Question about drug test, does anyone here happen to know...?

[Superior Girl 4]

Hi, I usually hang out in Chronic Pain. I have going reasonably well along until this past May when my PM MD got really sick and has been absent from the clinic for over 6 mos. Since that time, I have had to see an "evil" nurse practitioner, who informed me that they will no longer be seeing PM patients long term, they are planning to "phase them all out to some other doc or office", (I think they intend you to link up with your PCP, like that's ever going to happen!). She also informed me that the drug test I took one YEAR prior was positive for a Benzo. She then gave me a NEW patient contract, which basically took away all the patient rights the clinic had originally offered but had a list of demands and expectations of the patient that was about three pages long. Basically it said, breathe wrong and they would throw you out. I have been with this PM clinic since Feb of 2001 and had never had a problem before this.

Here is my question: Does anyone know how long Valium would stay in your body in regard to it showing up on a urine-type drug screen? I am a good and compliant patient, but I do have an old Rx of Valium, as well as a couple other old benzo Rx's. I don't take them often, but when I have bad migraines, sometimes I am desperate for relief, so I use the valium as a muscle relaxant and sleep aid.

I did go and get a copy of the clinic records from when it was prescribed and I have the pill bottle. Hopefully the clinic will be satisfied.

If no one knows how long the valium would show up, does anyone know where I could look this up?

Thanks very much.

[tic chick]

hey superior girl! *bunch

Diazepam undergoes oxidative metabolism by CYP2C19 in the liver as part of the cytochrome P450 enzyme system. It has a biphasic half-life of 1–2 and 2–5 days, and has several pharmacologically active metabolites. The main active metabolite of diazepam is desmethyldiazepam (also known as nordazepam or nordiazepam). Diazepam's other active metabolites include temazepam and oxazepam. These metabolites are conjugated with glucuronide, and are excreted primarily in the urine. Because of these active metabolites, the serum values of diazepam alone are not useful in predicting the effects of the drug.[28][9][30]

Diazepam has a half-life (t1/2α) of 20–50 hours, and desmethyldiazepam has a half-life of 30–200 hours and is considered to be a long acting benzodiazepine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valium

well, the half-life of valium is about 1-2 days. a half-life is the amount of time it takes your body to excrete half of the drug. so, half of the drug is gone from your body in 1-2 days, then half of that, or about 3/4 of the valium is excreted in another 1-2 days. so, it could take up to 6 days for all the valium to be excreted from your system...

BUT...

when valium metabolizes, one of it's metabolites (another chemical formed by metabolized valium) is ANOTHER benzodiazepine called desmethyldiazepam. desmethyldiazepam has a half life of slightly over 1 day to almost 9 days. so, if you take one valium, it could possibly show up as a benzodiazepine in your system in a urine drug test as much as 15 days later.

i don't know what other benzo rx's you have, but benzo's are a controlled substance and you can't get a prescription filled for them if the prescription is over a certain age. also, the chemicals in all drugs might degrade after a year, so it is best to throw out meds (doing so in an environmentally safe way) a year after they are prescribed.

i would bring all your old benzo's and scripts to the clinic and show them all that you have. let them make the decision if you can take benzo's on your pain contract. my impression is that you have to tell them everything, or they will think you're hiding your benzo use.

ask to speak to the nurse practitioner's manager and see if your new patient contract can be modified.

good luck to you, superior girl,
jeannie

[Superior Girl 4]

Thanks for the info, Jeannie. It is really scary to me how much things have changed since I started at this PM clinic in 2001. I travel out of state to go there and I take a very large dose of OxyContin, which my PM doc has been supportive of and comfortable prescribing. However, he told me right off that he did not want to prescribe any other "heavy" meds to a long distance patient which would require close supervision, such as sleep meds or Topamax. Therefore my psychiatrist has always prescribed my sleep meds and a local neuro prescribes my Topamax.

The first time the clinic did a urine test I accidentally got billed for it. They had it billed to my address, but under a totally different person's name, and when I opened it up to try and figure out what it was, I figured out it must have been a mistake because it was a drug test costing $1400 and testing for about 25 or 30 different things. However when I called the billing office for the lab, it was indeed my test, billed under my correct SS# and address, just for some reason the clinic messed up my name. I couldn't believe it!! $1400 bucks!!

I am heading back to my PM clinic on 12/17/08 with much dread in my heart. I was retested again this past Aug and plan to bring all of my old benzos which were all legally prescribed to me along with me to my appt. We'll see if I still have a PM doc when the apt is over.

Wish me luck!!

Stacy