According to Wikipedia
Yes, you can, but only quite literally over the counter…you have to ask the pharmacist for it. It is the 8mg codeine “Tylenol 1” or it’s generics. I bought some for my husband after he dislocated his wrist a few years ago. It was expensive!
FYI the “Apo-” in a drug name simply refers to the generics manufacturer, in this case, Apotex. “Ratio-” refers to Ratiopharm, “PMS” to pharmascience, “SAN” to Sandoz, etc.
When I have really severe pain (kidney stone or severe kidney infection; surgical recovery), Aleve (in prescription strength dosages) is the only OTC drug that does anything at all for me!
When I’m recovering from surgery (I have way more surgeries than most people. . .) I often find I can really spread out my intake of prescription narcotics by “leap-frogging” them with Aleve. F’rinstance, if my narcotic is for “every four hours”, I can take the narcotic, take Rx dose of Aleve three hours later, and last for another three hours before more narcotics. Thereby, waiting six hours between narcotic doses, instead of four.
Before it was available OTC here, I used to get a 'script for it, for menstrual cramps.
Ditto here. Not only that, but you can sleep ALL NIGHT! I used to be woken up by the cramps, like clockwork, every 3.5 hours on double doses of Advil or Tylenol. I’ve been flabbergasted by why their ads press the “you don’t have to take pills every 4 hours all day” angle, but never seem to advertise the all night benefit!
One thing I’ve noticed - there seems to be a bit of residual effect - Sometimes I’ll start with two tablets, but I usually only need one 10 hours later to control all kinds of pain.
My doctor has warned me though, that like with all habitually used NSAIDS, you need to get your kidney and liver values checked regularly.
Same condition here. Boy, there’s an answer to everything on the Dope. I’m seeing my doctor later this month and I’ll mention this. I’ve been taking Sulindac, but it does sweet fuck-all, so I cut my dose down to 1 - 150mgs a day, just out of superstition.
Naproxen is just another Cox I NSAID. There’s no good evidence that it’s better or worse than any of the other Cox I NSAIDs (ibuprofen, indomethacin, sulindac, ketoprofen, piroxicam, salsalate, etc.) at reducing pain or fever or at causing GI bleeds or kidney dysfunction. There is some evidence that it may be safer for the heart than the others.
Even so, I’ll still switch my patients around on various NSAIDs if they tell me one works and another doesn’t. If it works better for you, great. But your experience will not be universal, or even predictive, per the latest research.
Having said that, naproxen is my pain reliever of choice. Mainly because of the heart thingy. And it’s nice that it is twice-a-day dosing.
ignorance fought! ty
But if you read the fine print, it is not available in my home province of British Columbia or Newfoundland. I wonder if the restriction on drugs may actually be a provincial jurisdiction as well.
Great stuff.
Do not take with aspirin. wiki “*Naproxen is also not recommended for use with NSAIDs of the salicylate family (Aspirin) (drugs may reduce each other’s effects) …”
*
psst- Das Glasperlenspiel- Tylenol PM is just acetaminophen/paracetamol with Diphenhydramine, aka Benadryl. If you buy the generic of each, you save a bundle.
It’s a start. I can’t see it taking too long to make it to BC and Newfoundland.
I’ve been on prescription strength Naproxen for 12 years. Started at 500mg once a day, was up to 500 three times a day at one point, but that finally started affecting my stomach, so the doctor backed it down to twice a day. The weather makes a big difference as to how many pills I actually need to take. Cold weather, I definitely need the 2 pills to keep the pain down, but in warmer weather I can get by with one or even none on a good day.
As DrDeth points out, aspirin are a bad idea, so I am pretty much forced to use Tylenol for headaches. Not as effective for me as aspirin, but I will put up with the occasional headache in order to have complete use of my shoulders and knees.
I just started indomethacin yesterday, when I was back in the emergency room with back pain.
That stuff is Da Bomb. Almost, but not quite, as good as Vioxx, which I jones for every time my back goes out. Vioxx was nearly ideal - killed nearly all the pain, no stomach issues, non-narcotic. Too good to last.
Between the indomethacin during the day and Percocet at night, I may get over this faster than my usual two weeks.
Glad you are feeling better, Dutchman.
Regards,
Shodan
ah, my NSAID of choice for my pseudogout =) and any other inflammation based pain.
For me, naproxen does nothing and ibuprofen has a good chance of making me throw up. Of course that was more likely back in the days when I had migraines.
Used to be aspirin or excedrin for headache. Now I’m taking mobic for the knees, so I’m only supposed to take tylenol as an add-on. For headaches (no longer migraine) it mostly works.
I find it useful only for muscle aches, the kind you get from hauling wood all day, playing DDR for an hour, or shoveling snow forever. It does nothing for my headaches or much for cramps, either. Ibuprofen works better on both, and on tooth pain too.
Well, everyone’s body chemistry is different. I know that post-op, I’ve been given IV Fentanyl, twice, which is supposed to be ten times stronger than morphine (according to the recovery room nurses), but for my money, they might as well have been putting saline in my IV. Did nothing for me.
Naproxen works very well for me; ibuprofen works moderately well, Tylenol I could take a whole handful of, and they would cause me to bleed out from my liver before they did anything for the pain.
YMM, of course, V.
I found naproxen doesn’t work any better for me than Ibuprofen. Actually Orudis works the quickest for me. It used to be sold over the counter but they stopped making it in large numbers when it just didn’t sell.
Orudis may help you if you can get it over the counter in Canada. It’s expensive if you buy it OTC online, so I just go with Aspirin or Ibuprofen, which work well enough for me
I remember Orudis! Worked a charm for me! I was very disappointed when they stopped selling it. 
… somebody else beat me to it …