Vicoprofen is better. No liver toxicity from acetaminophen. I hate Darvon and Darvocet. Ugh. I can’t understand why they’re even scheduled.
Mmmm! Opiates!
I had a shot of something (morphine or Demerol, maybe) after surgery on my shoulder, and pills (292s and Tylenol 3) a time or two before that. I can see the addiction potential, especially since I never had any nausea from any of them.
Use them if you must, but make sure you really need to, not just want to.
Last December, I slipped on the top stair in my boyfriend’s house, landed on my ass, and proceeded to “bump” down on every step. Fell onto the floor in a heap and couldn’t move for a while. I ended up with a broken tailbone. It took me 45 minutes to walk a normally 10 minute walk home. The nurse gave me Vicodin and it didn’t do a darned thing. I probably could have gone back for something else, but I don’t think it would have helped. The worst part of the whole ordeal was that it all happened the week before finals 
. My poor bum didn’t heal until about 6 months later and I still can’t sit very long these days.
I had surgery last year, a partial superfical perotidectomy.
What struck me at the time about Vicoden (and other same-level pain reducers) is that that they need to be taken for several doses before the pain-avoidance builds up.
At least for me (and, I’m told, for others) the initial doses generate of Vicoden some euphoria and a somewhat disconnected feeling from the pain; However, taken over a course of several doses/days, the drug becomes much more effective at reducing pain, and the “spaced out” feeling fades a bit. After 2-3 days, I was less euphoric (but still lethargic) and relatively pain free using Vicoden.
$.02
That’s interesting , squeegee. I’ve never heard that. Did you get medical advice to that effect or is it anecdotal? I don’t think I’ve ever taken it long enough to have that happen cause it makes me too spacey/sleepy and I can’t take it during the day when I have to deal with kids, etc.
That coding error was due to a Vicodin flashback. Yah, that’s it.
I had rectal surgery in May and of course the doctor gave me Vicodin. Stuff worked like a charm–took the pain away and made me drowsy. I took it only for 3 days but needless to say I saved my stash. When I went through a bout of insomnia several weeks later I took a Vicodin one night. Did absolutely nothing. Did not make me drowsy. My half-assed reasoning was that it needed a pain receptor to hook onto to work.
Somewhat anecdotal – it’s what the nurse at the hospital told me after surgery: start taking the meds now, before you feel pain, because they need to build up in your system a bit to really help.
I found she was right – I foolishly stopped taking the meds after a couple of days, thinking Tylenol would suffice, and I regretted it. It took about a day to get the pain back to a reasonable level again using Vicoden
I’ve also heard the same advice from other post surgery patients I’ve corresponded with.
I’m with you on the Percocet, CCL. I had hand surgery a few years ago and they gave me that wretched stuff, and for three days I was so nauseous and rubbery from head to toe that I could barely even prop myself upright enough to go to the bathroom, certainly couldn’t eat or do anything to help myself get better. When my husband was afraid I’d fall down the stairs from it and got worried because I hadn’t eaten anything in three days, we switched it to Tylenol with codeine. Which worked great. I didn’t have the option at that point to go painkiller-free, considering how much hand surgery hurts – in this case reconstructing my thumb joint. You have my deepest sympathy, CCL!! These days I just use Vicodin because it’s so effective in such small doses for me. There may well be something to that cumulative doses thing.
I’ve never had a doctor give me painkillers for an ankle sprain, however, even the one where I partially ruptured my Achilles tendon…but let me tell you, after my knee surgery last week, Vicodin is my Best Friend. Especially when, feeling much better the other evening, I got down on one (good) kee to fix a loose cable connection behind the TV in my bedroom, and forgetting I was only 5 days post-surgery dropped my weight on my other knee. Yeeeeeeeeow!
Another good way to sprain your ankle is also to step on the edge of a handicap curb cut and twist your foot completely underneath your body.
I did the same thing squeegee, and only THEN realized how much the Vicodin was actually helping. Oh owie owie owie owie…it was worth every bit of pain, though, in the end.
I don’t LIKE having my head messed with. But sometimes I guess you just have to deal with it, because effective pain meds are a godsend.
Ugg. Count me as one of the ones from whom Vicoden (or Percoset) doesn’t do much of anything for me. Then again, there isn’t too much that does do anything, so I wasn’t that surprised.
However, accidentally taking Perocoset on an empty stomach did help: I was too nauseated to notice the pain. :rolleyes:
<< Um. >>
Vicodin is a class-A constipator, though.
Just a-tellin’ you.
I had my tonsils out about five years ago and, as I’m waking up from surgery, they gave me a fist full of prescriptions and told me how to take them. Not the best time to be relaying this kind of info.
Anyway, I go home with my bottle of liquid vicodan (looks alarmingly like anti-freeze), and my bottle of liquid tylenol. I take the vicocan every four hours and the tylenol as needed. Well, it took a few days for me to discover this little mistake–but I was feeling very mellow and pain-free until then! Hmmm, you’d think the bottle with all the “NARCOTIC WARNING” stickers plastered all over it would have tipped me off sooner, but no. And then they wouldn’t give me a refil on the scrip! Bastards! And it was tasty, too
I was given Vicodin a few years ago after some oral surgery. I put a few into the pill-bottle I carry around with me, in case I needed it at school or something. Flash-forward to last year, when I’m living in the dorms. My knees hurt from bursitis, and I took a Vicodin, thinking it was Motrin. Yeaaaaaah. A friend came in to chat with me, and I was trying (and failing) to not fall asleep while listening to her. I think she was rather worried about me for a bit, there. Once I finished sleeping it off, I made sure to sort out the remaining Vicodin and return it to the pill-bottle at home, so I didn’t make that mistake again. Rather overeffective pain-killing, but I don’t think that my knees hurt!
All Vicodin does for me is to make me vomit every half hour like clockwork. Generally I throw up the pills before they’re even completely dissolved. Apparently my body classes them in with “deadly poisons.” :rolleyes:
I have this reaction to all of the “good” drugs I’ve tried so far. Sucks.
Just recently they gave me Vicoden after I had 2 teeth pulled (not a decision I will make so quickly in the future :eek: ) and it seemed to work dulling the pain but also felt light headed and woozy. I don’t know if I experienced any cumulative effect because I honestly don’t remember very much of those few days. Not an experience worth remembering anyway.
After a couple days the pain was bearable and I decided it was better to let nature take its course. If I can feel what’s going on I’ll have a better idea of how well I’m healing. I was glad to be off those things.
So my $0.02; Vicoden - good, but not as enjoyable as alcohol. 