Oh please. Don’t do vicodin with alcohol. Dying is not so bad as being brain dead for years.
[hijack]I was reading along, eager to ask who your excellent endodontist is, having had serious root canal issues in the past…then I got to the part about New Jersey. Did you move without telling us? Do you worry that if you take some Vicodin, you will wander to New Jersey? I R Confused.[/hijack]
You were about 20 minutes past the time when I puked from it, so that’s good at least. Full stomach, empty stomach, lots of fluids, little fluid, whatever, I couldn’t keep that stuff down unless I managed to go to sleep before 20 minutes were up. I decided Aleve would be enough for the broken wrist rather than go through that stress. The first time I took it, I didn’t care quite so much that my wrist was broken, at least.
I think the trick is to take it when you don’t have any painful injuries to worry about.
Trust me, you’ll notice a big difference. Most people just go to sleep on it. But if you’re an drinker like me it feels rather pleasant. Pleasant to the effect that I know to stay away from the damn things.
My doctor tried to prescribe me some a while back ago. I told him “No thanks I’ll just stick with Alieve.”
I get chronic ear infections and the pain is just ungodly yet the doctors seldom write me a script for any painkillers and you feel like a junky by asking for something stronger. Once I did get something stronger, a whole nine Tylenol 3s. Thanks Doc! :rolleyes:
Here in Canada we can buy Tylenol 1 (325mg acetaminophen, 15mg caffeine and 8mg codeine) without a Rx, so I usually end up taking a cycle of 3 T1s followed by 2 Advil two hours later. Rinse and repeat for 3-5 days. This can’t be healthy for me, but it’s the only way to manage the pain.
Get a better doctor. Some are just assholes who won’t trust anyone and seem to feel that denying pain meds to a hundred people who truly need it is better than giving them to one person who will use them recreationally.* These people do not deserve your money. I mean, if he doesn’t trust you about that, what else might he not trust you about, and how might that affect the way he cares for you?
*While I do use opiates recreationally, I have never and will never waste a doctor’s time unless I need medication for legitimate physical pain (withdrawal doesn’t count), and that almost never happens.
I’m still around. That was just an oblique reference to the main character on House, the poster child for Vicodin abuse. The side effects would also include stubble, talking in an American accent, and being a right bastard who’s irresitible to women.
“If you experience these symptoms for more than one hour on Monday nights, contact your doctor.”
I have read that 4 times and still can’t follow it.
I tried Vicodin a month ago, and it did what it was supposed to do–reduce the pain so that it was manageable with Advil*. No interesting side effects.
*Fell down stairs, major contusions and hematoma (bruising). Took Advil round the clock, and Vicodin when I hurt for a few weeks. Now I’m off both, but still have soreness from the contusions.
I know what you mean. I once had some pills (hydrocodone, IIRC) prescribed after abdominal surgery. When I found myself taking them because they lifted the post-surgical depression, and NOT because of the pain, I threw them away immediately.
I’d always heard about people getting hooked on prescriptions, but I couldn’t understand, because I never felt “buzzed” or “high” when I took them. That experience made me comprehend for the first time how easily it could happen.
I was prescribed Vicodin (actually generic hydrocodone) last year for a back injury, and found that it did give me a very mild buzz, about equivalent to half a glass of wine.
Some people have reported getting a nice buzz off Vicodin. Thus, it gives them an enjoyable experience, whether or not they also experience pain relief. I don’t get this buzz. Neither do I get any pain relief.
My prescription says “Take one or two,” and probably five times in 15 years have I ever taken two, because if my migraine is bad enough for me to take two, it’s 1. so bad I won’t be able to keep the Vicodin down and 2. so bad the Vicodin won’t do any good and it’s either Imitrex injection time or time for a trip to the ER for some Demerol (the latter hasn’t happened for some years). But even keeping two Vicodin down doesn’t give me any kind of buzz or make me “happy,” but it *sometimes *helps with the pain.
Exactly. All I wanted was my face not to hurt. The prescribed dosage didn’t do that, and incapacitated me in other undesirable ways. Worse than nothing, especially when Advil did exactly what I needed.
