Hydrocodone - Not To Overdo It! (Page 2)
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I was put on Hydrocodone for 3 years due to a stroke I had. My pain is coming from the brain. The PM'S started me off with 5-325. No results on the pain. Then they increased the dose 7.5-325. Some relief but not much in order to have a quality of life. Then they increased it to 10-325 90 per month. In the wee hours of the morning I would wake up with pain, so I was cutting one in half, leaving me short of pills for the month. So they increased it to 120. I got to where I was taking too many and the PM discharged me for a breach of contract.

Then I found another PM. Same thing happened, but this time instead of discharging me they put me on week to week basis - 21 pills a week. I had to visit the doctor's office once a week and then take the script to my pharmacy. Once I proved I could be trusted they now have had me on Hydrocodone/Acetaminophen 10-325 (90 a month) for the past 3 months. I still have my moments but it's not like it was before. I asked for an increase to 20 a month but they say I need to prove to them. By the way, the pain is coming from the right arm and hand, no blood circulation. Do not want to lose this PM.

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Re: DOUG (# 18)

the manufacturer have reduced the pain meds its not you its them they don't work like they use to if you can ask your doctor not to prescribe generic you want brand name if your insurance will pay for it

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Re: DR TIM (# 23)

Are you meaning to reply to me in this message, Dr. Tim? I’m not aware we were having a conversation. Please refresh my memory.

Thanks,
NADA

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BOB (# 18) --

I was not condemning anyone. I was educating a pt based on my 35 years in the field. If a pt has nerve pain they should try anticonvulsants. If a pt has vascular pain, they should consider blood thinners and or anti-inflammatories. There are powerful treatments out there other than opioids, and in the witch hunt climate we find ourselves, people need to be creative when it comes to pain management because the opioid horror show will get worse. I have noticed in this chat room that pts will ask for info, but they often do not give enough info in their posts to get an informed recommendation. Hope things improve for you.

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DOUG (# 19) --

I also am prescribed hydrocodone and, assuming you are taking a generic, the manufacturers have changed the formulations not only does the active ingredient have a 20% variation allowed by law ( in other words if you are prescribed 7.5/325 hydrocodone the manufactuer can legally put as low as 6.0 milligrams of hydrocodone n the pill. The inert ingredients are the lowest quality compound the manufacturer can find and get away with. I was told (off the record)by two Pharmacists that they have had dozens of complaints about the new generic formulations. If I want hydrocodone that is truly effective to ask my Doctor to write no generics on the prescription. BOTH of these Pharmacists reccommended the brand name Vicodin be prescribed. I am currently trying to get my insurance to pay for the name brand but it is a big fight. I have to get precertified first. I am going to have a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge to have my appeal heard in June. I have this insurance company dead to right but I am hoping with this "opioid crisis" that the Judge is not in the pockets of the health insurance company's debt rules on the applicable law and not emotions.

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Re: Terri (# 11)

I got hurt in an accident in 1999 got slapped across the lower back with afire hose that had 180 pounds pushing it. The same day I got a second one slapped across the neck throwing me to the ground it was also at 180 pounds pressure. I have been fighting with them since then. I have received no compensation or moneys. I was put on Fentanyl patches. It did a good job of really screwing me up. Now they want to take me off the patches and the codeine without giving me any other meds. What a joke. I have been to any doctors that they have asked me to go to with no results since the accident I have not been able to do any work, cant sleep because of the pain. I spent 43 years on the Fire dept and this is what I get. The Doctors don't want you to get better but they will try and take you off the meds this might be short sorry but I can hardly think properly. If this isn't correct then you know how I feel. if any one ahs suggestions on how or what to do. I am also suffering from very bad headaches all the time. This is the quality of life that I have to get used to

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Re: BiggerBrat (# 10)
ADDICTION AND ABUSE? I REALLY DO NOT THINK YOU KNOW WHAT EITHER ARE. YOU HAVE NOT BEEN ON THE MEDS FOR VERY LONG OR YOU WOULD KNOW THAT THE REASON PPL TAKE MORE IS BECAUSE THE MEDS ARE NOT ANY GOOD.THEY DO NOT KILL PAIN LIKE THEY SHOULD. THE DRS NEEDS TO TAKE A STAND. THEY DID NOT BECOME A DR TO LET OTHERS TELL HIM WHAT HE CAN AND CAN NOT GIVE.

