Chronic Pain, breakthrough pain

I take norco.

I take norco too and have for 2 years. I take less than I use to as I've added an antispasmodic dicyclomine. My Internist prescribes them as I see her all the time and she prescribes most of my medications.

I currently don't have a primary doctor. The one I've had through all my surgeries for over ten years left her practice a little over a month ago and I just feel like a fish out of water with no doctor who will prescribe me any H2O!! Acupuncture is going to add up, but could be a real long term solution, in the short-term though, I am in pain and am sick of popping tylenol even though I know it won't make a difference. So I may be off to the emergency room this weekend if the pain gets bad enough. Maybe they can also point me in the direction of a new primary doc as well. Thank you for the pointers! Norco is what I shall bring up. Sounds better than vicodin but less harsh than percocet, I think it will be great!

Norco is pretty much the same thing as Vicodin, just less Tylenol in it. The hydrocodone is the same, but can be ordered as 5mg, 7.5mg, or 10mg. They are getting away from Vicodin to reduce your total daily dose of Tylenol (especially since people take it in addition to their opiates). Too many people winding up with liver toxicity from it.

But, if you are going to the ER, I would advise you NOT to request a specific opiate. It makes you look more like a drug seeker. They give you a squinty eye anyway when you show up in the ER asking for pain relief and say you don't have a primary doctor. They will give only enough to last a few days, so don't expect a month's supply.

I agree though that you may get some suggestions for a primary doctor that way. Have you tried contacting your old doc to see if there are some referral ideas? Seems rather odd to close up a practice without making arrangements for someone to take over the patients.....

Jan

In our state they have to keep your records or forward them to a doctor of your choosing. My doctor that retired still has records that she is keeping for patients to forward stored in her former office buildings basement. Plus she referred me and others to an internist and the rest of her practice to a GP in town with a letter. Maybe you didn't get the letter or your doctor was sick or something. That's a lot of information to not have

I would look into pain management. I had some nerves killed that trigger bladder, colon, abdomen pain next to the spinal chord. didn't cause any pain to get, even though they were 5 inch needles it felt like acupuncture lol

it helped a lot of my pain. I am going back next week since I have slacked off and you sort of have to go regularly. I just started Oxy since I am out of Norco and my primary doesn't give out narcotics. I am hoping when I go to CC next week they will refill the norco. I only take 2-5mg a day, very low dose. All my pain started when they cleaned out an abscess. I hurt EVERYWHERE. Even my toes throb.

I had problems with adhesions and eventually had to have surgery to remove the worst ones. Before this, my doctor gave me a small number of morphine pills. I was probably lucky to have an established relationship with my doctor and he took my pain seriously and had no problems prescribing me pain meds. I would only take it if the pain lasted longer than an hour or so. I think he said it would also help slow down the intestinal contractions. I think it might work faster than the other pain meds and it made me feel less crummy. I've never used tylenol for serious pain because its toxic at such a low dose. I usually use ibuprofen because you can take much higher doses for severe pain.

I thought we aren't supposed to take NSAIDs and Ibuprofen is one. So it's not good to take on a consistent basis. I agree Tylenol does nothing. Before my UC was diagnosed I was taking prescription strength Ibuprofen of 800MG for the pain and it worked well.

If you're in constant pain, 325 mg of Tylenol every 4 hours is surprisingly powerful -- you have to take it consistently to keep the level up in your bloodstream or else it won't work (or, rather, it will work about as well as you would expect one regular strength Tylenol to work). You can start with a loading dose of three pills and then back off to one every four hours. This is what my surgeon gives for post-op pain and his nurse told me that many patients don't even realize until they're discharged that they weren't being given narcotics

TE Marie--I thought the same thing about NSAIDs, I've been told that too many times now that I can only take advil once in a long while. But I feel like tylenol does nothing as well, maybe because of our high tolerance to pain meds? But Pluot, I'll think about trying the tylenol on a schedule. I did go to the ER and was told I would get a form for open primaries in the clinic, but I believe I was given the wrong form. I guess I got too used to going to the ER when I was sick, but they can't really help me anymore and I certainly don't want to look like a drug addict, or become one. I have two appointments for nerve injections in two weeks, but I 've had that appointment for months now so it's been rough. Doing that and acupuncture, hoping that will help. They gave me Tylenol 3 to take home and a morphine shot before they sent me on my way. Didn't even get fluids or run tests! Pretty weird for me, but nice. Anyway, I shouldn't take Tylenol with Tylenol 3 should I? It doesn't seem to make a difference anyway but it is nice to not have to take loperamide when I have codeine in my system, resting the bowels helps the pelvic pain, but it irritates my IBS or IPS whatever you want to call it so it's a trade off.

If you're going to treat pain with Tylenol 650 - 1000 mg every 4-6 hours will work a lot better than 325 mg for most people. Tylenol toxicity isn't a gradual thing - Tylenol is extremely safe at these doses if 1) you're not taking anything else with Tylenol, like Percocet, 2) you're not drinking alcohol, and 3) you don't have liver disease.

I do agree that Tylenol is a superb pain reliever in many situations.

There's a limit of how much tylenol you should take per day. I think it's around 3,200. You should look that up and since you already have it in your system take it when the time is ready to take the next dose like Scott suggests. He seems to know what he's talking about and if it works it's good. Did they just send you home with one pill? Anyway you have to count the tylenol in the narcotic one along with the ones you take after.

Good luck!

Just wanted to let everyone know I finally got some Norco. My pain clinic doctor also gave me Toradol, though you can only take that for five days. Thanks for all your help and suggestions!

Toradol is also an NSAID. It works really well for my migraine headaches. How much hydrocodone is in the Norco, 5, 7.5 or 10MG?

I'm glad you finally got some help.

Torodol is awesome! I had that IV after surgery and orally after discharge. But, yes, it is such a potent NSAID you can only take it a few days.

Jan

I looked up the maximum Tylenol dosing for adults: it's no more than 1 g (1000 mg)/4 hrs, and no more than 4 g/day. Unlike NSAIDS, no one is likely to suggest you take more than these limits.

The problem is, Scott, that they put Tylenol in so many products that people overdose on it by taking it by itself, not realizing they also took multiple doses in combination drugs.

Plus, it is not like a side effect of other drugs that just goes away when you stop it (like the gut inflammation of NSAIDs), once you fry your liver, it stays fried.

Jan

You're quite right, Jan. I think those combination drugs do more harm than good.

Visceral Manipulation by an experienced Rolfer breaks up adhesions FYI. Surgery usually just grows them back + more. I say to always look into Rolfing. Just like getting a massage or some PT but helps with scar tissue and the gi tract in general.