Pain Meds without hydrocodone

Good morning, everyone!

I was sent home from surgery on Wed pm with a prescription for hydracodone.  I have a "sensitivity" to this, not what is considered a true reaction.  It makes me agitated, restless, and unable to sleep.  This is clearly marked in my medical records and my allergies/reactions were discussed frequently while I was in the hospital.  Unfortunately, I did not look at the list of prescriptions to be filled after discharge - my fault, but all I wanted to do was go home - so I didn't notice the hydrocodone rx for pain.  However,l after the first couple of days I realized that I was waking up every 1:45 to 2 hours, on the dot, every time I tried to sleep.  I called and spoke with the doc's nurse a few minutes ago and she told me that "all pain medications have hydracodone in them". I found that a little difficult to believe so called my pharmacy; they told mer there are a couple that work in a different manner than the hydrocodone that could be prescribed.  My doc is supposed to be calling me back and I will tell him the alternatives the pharmacist recommended.  I guess I'm just a little annoyed (plus major sleep deprived) that the doctor's nurse seemed to just blow me off - sort of like, take it or leave it, you know?  And don't bother us for such a trivial thing.  Grrrrr.  I'm truly not a drug seeker, would gladly give them back the hydrocodone that I have left in exchange for something that would just allow me to sleep.

Has anyone experienced a sensitivity/'readtion to hydrocodone like this?  If so, what did you do?

Thanks,

Kathy

I react similarly to hydrocodone; however, I took almost no pain meds after surgery so I didn't raise a fuss. You could consider moving up the ladder to oxycodone and ask for Percocet.

The nurse thinks all pain meds have hydrocodone in them?  Sounds like she didn't pay attention in nursing school when they talked about pain management.  Please let the doctor know she needs some education in this area.

Yes, Kelly, that's what she said.....and granted I am not a nurse and am majorly sleep deprived, but it didn't sound right to me, a lay person.  Good thing I called the pharmacist, because when the nurse called me back she started to tell me again about how the meds all contain codeine, until I interrupted her with the information about Tramadol.  She then asked the doc and he said that would be fine to rx.  So if I hadn't done a little research with my pharmacist I would have ben stuck.  I wonder what they do with patient who have a "true" allergy to hydrocodone.  I'll have to ask the doc when I go in for my follow up, just because he needs to know what kind of information his staff is putting out.

Tramadol is the ticket for me. I switched to that from Ibuprofen about 3 weeks before surgery. I have pretty severe hip pain so I was living on 1200 - 1600mg of Ibuprofen a day until someone told me about Tramadol. I take 1 50mg pill 3x a day. I go see my PCP in about 2 weeks and I am going to ask him if I can up it by 1 at least 2 of those 3 times a day. I don't need to take 2 at night, just when I wake up and then around lunch time. If you get a headache with it, take a tylenol and see if that helps. I have to take 1 tylenol with each dose of Tramadol. Supposedly they make Tramadol with Tyelenol as well.

Anyway, I hope it's working for you. I came home with Roxicet that had to be taken every 4 hours (YUCK) and I asked my surgeon if I could just take Tramadol instead and he said whichever one works is the one I should take. I was just over 2 weeks when I decided to take them whole, no crushing. I split the tylenols for a couple days after that but now I take them whole as well.

Not ALL pain meds have hydrocodone in them, that's nuts!  Can you take Oxycodone?  That is usually part of Percocet (the other part being Tylenol) and they make that in liquid form as well.  The inability to sleep and kind of speedy thing is actually a common side effect of hydrocodone.  Good luck!

I react the same way. My doc gave me percocet and it was fine

Yeah, I thought that was nuts, too, which is why I called my pharmacist before the doc called me back.  It's a little concerning to me that this woman is a registered nurse, and yet is putting this kind of misinformation out there,  There are too many people who might have just taken her word for it that "all pain meds have hydrocodone" and gone on suffering with the restlessness, agitation and sleeplessness.  And believe me, I am in serious need of some sleep!  She even suggested I take an Ambien along with the hydrocodone - which I already had (kept me asleep for 2 hrs). 

Well, hopefully now I'll get a little sleep and I'm sure once that happens my pain level will go down considerably.  I mainly hurt on the left hand side, and from what I've read that's where they do the most work, right? Also, that's where my drain was (yuk) so I expected it to be a little bit more sore.

Thanks all, and to all a good night!

Kathy