My Dr has given me Norco to help with the pain from the probable herniated disc I have. They are 10-325 mg and the instructions say to take one pill every 6 hours. That isn’t enough.
Last night, I took 4 of them over a period of about 6 hours. Even that didn’t allow me to sleep, but I was afraid to take more. So how many would be too many?
Taking more than your doctor instructed would be taking too many.
Consider this - you just consumed around 1200mg of acetaminophen in 4 hours (apparently you can only have 15mg of hydrocodone per dosage unit) when the dosage suggestion is 1000mg every 6 -8 hours.
It sounds trite, but speak with your doctor and get a different pain management treatment going.
Medical advice belongs in IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
‘Norco. We’re so good, they named a city after us!’
That much acetaminophen in that short a time is going to result in liver failure (transplant needed) in no time. The dose is restricted not because of the amount of hydrocodone, but rather the amount of acetaminophen in the stuff. You need something different. Badly.
Crap. Thanks you guys.
Johnny, I thought it sounded familiar. Sorry Colibri, I always get it wrong.
Isn’t Norco the name for hydrocodone made without acetaminophen?
Nope
In the US - the combo is schedule III while alone it would be schedule II. I don’t even think most docs prescribe it alone.
You’re right. I checked and the only hydrocodone made without acetametophin is Vicoprofen; which, as you probably can guess, contains hydrocodone and ibuprofen.
Even though it’s sold over the counter, acetaminophen can be very dangerous to the liver when it’s taking in higher doses than prescribed or combined with alcohol.
I can vividly recall seeing a man come to the emergency room looking very yellow because he had been over-doing it on tylenol and did not realize the tylenol was killing his liver. People who try to commit suicide by overdosing on tylenol die prolonged and miserable deaths.
If you’re having a hard time sleeping because you’re in so much pain, I’d definitely suggest calling your doctor’s on-call number to see if they can call in a prescription of something else rather than taking more than prescribed of this.
Thanks lavenderviolet, I’ll try to cut back on it until I can get back to the Dr.
And there won’t be a pure hydrocodone product in the US anytime soon, it appears.
Which is ok with me. It’s a bit odd that codeine is available without acetaminophen, and hydrocodone isn’t. But if one is in such pain that one needs more hydrocodone than can be safely taken in the current form with acetaminophen, one should be on oxycodone or dilaudid or morphine anyway, IMHO. All of those are available without acetaminophen added.
Good lord, the thought of oxycodone or morphine scares me silly. But this pain is becoming seriously intolerable, so maybe I’ll have to ask for one of those. I don’t know what else to do.
Thank you.