# Dilaudid or Percocet for Mild to Severe pain? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 20, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilaudid-or-percocet-for-mild-to-severe-pain/589742 "2011-07-20T18:29:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilaudid-or-percocet-for-mild-to-severe-pain/589742/41 "2015-03-27T03:46:43Z")
Dilaudid did nothing for my post-op pain but certainly brought on gallons of sweat, nausea, and sliding in and out of consciousness. YMMV, of course. Have not tried Percocet. ---
**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilaudid-or-percocet-for-mild-to-severe-pain/589742/42 "2015-03-27T04:28:05Z")
I quadruple the recommendation about watching your stools. (Well you don’t need to actually look at them). Either: 1. Going on an opiate 2. Switching from one opiate to another 3. Going off an opiate Can cause severe constipation. It might not seem bad at first, but you will really regret it if you do. The good news is this is very preventable. Use: 1. Miralax or generic Polyethylene Glycol 3350 2. Docusate Sodium Both are OTC and pretty cheap - since they take a couple days to reach peak effectiveness - I’d suggest taking them until a few days after you stop the opiates. I’ve known people that have tried quitting opiates and then had to go back on the opaites for a couple days and take laxatives until system was smooth and then try again. Otherwise it seems like pushing a baby out your butt. Not everyone has these problems, but I think most docs agree those meds I mentioned are relatively harmless for short term use. Of course might as well as yours. I’m sure others have mentioned sice there is Tylenol in there - make sure you don’t exceed your total Tylenol dosage. All opiates have some degree of cross tolerance - so it isn’t unusual for someone that would have gotten nauseous on dilaudid to then not get nauseous if they had taken - say hydroco done a year ago or something. Do not in anyway kid yourself (you weren’t saying this exactly, but just a warning) into thinking oxycodone is less addictive. If you stay on them long enough - they’ll all get you. But if you are sticking to short term use - and take what is recommended - and don’t escalate - you have a much better chance of being ok. If overly concerned give someone else in the household the power to give these to you and write down what and when you took. Itching is another common side effect - which can be reduced by usually at least 50% by taking Benadryl. If they make you extra loopy - make sure you use pill boxes or divide them up so you don’t accidentally take more than you are supposed to. Also - percocets (not as familiar with dilaudid) can be broken in half. Keep in mind people can develop a tolerance pretty quickly. So you are better breaking a 10 in half to give you a 5 if 5 is enough to take care of your pain - that way your tolerance will move from 5 upwards vs 10 upwards - leaving you breathing room. You should notice something within an hour usually (with Percocet) (sometimes as soon as 30 minutes) and peaks usually in the 1-2 hour range. Also don’t leave these in plain view or in your car or something. They might not have cost you much on insurance or whatever - but they are worth their weight in gold on the black market (well the ones without the Tylenol would be at least). ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilaudid-or-percocet-for-mild-to-severe-pain/589742/43 "2015-03-27T07:33:36Z")
> [@DataX](#): > > Also - percocets (not as familiar with dilaudid) can be broken in half. Keep in mind people can develop a tolerance pretty quickly. So you are better breaking a 10 in half to give you a 5 if 5 is enough to take care of your pain - that way your tolerance will move from 5 upwards vs 10 upwards - leaving you breathing room. Hydromorphone is available in extended release (not scored) which should not be split, crushed or chewed. It’s also available is a not-time release formulation which has a score mark on the pill. That can technically be cut with a pill cutter or razor blade with a steady hand, but because the pills are so tiny, it’s difficult to get them to split evenly without crumbling to dust. Dust is difficult to dose accurately. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilaudid-or-percocet-for-mild-to-severe-pain/589742/44 "2015-03-27T13:10:39Z")
> [@Arabella\_Flynn](#): > > A bit off topic, but are you perchance an exceptionally flexible person? A weird symptom of a lot of hypermobility syndromes – full-blown Ehlers-Danlos like a friend of mine, or just being unusually bendy at all the joints like I am – is that medication, especially pain medication, can do very strange things. > > Tylenol and NSAIDs do what they’re supposed to do, but opioid painkillers do not work on me. At all. They make me itch everywhere, I overheat, my feet don’t work, and Vicodin makes me cry for no reason whatsoever, but they do nothing for pain. I’ve gotten equally haywire effects from antidepressants and anxiolytics. > > Nobody has the foggiest idea why, but hypermobility syndromes are also correlated with things like anxiety disorders, so I just figure it’s some weird genetic brain chemical thing. > > \ No, sorrry, don’t have the condition mentioned, but yeah, there seems to be a surprisingly wide variation in how people respond to these drugs. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilaudid-or-percocet-for-mild-to-severe-pain/589742/45 "2015-03-27T15:03:14Z")
> [@Dingbang](#): > > I received an injection of Dilaudid in the hospital ER when I was having unbearable pain from a kidney injury. I went from excruciating pain to a sense of total, utter relaxation in about 2 seconds. Then I was a little groggy for a while. > I’m glad they didn’t send me home with a bottle of that stuff. It would be tempting. Indeed. I had both when I was going through the ‘trigeminal neuralgia’ pre-rash phase of shingles. Percocet was effective against the pain (and it was some of the worst pain I’ve ever had), but Dilaudid was not only all that, but left me with this incredible sense of well-being on top of it. I can totally understand why it’s a controlled substance. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilaudid-or-percocet-for-mild-to-severe-pain/589742/46 "2015-03-27T16:09:44Z")
I had Dilaudid pills once and it didn’t do much of anything. This wasn’t long after _Drugstore Cowboy_ came out, so I was expecting greater things. IV Dilaudid post-surgery, however, was the bee’s knees (PCA FTW!) My wife had the IV version after surgery and was talking complete nonsense, which I think freaked out the woman who had stopped in and volunteered to pray with her. Freaked me out too, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilaudid-or-percocet-for-mild-to-severe-pain/589742/47 "2015-03-27T16:20:05Z")
I had the most horrible itching while I was on epidural Dilaudid. I wanted to rip my flesh off my bones, it was so bad. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilaudid-or-percocet-for-mild-to-severe-pain/589742/48 "2015-03-27T16:24:11Z")
Dilaudid made me puke when they gave it to me at the hospital to treat my fracture while waiting for surgery. When I asked for pain med and they returned with the next shot, I refused and instead got percocet. Worked like a charm in keeping my pain levels low, and didn’t feel dizzy or nauseous with it. I also got a script for a month of post-op pain medication. It was my “go to sleep” pain med. I didn’t develop dependency on it, and refused a refill when it was offered (I wanted to drink a beer instead!). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilaudid-or-percocet-for-mild-to-severe-pain/589742.md?page=2)