I used vicodin recently due to a herniated disc.
I found it worked better than the codeine. The codeine made me too drowsy, and it didn't penetrate the pain as effectively. Vicodin worked much better. Interestingly, the label doesn't say don't drink alcohol. It merely says alcohol may increase the unwanted side effect of drowsiness. I found that taking my vicodin with a glass of wine or sangria improved the effectiveness. The first few days after my back surgery, I took a vico in the morning with a mo-mo( champagne and OJ) and in the evening with wine. After a few days, I stopped the morning booze. After a week or so, the vicodin use was only occasional. I've still got 6 codeines leftover from a february 2nd 30 ct, and 17 vicodins from a march 20 60 ct. the vicodin does give me a bit of a headache. never had oxycontin.
I used darvocet then vicodin in the month before my back surgery nearly four years ago, in the month before that I went from being able to use ibuprofen to needing Voltaren to needing darvocet. Even the darvocet was barely strong enough. I could feel it start to wear off after four hours, but my doctor's instructions said to take it no more frequently than every six hours. When I described my symptoms to my surgeon, he prescribed vicodin with the option to take them four hours apart. I found I was able to get by with just four of them a day taken six hours apart for the ten days between my first meeting with my surgeon and my surgery. I only needed five the day after surgery, and was able to stop them completely just a week after surgery.