Tylenol with codeine is the same thing as Vicodin. Tylenol is the brand name for acetominophen. Codeine is codeine (Vicodin).
There are two problems with mixing Vicodin with alcohol. First, if you’re using it recreationally, you’re probably close to the limit on acetominophen toxicity. Go over that, and you trash your liver. Your liver is necessary for metabolizing alcohol out of your system. Your liver is important. Please don’ trash it.
Second problem on mixing Vicodin with alcohol - as Neutron Star pointed out - Vicodin and other opiates are respiratory despressants. They slow down your breathing and make you not worry so much about the whole air thing. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. It slows down the entire brain, which includes the respiratory center - the part of your brain that sends breathing signals to your lungs. Mixing the two is not an additive process. It’s multiplicative. People can, and have died, of respiratory failure from mixing the two.
About five and a half years ago, a student of mine ODed on Vicodin/Tylenol 3/hydrocodone, and he died. There’s a Pit thread I started on account of that one. He was a genuinely sweet, lovable guy who was just out for a little fun. I still think of him every now and then, and of the expression I saw on his younger brother’s face during the funeral.
Me? I’m apparently the person Vicodin was made for. I get frequent migraines (2-4 times a week), and when they get bad enough, I take a Vicodin. Within 30 minutes, I can feel the pain disappear, like someone is peeling it off my skull. Then I’m warm and fuzzy and sleepy. It does worry me that I like the stuff so much, but then, I only take them when I can’t otherwise function. The OTC stuff doesn’t touch my migraines. Vicodin does. C’est la vie.
So, I feel bad for those who don’t react to Vicodin the way I do. It’s a magnificent pain management tool. Just read the directions and don’t be stupid.
PM sent.
I’ve been given Vicodin prescriptions several times over the years, for pain related to kidney stones.
The first time I took one, it knocked me out for 3 hours.
The second time I took one (3 years later), it took the edge off the pain nicely, but I stayed conscious.
The third time I took one (4 years afer that), the first Vicodin didn’t do a darn thing. I looked at the bottle, and it said, “take 1 or 2 for pain”. So, I took a second one, knowing that I wouldn’t be driving or anything that day. And, all that it did was, again, took the edge off.
So, I’m pretty sure I quickly developed a tolerance to it.
Thankfully, I didn’t develop what I’ve heard is a common side-effect: serious constipation. Back when Brett Favre was taking like 6-8 Vicodins a day, I wonder if he ever went to the john at all. 
Close, but not quite - I had to look this up to confirm. (Especially since Tylenol 3 doesn’t make me barf, but Vicodin does.) Tylenol 3/Tylenol plus codeine is also called co-codamol - this is a combination of codeine (phosphate) plus acetaminophen/paracetamol. Vicodin has acetaminophen/paracetamol plus hydrocodone, which is a product of codeine plus thebaine, another opiate.
I had Vicodin (actually hydrocodone) when I had my knee surgery about 5 years ago. It gave me a nice buzz and took the pain away which is a bad combination since I felt better and my inhibitions were gone which meant that I was doing things with my unhealed knee that I should have waited weeks to do. Fortunately, nothing bad happened to my knee.
Last year I developed a pretty bad case of sciatica due to a herniated disc. My primary doc gave me darvocet, which I heard was supposed to be pretty good stuff. All it did for me was make me tired. So I was tired and still in a lot of pain which made me cranky. I told the doc and they gave me vicodin instead. It works much better for me.
However, I’ve heard from a lot of people that have problems with vicodin but are able to take darvocet and be very happy.
So it really depends on your physiology. If vicodin does nothing for you, you may want to ask for darvocet next time.
Currently I rely on 4 Alieve (naproxen) a day to handle most of the pain. Every so often the pain really flares up and I need a couple vicodin to help out. I don’t want to get addicted so I try to limit my consumption.
I’m getting back surgery in two weeks to (hopefully) take away the sciatic pain. I wonder what kind of painkillers I’ll get for that.
Cue music. the more you know
Thanks FH and phouka. Did not know that.