Is it possible to be immune to painkillers?

Factual Questions
21

Woodstock, don’t take “it’s just you” for an answer. The next time you have a procedure, check with your anesthesiologist. They are the specialists who know more about pain and its control than anybody.

I have some unusual reactions to medications as well…for one thing, Tylenol doesn’t touch pain for me (although it brings down fever well), and several NSAIDS don’t work at all (Naproxen, eg) although others work fine (Ibuprofen, Ketorolac IM/IV, Diclofenac). Morphine is OK if I get enough of a dose, Demerol is completely worthless, even 100mg. I do better with Toradol than Demerol, even though Toradol is an NSAID and Demerol is a narcotic! And I’m talking major abdominal surgery, not a cut on the pinky. I have no chronic pain problem, so tolerance is not an issue.

Dunno if this is related, but several folks on my father’s side (including me) seem incapable of getting drunk. My father’s sister claimed that chemotherapy gave her an appetite for tuna sandwiches, which had everybody else in the clinic heaving. I have had 12 shots of liquor within 2 hours (in college, where else?) without any effects other than peeing more. Nobody in my family drinks…why would we? If you can’t get a buzz on, beer is just liquid bread. :wink:

I told this to my anesthesiologist when I had my C-section, with the plea that he “not be shy” when it came to morphine/fentanyl. He agreed that my dose ought to be higher, and he doubled both the fentanyl and bupivicaine (related to novocaine) concentrations in my epidural, as well as giving 10mg duramorph (morphine)-- with excellent results. Even so, I didn’t get high at all, which several people noted was unusual. Dose does matter. (Although you had better not go up too far with the Tylenol, if you value your liver function.)

BTW, I have a “paradoxical reaction” of sorts also–Sudafed and related compounds, which are supposed to be stimulants, make me very sleepy. So does Dexatrim, which is phenylpropanolamine, and makes most people wired. So does “herbal fen-phen,” which I believe contained ephedrine when I tried one. Oh well…look around you and marvel at the range of human variation, and consider that people aren’t identical on the outside, either.

22

Theo, a short while ago there was a poster here who advanced the same notion. I have a hard time believing it, but in the interests of science, open-mindedness, and the fight against ignorance, I propose you participate in a little online research study.

Buy a bottle of something with at least 40% alcohol in it (80 proof). Whatever is most palatable. Begin a thread in MPSIMS when you crack the seal. Pour yourself a drink and begin posting. Have one drink (1.5oz) every 10 minutes and write a short post after each one. If your posting doesn’t change over the course of 2 hours, I’m willing to admit that you sadly are immune to the wonderful effects of alcohol.

Will you do it?

23

Not so far. I have filled the script for the Percocet, but if you’re allergic to Vicodin, you can’t take Percocet (according to the label). So far I have not needed to take it. I really need a painkiller that will allow me to sleep, so when I get a killer migraine that won’t respond to any other treatment, I can take a painkiller and got to bed and sleep it off. I’m hopeful this will be it. If not, it will be more trips to the emergency room, I suppose.

The first time I got Demerol (again, for a migraine), they told me it would make me want to sleep. Nope. Though it detached me from the pain, it made me want to go and socialize at a party. The second time I got Demerol (several years later with a herniated disk), two shots barely took the edge off. This was my second trip to the ER in less than 24 hours. During the first trip, they sent me home with Vicodin and Flexeril (sp?) which basically did nothing. The next ER visit for the back (last fall) was again very painful, but apparently if you’re lucid enough to ask for Demerol, you’re not in enough pain to need it. They sent me home feeling no better than when I arrived. I couldn’t sit in a chair for more than 10 minutes at a time without being in excrutiating pain. Luckily the epidural steroid injectsions have worked fairly well for controlling the problem, though I was at home for over two weeks and needed 2 injections in one week to get things under control.

As far as doctors knowing that different people react differently to different drugs, please talk to my (former) endocrinologist. He claimed that all birth control pills are basically the same and switching from one to another wouldn’t have change any of the myriad symptoms I am having. (Note that the head of Reproductive Endocrinology at a very prestigious teaching hospital in Chicago suggested the birth control change.) He claimed Synthroid could not be exacerbating my hair loss, even though the drug insert and the web site specify hair loss as a side effect. He claimed it was there only because the lawyers made the drug company put it there and in fact it couldn’t be contributing to my problems. Funny how after I stopped the Synthroid, within a week, the hair loss let up. I suggested trying Armour Natural Thyroid instead of Synthroid, to see if it would alleviate my symptoms better than the Synthroid. According to him, there’s not point in trying it because it’s basically the same thing. Excuse me, but why would a drug company spend millions of dollars developing a drug if it were the same thing? Needless to say, he is not my doctor anymore.

Good doctors know that different people react differently to different medications.

24

May I suggest that while you are working on this with an MD, you also see a hypnotherapist? He/she may (note I said may) be able to give you a post-hypnotic suggestion that will allow you to block pain on demand.

Then tell me how it works. I hate novacaine, but I’ve always been too lazy to try this.

25

Also

Theo and choosy - My mom is the same way - alcohol doesn’t get her drunk, and it keeps her awake, rather than putting her to sleep. Her doc told her she was probably allergic to alcohol (she’s allergic to everything else) and to avoid alcohol in the future. Note this has happened even when she wasn’t aware beforehand that she was consuming alcohol - it was in an OTC medicine.

26

Zyada

I am working towards a PhD in immunology and an MD (just 1 more year and I’m free :slight_smile: )

Allergies to ethanol are a documented phenomenon (though not common). I wasn’t saying that Theo couldn’t have an unusual reaction to ethanol (even an unusual non-allergic reaction), but that in the interest of science, it would be fun to put the assertion to the test.

27

I thought that an allergy to ethanol was what I had. I can’t get drunk, either, but that’s just because I can’t keep it in me long enough. Trace amounts are enough to make me nauseous, and I presume that anything more than trace amounts (I’d rather not test it), and I’d throw up.