Dec 19, 2021

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My name is Justin and I have a 15-year history of substance abuse. While I have used nearly every drug under the sun, opiates have always been my favorite. Due to an injury in high school, I got hooked on OxyContin. Throughout the years I have tried many different methods along the way to gain sobriety and free myself from the vices holding me back from reaching my full potential. The very first time I was put on Suboxone maintenance, I was a senior in high school. This is when providers could only have 30 patients and the pills were the orange wafers. After a relapse, I then spent nearly 2 years of my life waking up every day and going down to a clinic to get my 80 mg dose of methadone. Having attempted both types of maintenance medications, Suboxone was the clear-cut winner. While suboxone was at one time the gold standard for treating an opiate abuse disorder, it has now been replaced with a new medication called Sublocade.

 

I was referred to MYMATCLINIC by a friend at a meeting and told they could administer me a once-a-month buprenorphine shot that would slowly release the medication throughout the day. No more strips. No more wrappers. No more gross taste. No more waking up sick she told me. It all sounded too good to be true. On top of all those things, I was told I’d be able to come off it without any type of withdrawal symptoms. As opiate addicts, there is only one thing that scares us more than anything else on this planet, dope sickness. Her exact words to me were, “This is the closest thing to a cure for addiction I have found”. While it is imperative to also supplement your life with spiritual support and mental help, everything she told me was right.

 

Once I got the shot, which only left a little lump in my stomach, I was able to successfully stop taking 24 mg a day of Suboxone. There were no disturbances in my sleep. I didn’t suffer from any type of negative side effects. My appetite stayed normal and I remained healthy. I was free from the daily routine of putting those fowl tasting strips under my tongue morning, lunch and night. The transition was smooth and painless.

        

If you find yourself in the state of California, the state-sponsored health care, Medi-Cal, will cover the shot at no cost. I thought this was a pretty great deal considering one of them would normally cost you around $2,000 out of pocket. The appointment is quick, easy, and painless. In all honesty, it’s the closest thing to a miracle drug I have ever experienced. The shots consist entirely of pure buprenorphine. No naloxone. I have had trouble with naloxone in the past, so this was just icing on the cake.

 

At MYMATCLINIC I was helped by two wonderful nurses with years of experience in the medical field. Their lives had also been directly affected by addiction, so it just made the process that much easier and more comfortable. They were able to relate to me and showed me all types of sympathy. I never had to wait in line. The shot was always prepared and ready when I got there. The office is clean and they are both professionals in every sense of the word. I usually would stay a few minutes after and chop it up with them. Talk about life, love, or my career. Yes, they are that cool. Another thing they have in place was an office text line. I had never experienced anything like this before. Whenever I would need to get ahold of my providers in the past, I’d have to wait 15 minutes on the phone listening to elevator music, then when I finally got ahold of someone it was an underpaid secretary I’d have to spell my last name for (a couple times) just so they could find my chart to address my question. If I was lucky, I’d get transferred to the doctors answering machine. Not here. I was communicating directly with the people giving me my medication on an office phone specifically for patients to contact them. If I had a question regarding my next shot, mental health follow-up, or anything else that arose, I just sent them a text. They always responded to me in a timely matter. Typing this out I am starting to realize how unique of an operation they run and how I wished the rest of the medical world would catch up to them.

 

The medication has only been out a couple of years, so it hasn’t received much press, and not too many doctors even know it exist. These two ladies will go above and beyond to make sure you are taken care of and walk you through the process. They aren’t in it for the money. They genuinely want to help people get better and rebuild their lives. I was actually kind of sad to receive my final shot knowing I probably wouldn’t be seeing them again.

 

You don’t need to suffer anymore if you are experiencing any type of addiction, or as the nurses like to call it, an opiate abuse disorder. Getting a Sublocade shot helped me get all my ducks in a row before turning the page and beginning the next chapter of my life. It is commonly recommended to get 3 shots. Two of the 300 mg shots and one of the smaller 100 mg shots. This isn’t an exact science and it’s case by case. I opted to use the medication for 6 months. It will all come down to how you feel and what is best for you. The nurses will support you in whatever you choose. Like I said, they are some solid people making the world a better place.

 

All in all, it was a positive experience that ended up possibly saving my life. I would recommend this shot to anyone who is cut from the same cloth I am.

Justin