| Author | Message | ||
     Geforce |
Before we get into specifics... I talked to my pharmacy and doc today about this. They weren't much help in answering my questions so I thought I'd ask here. (Also been searching the web all day) Just had surgery on my right knee, had a scope done, meniscus tear repaired and a trimmed, knee cap cartilage repaired, I'm in a compression bandage and ROM brace that is locked straight out, non weight bearing for 1 week. I was Rx'd PERCOCET EQ 5/325MG for pain. The first day of use at the prescribed doses left me with worse nausea and dizziness than I was in pain. Which resulted in little sleep and relative discomfort with a little anxiety as I cannot move my right leg that much. The doctor also RX'd me celeBREX 200MG to replace the 800MGx3 does of Ibuprofen I was taking on a daily basis for pain from other injuries. So I called the hospital today to try and figure out if there was anything I could do for the side effects of PERCOCET. Having some experience with surgery and pain medication before I understand that all the pain won't go away, I just want something that will help me sleep and achieve a moderate form of pain tolerance for the next few days until I can remove the bandages and brace. They told me to discontinue the PERCOCET and pick up the new Rx of HYDROCODONE/APAP 5-500MG. They also Rx'd ONDANSETRON 4MG for nausea. I figure, oh great this will work better and I can get some sleep! Except... now I'm worried about frying my liver with the dosage RX'd. The instructions say "Take 1-2 tablets by mouth every four hours AS NEEDED for pain (MAX 8 TABS/24 HOURS)" If I take two tabs every four hours, I exceed the "liver fry" limits of 4k MG of Acetominophen. So... I'm wondering if I should just take the PERCOCET and try the tummy pills as it would allow me to take more throughout the day and night. *sigh* I guess I'd like to ask here to see if anyone has experience/school on this stuff. I hate taking/mixing meds and as soon as I can get this frellin brace off I'll be able to RICE my knee and cut back on the meds. Information on the internet is plentiful but most search results are centered around requests on OD and "buzz" questions for those who abuse this crap. | ||
| Geforce |
Well, this was supposed to be on the quick board. Can I get a mod to move it please? Sorry. | ||
| Froggy |
I was wondering what the hell this had to do with the 1125. I can't help you with your meds, but I can move the thread, enjoy.  | ||
| Geforce |
LOL, Thanks Frog man. I honestly meant it to go here, for some reason I didn't pay any attention to which board I was on when I wrote it up. I figure someone on here will have some good experience with this stuff. | ||
| Johnnymceldoo |
I had the same thing done to my right knee and percocet didnt do it for me either. Doc switched me to vicodin and that worked better for me. | ||
| Geforce |
How many did you end up taking, and at what frequency? If you remember that is. I take meds seriously and I value my liver not turning into goo. | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Percocet with promethazine for nausea worked okay after my knee was worked on a few years ago. Lortab with the promethazine worked a lot better though. Take the Lortab on a six hour cycle, instead of four to keep from killing your liver. Or take it only when sleep is a sure thing, during awake periods just deal, or take your IBU (it's an anti-inflamitory and works differently than the analgesic tylenol, won't kill you to have both in you). | ||
| Cityxslicker |
been through a gamet of tummy soothing meds.... worked best for me wasnt a med. It was a tablespoon of honey before bed, and a 4 oz dose of fatty milk in the morning. solved in two weeks, no side affects. I am not lactose intolerant, nor am I a doctor, it is just what my sister recommended that her naturopath recommended for her. worked for me, your results my very. | ||
| Kenm123t |
I hate percs I usually just suck it up side effects are worse than the pain. It seems the higher you natural pain tolerance the worse the side effects. take the anti inflammatories and deal with it if you can with IBU etc | ||
| Kyrocket |
You know Badweb is THE go to source for everything when you blow off the doctor and ask about pain meds on here. Seriously. I got the ol clip and snip a few years ago and the doc prescribed Lortabs. I don't remember being nauseous but boy did I ever get some good sleep. I think I had 25 but ended up only taking three or four. Not a big fan of pills. | ||
| Blk_uly |
Don't worry so much about your liver. These meds and dosages are temporary and your liver can and will repair itself. | ||
| Etennuly |
It has been my experience, and that of some family members, that the "take four AS NEEDED" is the equivalent of a speed limit sign, where in the speed limit might be 55 but it is up to you as to how close to the limit you want to run. I have had surgeries where they give the morphine drip, controlled by the operator(speed limit), and not used it at all. With any pain meds I like to test my way in to see how much is enough. I take one to see if it will do, wait a while and add another as needed. Physical responses and tolerances are different for everyone to everything. Pain meds are no exception. I am no doctor, but I have stayed in a Holiday Inn Express in the past.  | ||
| Iamike |
When I broke my ankle last year riding the dirt bike in Moab the doctor gave me Hydrocodone in case the 800mg ibuprophen didn't help. He joked that I could always sell my left over to pay for the bills. I did a little research on it and found that it was fairly addictive so I didn't take any of the first round. After I had my plate put in they gave me another batch with the same dosage you state. I weaned myself off of that after a couple of days. Not only was I worried about geting stuck on that stuff but the constipation it causes is worse than the pain. Luckily I must have a high tolerance for pain since I didn't need much for pain meds. My daughter was on percocet after her surgery and it caused wild dreams so she got off of it pretty quick. I remember that was one reason I avoided the codine based drugs also. Now I am reading that the omeprazole that I take for my stomach may cause brittle bones. I guess just about everything we do causes issues. Time for some of that homeopathic remedies. | ||
