Despite what we read in the news Hydrocodone, or Vicodin is a relatively mild pain reliever. Although the guidelines assert it’s for moderate to severe pain-that’s BS, as you well know.
She needs an effective and strong pain reliever like Diludid, Oxycodone, Morphine or Methadone. The last two are particularily effective because they are long lasting. While Methadone is notorious because it’s used to maintain former narcotic abusers the primary benefit it gives beside effective pain relief is that it’s long lasting. One dose can last up to a full day and up to 48 hours. The problem of course is finding a doctor with the right ratio of balls and patient concern to prescribe them. Many doctors will use another excuse about these drugs-that they’re highly addictive, and they are but so what-if they kill the pain you can worry about any addiction at a future date.
I meant to reply back to you the other day and got sidetracked. Yeah, her doctor said he thought she should be taking oxycodone or morphine for her level of pain.
We agree too about the addiction to pain meds. We’re adults and know addiction happens on narcotic pain medication. It’s a trade-off that should be up to us. My wife would rather have an addiction to the medication and be able to function than have very poor quality of life just so other people can feel good about themselves keeping addictive medications away from those who need it.
There was a pain management forum that had a doctor as a member. He made the most awful claims about the people on the forum, claiming they were just trying to get narcotics for the pleasure or sale. He claimed that their pain couldn’t have been as bad as described and that they just needed to toughen up. One of the members did some searching and came across a blog of his where he described an emergency of his one night. He had a toothache, and he couldn’t stand the pain so he called a dentist friend of his. He described running red lights at 3 a.m. to get to the dentist’s office for some pain relief.
That’s a good example of one of the problems with pain management. Too many people enacting laws have never been in chronic pain, or they have enough status to not be forced through the same hoops with the rest of us.