Hey guys, I'm wondering if anybody else has had to ask for stronger pain medication. They had me on very strong meds while I was in the hospital and I was fine when I came home Friday, but once all the strong meds wore off it doesn't seem like the meds they gave me are going to cut it! They sent me home with 10mg Norco and I take 2 every four hours but they are just not even dulling the pain I feel like I'm taking them for nothing. What medications have you taken that worked/didn't work? I'm thinking I'm going to call tomorrow and see if he can give me something stronger. What are your thoughts/experience with this situation?
Faith, yes call the office. You may also benefit from a muscle relaxer or valium along side the pain meds. Vicodin never did anything for me, the only helpful pain meds have been fioricet (butabital) and 800 mg ibuprophen (don’t take ibuprophen if you had a bone graft.)Hang in there Honey and try to relax as much as possible, ice, and use arnicare on your neck, jaw and shoulders.
Jenn
I have had similar problems but unfortunately raising the dosage could result in a problem called hypoalgesia where the medications can cause more pain on top of what you already have.I have had to ween down my does of analgesia and it has improved some of the symptoms.Unfortunately pain killers were not meant to last forever and so we build a tolerance,just as you have been bitten by some toxic bugs and animals.We become immune to the effects of these bites and so become tolerant to medications..Doctors are only allowed to prescribe certain amounts so their hands become tied to the amount they can prescribe.Best of luck with your difficult problem.
I take Percocet three times a day and a muscle relaxer twice a day. I also have Lidoderm pain patches that work wonders-but those can only be used once every 12 hrs.........
I was sent home with Percocet and Valium to take every 6-8 hours along with anti-nausea, anti-constipation, and anti-heartburn prescriptions. I had to add some OTC laxatives as well though too. My heating pad is better than any of the pain meds.
Faith.
I have had to ween off pain medications to the point where i do not know what to do.I do know however that the more you keep upping the dose the less it eventually works.This I know for a fact because I had some well meaning doctors that kept giving me more amounts of pain medications.I am at a point now that my pcp will no longer prescribe any pain relief after another week,at which point I hope to be admitted to the Pain Management section at a well respected hospital,despite the fact that they have mistreated and misdiagnosed me in the past.But I am at a point now where where I will give anything a try,within reason.I would think very hard about upping the dose over a long period of time and you will be in a worse position than you are now.I do hope something works out for you and I will be thinking of you ,as I have been where you are now.I wish the very best for you.
Faith,
I know exactly how you feel.
Currently I’m on 10mg Lortab as well and it’s barely dulling the pain.
In the hospital they started out giving me Morphine injections every two hours, but we quickly learned that I cannot take Morphine as it makes me incredibly sick even with nausea mmedication injections directly following the Morphine injections- and trust me, throwing up right after surgery is NOT fun. They were also giving me Valium as well, which helped incredibly.
They began giving me percocet then and continued the valium.
They discharged me with prescriptions for both.
The valium 5mg, every 8 hours and the percocet was 1-2 every 4 hours. One didn’t quite cut it so I took two. It was tremendously helpful. Made me nearly pain free. For some reason my surgeon only sent me home with enough pain meds for only 5 days so I had to call for a refill. He gave me a new script for the 10mg Lortab as well as a new script for 10mg valium.
The valium is still great, but taking 2 of the lortabs @ every 4 hours is still not cutting it (he still only wrote enough for 5days- I have to take tgem throughout the night too)
I called my surgeon’s office, explained what I just explained to you and she asked me if I’d like to be put back on the percocet, to which I responded yes (Of course).
I’m just waiting to hear back since he has to sign off on it and he works in two offices.
But DEFINITELY call and explain ypir situation- if you were on the percocets before and got switched, asked to be switched back. If not, still explain your situation and your pain level and ask for something stronger.
Their job is to make sure you’re as comfortable as possible, you should not have to suffer after a surgery like this.
The most difficult part for me is my age and doctors have problems prescribing to someone in their early twenties.
Also, I don’t know when you had your surgery but you shouldn’t take NSAIDs for about the first month post op.
GOod luck!