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Re: Billybob (# 4)


IT'S THE GOVERNMENT WHO TELLS THE DRS WHAT THEY CAN AND CAN NOT GIVE YOU.

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I HAVE EXPERINCED THE MEDCINE THAT I TAKE WITCH IS HYDROCONE AND I HAVE SEEN THE PAIN RELIVEING EFFECT REDUCED...HAS DRUG COMPANIES REDUCED THE PAIN KILLER IN MY MED...THE DR. SAY MY MED. IS THE SAME, BUT I SEE AND FEEL PAIN MORE NOW AND I CAN'T FIND OUT WHY..I TAKE THE SAME MED,,BUT GET LESS PAIN RELIEF.????..

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Re: DR TIM (# 7)

Well dr. Tim how much pain have you lived with? I will be 80 years old in september. I had polio in 1938 when I was 11 months old. I don't remember a day that I didn't walk without pain. I had surgery that were experiments that might work to help me and others. Im paying for these surgeries. Have had pinning of my right leg in the growth centers so my left leg would grow and be same length as my right leg but it didn't work. Also have had 11 back surgeries and inj's, fusions of my foot and ankle etc. I also gave blood and bone marrow that would help get a vaccine to stop polio. Now I worked in radiology for 25 years and seen many doctors that were using drugs and booze and not showing up for work. Do you think all those old bastards in congress and house aren't using drugs? Why don't they drug test them? Along with doctors. All doctors do today is talk to their computers. A patient doesn't even know if he knows what your saying. Fear of the government. Remember, pain is real and cures are not. I took advil for years until the pain got so bad I started to take norco for 25 years and worked everyday and never got into trouble. Now I had post polio syndrome which a lot of doctors don't even know what it is. There is no cure for it. Due to my medical problems and aging my pain is getting worse everyday. I never abused the use of norco and only took it when needed. Doctors took an oath to help people not to fear the government. The government thinks by taken norco from me will drive me to marijuana because of the taxes they get. Why not all doctors man up and fight for their patients not uncle crook. I could say a lot more like gay people and priest abused us. The nurses never believe us and would say they are trying to make you feel good. It took 50 years to believe us. But the aclu stepped in gave them all the rights they need to keep doing it. So man up doctor and help people like me. So think before you condemn others. We're not all addicts, we're sick people.

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Vince (# 13) --

What is 4 grams of K ? I believe what you're saying about the 4 hour deal. That's what is happening to me. Thanks

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I was on narcotics, among other things, for ten years. It was the other things like Lyrics and Topamax which gave me brain damage. The biggest problem with narcotics is that after a while your body's dependency is so great after four hours you can't be sure if your pain is really back or it's just your body begging for the opioid so here's what you can do. Get some Meat on before the stinking FDA makes it illegal. Don't take your medicine. Allow yourself to begin to feel withdraw symptoms then take 4 grams of K. It will quench your body's dependency while not giving you a narcotic. Do that for a day or two and then you'll see where your pain level really is. Good luck!

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Re: CUTTHECRAP (# 9)

Oh my heart pangs for you and your mother. I’m actually in PM now, and my doctor says I wouldn’t be a good candidate for back surgery, because there’s not surgery to fix all of my issues, and because i have keloidal skin. Yet, many other doctors are willing to cut me open and perform some guinea pig type of surgery, but I’m glad I have a doctor who was honest with me and told me I will simple just be on the oxycodone and gabapentin for the rest of my life. I’ve accepted that, but initially I was hoping for a surgery and a cure. Even after I heard the horror stories of people being in worse pain or developing other issues. I was so desperate to be out of pain and get my life back, and even with odds stacked against me, I was willing to take a chance with surgery and hope for the best for me. Maybe I will be fine and cured I thought and hoped. Glad I didn’t and know better now.

