The Methadone Maze

Day 6 and nothing....As his best enablers in the past, perhaps, he's got it, that we can no longer assist him in his journey down the rabbit hole...It does not however stop us from loving him or worrying ourselves sick about him...

 He is in the methadone program..Has been for 3 years now..It did save his life I feel, at the time he entered it...He reached for help and was taken into the program through our family Doctor...It did give him part of his life back... It Allowed him to "see" life more clearly.."live" life more fully..But... without the rest of the skills he needed to deal with his addiction it was doomed to fail...His Dad & I agreed to help him by paying for his methadone...He has no medical benefits...It was not covered through the Detox Center, as he never went through their program( 3 month waiting period)..He was not eligible for social services..So what's a parent to do..We pay for it..A whopping sum of over 600.00 dollars a month!! It did not start out this way..It was much more affordable..Until..Yes..The government decided to cash in on our Children's Addiction...
  I could not believe my eyes when the first Bill arrived after the increase..from 3 dollars a day..to over 25 dollars a day!!! The Rise was due to the dispensing fee,which been waived in the past for methadone..The only way to get it cheaper was by the Dr. prescribing Carry's..Carry's are Methadone, premixed in little brown bottles, which allows my son to get a weeks' supply at a time and be responsible for his own Dispensing...It is to be kept in a locked box in a safe place...Sounds good in theory right??? Yes it saved Money..Yes it gave him back some dignity,by him not having to stand in line at the pharmacy everyday, to wait his turn...Hiding behind a frosted glass door as the pharmacist watched him take his daily dose, walking out to see others sitting in the waiting room knowing what he was doing in there,knowing he was an Addict!

It did not take us long to learn the downfalls of this Mode of transportation!! First we learned he could use it as he wished...a sip here..a sip there..Works better this way Mamma..unh hunh..Of course it doesn't !! It is meant to be taken as prescribed..It is premixed to be time released !!! The Biggie is it can sold on the streets for big Bucks!! Needless to say the carry's stopped !! He would have to learn the power of humility..And go back to getting it daily and we went back to paying..Lesson learned...

So he picks up his methadone daily...and uses drugs daily..great combination!! Well.. just take him off the methadone!!...Does not work that way. He cannot stop methadone cold turkey...he has to be weaned off..if not he could go into convulsions and die..The weaning has begun..The reason I know he is still alive?? he has not missed getting his daily dose of methadone...A small blessing.
*** I should have mentioned his dosage of methadone is on the high end 100mg.