| Slaughter |
I transitioned from morphine to Vicodin. Seemed to work well - and I quit after a week (sooner than recommended, don't want to be doing too much more than needed) - gotta ask how bad is the pain if you slip on the meds? Wondering how soon you might be able to step away from the pain meds... realizing that question is totally an individual thing. | ||
| Britchri10 |
RICE: (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.) Try to keep it iced down. This helped me a lot with pain after all my knee surgeries and lessened my need for the prescribed painkillers. good luck! | ||
| Sifo |
Everyone responds differently to pain meds. For me vicodin does little for pain and had terrible side effects. Others swear by it. Tylenol 3 with codeine work fairly well for me though. I've got no experience with the meds you are dealing with, not that my experience would necessarily apply to you. Some good news, based on a friend to had meniscus surgery, you probably wont need pain killers before you can get your meds sorted out. Learn from this experience and let your Dr. know the next time you are looking at pain meds. It may help them find a better med for you when you need it most. Oddly my experience with morphine, the biggie in pain meds doesn't seem to kill pain well with me either, but it sure makes me not care about being in pain! (Message edited by SIFO on March 25, 2011) | ||
| Dwardo |
I would take a high dose of fish oil if your doctor goes along with that. It can thin the blood so I don't know if taking it after surgery is wise or not. I find that if I have joint pain or other inflammation, it will reduce it greatly. | ||
| Geforce |
Thanks for the input guys. I ended up taking the VICONDIN and I slept really well last night. For some reason two of those before bed time allowed me to sleep for 8 hours last night and with relative comfort. I haven't touched the ONDANSETRON yet as I've been trying the milk and honey routine. So far, the VICODIN seems to work great and the pain is getting less and less. The PERCOCET for me was a nightmare this time. After my parachute injury in 2005 I took them and had no issues but with this it just made the anxiety and dizziness worse. I'm not too worried about the liver fry dilemma now that the VICODIN seems to get me further with fewer. Tomorrow I can take the brace and bandages off, take a shower and start the RICE process. Thanks for the tips and advice. | ||
| Sifo |
One thing I will caution you about on the vicodin, myself and a good friend of mine both had physical withdrawal from vicodin after only 3 days of use without abusing the dosage instructions. Nothing like cold sweats and nausea on top of still hurting from shoulder surgery. Funny thing, I couldn't sleep with vicodin. It made me tired, but I would wake up with nightmares withing minutes of falling asleep. Hang in there when the PT starts! | ||
| Satori |
If my memory serves me on this Vicoden, Percocet, and lortab are essenialy the same thing, different doses. The 3.5/325 is 3.5 hydrocodone/325 Tylenol etc. so percocet at 5/500 is 5 hydrococdone/500 tylenol, lortab 7.5/500. Probably shouldnt take more tylenol if you take these. I could be wrong, but at least you could ask. I had a lortab scrip last year when I had a infarction of my spleen, I think I got a generic that was 7.5/500. Hope this helps. | ||
| Geforce |
That does help. I have stopped taking the 800MG IBUs based on the game plan that my doc and I came up with. That has been replaced with the celeBREX. So, for the time being, I'm going to ride out the Physical Therapy and let the celeBREX kick in after a couple weeks. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
Wonder what ever happened to "The Miracle" pain killer that was developed from some sort of deep sea urchin that stung it's prey? No side effects,no addiction......no nothing,just pain free. Read about it over ten years ago and it was like seven years from market. Must have found something wrong with it or the urchin was endangered species or some crap like that............ | ||
| Slaughter |
I have to assume your PT is working with you on icing and talking the usual stuff about keeping elevated - but a VERY handy thing instead of ice - but a large bag of frozen peas - just re-freeze and re-use instead of an ice bag. | ||
| Ourdee |
Most of the pain meds make me sick. I prefer something to put me to sleep till it's all better. | ||
| Geforce |
I wish they could make a pain killer that was addiction free and had no severe side effects. A good number of my buddies have been injured/wounded badly in the Army and live with intense pain on a daily basis. The pharmacy was more concerned that I was going to abuse the pain meds than giving me advice on how to take it effectively. That's why I posted here initially. | ||
| Chief_sitting_buell |
If you ever have med questions, including safe doses, precautions and possible interactions call the poison center hotline- 1-800-222-1222. Staffed 24/7 and its free, the nurses/pharmacists there are nationally certified. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
I only use paracetamol, dunno what you call it there, might be that aceta.. thingummycrap. It's not supposed to be good for your liver at consistently high doses. That said, my old Dad's been shovelling them down for his arthritis for nigh on 50 yrs, he's 84 this year bless him. |