As mentioned, I’m currently in PM for three years now, and while my state still allow for narcotic medications it has not been without issue and judgement from other doctors and even pharmacists trying to advise me of what I need and don’t, thinking they know what’s better for me than my doctor of three years. Speaking of whom, I’d you ever move to GA I know an awesome and sympathetic doctor who in his younger years was once a PM patient as well. Now he helps others and he’s not a pill mill. He’s legit. I will pass his information to you if I knew how.

Before going into PM I was on Social Security Disability as I had to quit work because my pain was so crazy and torturous I went on Short Term then Long Term disability because most days I couldn’t do something as simple as getting out of bed or brushing my hair. My significant other, at times, had to bath me and even wipe my bum after going to the toilet. Going into PM was literally my lifesaver and the best thing I ever did. Despite my PCP recommending PM every visit it took me years to go while ruining my tummy on NSAIDS, 80”mg IB because I was afraid of “drugs” and didn’t take narcotics at the time. The first time I took my Rx’d meds I was out of pain and walking around in about 15 minutes. I hated I spent 20 years working on this ulcer refusing stronger meds.

I went from having no quality of life and spent most my days in bed watching life go past through my window, to getting off disability, getting a great job in my career field, finishing grad school, REPEAT; Finishing GRAD SCHOOL!!!! ....and starting my own business in addition to my full-time career. Yes, all of that. A new me.

I wouldn’t be honest if I acted as if this pseudowar on opioids, and recent and possible future legislation against opioids, didn’t have me scared s***less. I was literally just waiting to die. Now, I’ve accomplished and am accomplishing so much, I have so many plans for my life, I am fearful of what’s going to happen to me after the Trump Administration finishes f***ing me raw with no Vaseline.

I don’t want to go back on disability. I don’t want to become bedridden again. I don’t want to lose everything I’ve fought and worked so hard to gain in the last few years.

I spent 20 years of my life in pain before finally going into PM. And some of my back issues are due to poor aging but also when I was 12 I fell the equivalent of three stories from a tree. I was a bit of a tomboy, so this was a norm for me. Including playing tackle football with the boys on concrete roads. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I hit almost every branch and limb coming down in that tree, I wouldn’t be here today to have this conversation with you.

I’m scared for all of us. And the saddest part of it all is I feel we have no allies. No one is on our side. Who’s going to fight for us?

Take care of yourself and mama. I wish you well. Good luck.

NADA

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Hi Mike, I have been on pain killer for many years. I have chronic back pain and need a lot just so I can make it through the day. I am now on a 100 mg fentanyl patch and 6 10-325 oxycodone a day. I was on a much stronger amount of pain medicine when oxycontin was not hard to get. I had a doctor say to me I should not be vertical. The thing is I could be normal except I did for a sleep a lot. That stopped about 5 years ago. It is was your body can take and you can function while on it. If you take more at one time during the month you just take less another time and suffer. I do not understand why that pm discharged you. As long as you are not going out on the streets craving for pain meds. Good luck because I know how hard is to control pain. I am still in pain with what I am taking now.

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Re: Terri (# 11)

This may, or may not help but CBD oil is used medicinally for pain. It’s not enough for me but my situation is pretty severe, but I’ve heard others say it works wonders for them and the good part is that you don’t have to smoke it and it doesn’t make you feel high, or “stoned”, because there is not THC in the oil.

Best of luck to you. I wish you the best but most of all a quality and pain-free life.

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Re: CUTTHECRAP (# 9)

Hi. Pain management doesn't help, it just makes the Dr's look big but they don't give ya anything for what you are feeling. Some don't even listen and here in Colorado they don't give u anything for pain unless u wish to become a smoker and take medical cannabis and I don't wish to be stoned all the time so I just bite the bullet and suffer with it. I broke my ankles back in 01 and before that I had a bad horse fall in '97 and asked for pain relief and got nothing. So this pain management to me is a waste of time and its for the Dr's to keep tabs on what you are using. I wish we had the Dr's from way back when they cared about ya and not what they are making out of ya. Now Texas cares about ya.

