing. I should be laughing and enjoying life..I can't handle these W/D's! Anybody that has some advice or helpful hints on how I can get thru this please tell me... Is Detox the best way for me to go? Would it be the easiest way?

I've read other posts and I know my situation is nothing compared to some people here and my heart goes out to you... Thanks --- John

Answer

Hold on-Please do not cut it in half until you know for certain if it is time-released. I used to take a time-released version, which worked very well for pain, but had horrible side effects. If one were to cut a time-release tablet, all the strong medicine that is supposed to be spread out over 12 hours will rush out into your bloodstream and could cause great harm.
Please ask your Dr. just to be certain.
Good luck and I praise you for cutting back.

Answer

I did the same thing. I wanted to get off the medicine, but I didn't want to go to a detox.so I literally cut down the pills. You have to do it slowly and only cut a little off so you don't get withdrawal symptoms (can't sleep, vomiting, etc.) I took a pair of mini plier cutters and just cut a little off the first time, maybe 1/4 of 1/5. I stayed on the cut down pill for a couple of weeks. Then I cut more off and stayed on it for three weeks. Then cut 1/2 and stayed on it 3 or 4 weeks, and so on down to a pebble. I felt comfortable the whole time. Hope it works out for you.

Answer

Ask your doctor about medicinal  cannabis . Makes you happy and pain free. If you don't want to get high get cannabis with less THC. Enjoy (:

Answer

I live with severe pain every day of my life. While I completely understand your want and need to get off drugs that have some serious side effects, even missing one pill you get the jitters. But you need to consider if you can handle the pain with NO medication. It sounds like your pain is pretty severe if they've kept uping the strength of the medications you've been taking. My only concern is this. I've done the cold turkey thing on one of my pain management doctor's recommendations. It totally sucks. They gave me nothing for about a year. Until I physically AND mentally couldn't take the pain anymore and went to another specialist to go back on SOMETHING. Not neccessarily opiods but something. I'm worried if you go back to one Extreme it'll just cause problems in other areas.

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Have you told your doc what you're feeling? Maybe he can take you back down to the tramadol or something for moderate pain with less side effects. It's just something I think needs to be seriously thought about before going to a completely opposite extreme. Just a friendly word of caution! : )

Autumn

Answer

I have a question for you if you can possibly help, I'm on methadone and the morphine but my doc screwed up this month and gave me the er on the morphine and i'm outta my methadone til monday is it at all possible to break the seal so i get all the 30 mg at once so it will help me thru my w/d from the methadone?? Also with you your best bet would to be to go to a clinic and have them detox you as long as you have not been hooked and or abusing for a long time. If you have not it will help you. But if you have it may not help, it just really comes down to are you willing to stop taking that drug once you have cleansed and detoxed your body? If so than it will def. be beneficial to you to go ahead and go thru that.

Answer

If the tabs are an extended release product, you should not split them, if they are immediate release then you can split them.

Is it ok to cut the 15mg morphine tabs in half?

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