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DR TIM (# 5) --

Doctors are scared to death of state attorney generals in these opioid cases. My doctor told me a long time ago he was afraid I would become addicted if he put me on opioids. I explained that at my age that shouldn't be a problem and I did not care if I became addicted. Addiction isn't the problem with opioids, ABUSE is the problem. My current doctor asked me on a scale of 1 - 10 what my pain is. I told her if I could instantly transfer my pain to her she would probably go into shock and die. My tolerance to pain is such if I cut myself I don't realize it until I see blood because the other pain I feel is so overwhelming. Opioids give me a quality of life I otherwise wouldn't have. I nearly died several times not being able to get sufficient sleep and was awake 7 days with intense pain.I've been on opioids for a long, long time now and I do NOT abuse them. I can only get one month at a time and each month I have pills left over because I make myself endure pain during the day hours and try to keep busy during periods of pain. I was on gabapentin for a while and I don't recommend it at all. All I wanted to do was sleep all the time and had no life. Funny thing, just last night I was talking to a friend that was on gabapentin and quit for the very same reason I got off gabapentin. I am now able to control the pain with the opioid Rx I get and occasional help from 5 mg Ambien. Sleep is a major component of pain control. Michael Jackson ended up dead because sleep was so elusive. I know people that get Rx opioids and abuse them and generally run out before the end of the month. They self-medicate which is a big part of the problem. As far as an "opioid crisis" I don't see it. We have a drug abuse crisis that we've had for a very long time. The thing that pisses me off is these people trying to make recreational marijuana use legal are the same ones saying there's an opioid crisis. While not everyone that uses recreational marijuana will go on to become a hard drug addict, you can be pretty much assured hardcore drug addicts started out on marijuana. I don't think laying the groundwork for young people to become drug addicts is something the government should be doing. I've never consumed marijuana or did any drugs outside of what my doctors have prescribed. I don't have an opioid problem and people that follow the Rx directions to alleviate pain and have some quality of life don't either.

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NotADrugAddict (# 2) --

My mother is 75 years old and has been through 27 surgeries. Most of her pain is from several spinal fusions on her back, three knee replacements (after a MRSA infection in the first knee replacement, they had to replace one knee again), and surgeries on both arms from a car accident in 1997. My mother can barely walk without help and has been on Hydrocodone for many YEARS --until this past year when the doctors in PA decided to send her to "pain management" which had NEVER done ANYTHING to help her. They KNOW she needs her medication just to function since she's full of inflammation and has, literally, nothing in her back but, they make her go to a clinic full of drug abusers and recovering addicts in their 20s which makes her feel terrible. My mother is not, nor has she ever been, a drug addict. The despicable treatment she receives at the hands of the so-called "doctors" in PA is unethical at best. I fail to comprehend how anyone would classify and elderly woman, who NEEDS her medication just to function, with 20 something losers who abuse drugs. This is a crime. It really is. There are DECENT people who NEED relief from their pain in order to work (unlike the freeloading druggies on Welfare) but are being denied the help they need because of some brainless, Liberal so-called "war on opioids". UM, read the Press Enterprise from Bloomsburg, PA. You will see, EVERY DAY, young dirtbags getting arrested in traffic stops and also possessing Hydrocodone and other illegal drugs. EVERY DAY! WHERE DO THEY GET THEM IF DOCTORS ARE, SUPPOSEDLY, NO LONGER WRITING SCRIPTS FOR THEM? SEE, It's the same thing as guns. You can, SUPPOSEDLY, take them away from people, yet, the scumbags ALWAYS, ALWAYS end up with them anyway. HOW?? PROOF that this "war on opioids" is PURE BS!!

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DR TIM (# 5) --

Sounds like he took a few extra and got the Vicodin chit chat syndrome aka getting high. Sounds like he needs to have a more managed pain management plan.

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Michael,

At the beginning of your note you state that you have post stroke centralized pain from the brain. The TX for that is not opioids it is an anticonvulsant like gabapentin. Later you say that your pain is from poor circulation for which the primary treatment might be a blood thinning agent, not opioids. You say you are prescribed 21 pills a week, then say that you are trying to increase your dose to 20 a month. ? Dr. Tim

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Re: David (# 1)

You're lucky to get anything for pain. I LIVE IN DELAWARE. A PAIN SPECIALIST MIGHT PRESCRIBE, BUT MOST OTHER DOCS DONT. A surgeon might prescribe for ninety days but then u get cut off.

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