percocet? oxycodone

[gtucker]

ok thoose who have followed my post prob know I am desperate for pain relief. Hydrocondone made me feel really bad, didnt help the pain hardly at all. My dr. isnt being real supportaive but my question is if hydrocodone made me feel sick and emotional and mentally weird. what do you think about percocet or oxycodone?
However am I going to work.

[LindaRacine]

ok thoose who have followed my post prob know I am desperate for pain relief. Hydrocondone made me feel really bad, didnt help the pain hardly at all. My dr. isnt being real supportaive but my question is if hydrocodone made me feel sick and emotional and mentally weird. what do you think about percocet or oxycodone?
However am I going to work.

We all react differently, so the only way to know for sure is to give them a try.

[Back-out]

gtucker,

Linda is really right. Every single med is metabolized differently by everyone and although it's possible to generalize, nothing can tell you how YOU'RE going to react. Furthermore, your own response is apt to change over time!

My own experience so far:

a) There is a MAJOR difference not only between brand and generic but between generic and generic (eg it depends on the manufacterer!) None of this is supposed to matter but in fact, it DOES.
b) morphine relieves my pain but does NOT affect my mood (this is VERY important to me, as I tend toward depression and want to avoid ones that make me "high" as they have more addictive potential for me)
c) oxycodone in Percocet and in oxycontin affect me very differently
d) fentanyl makes me SO high, I don't dare take it for pain relief (have had it only in surgical induction and spinals - but whew!)
e) I find the long acting ones to be emotionally "safer" as there is less of an up and down with the beginning and end.
f) codeine makes me pukey - the only one.
g) hydrocodone (overall) makes me least sleepy and least reactive in other ways even in high dosages,
h) ALL give me major constipation.

None of this is very important for YOU, though! These odds and ends are just intended to show you variability in one patient - me.

I wish you much luck in finding - hopefully - a good match for you. Note it may be a matter of how a given med combines with other forms of pain relief (shots, nerve blocks, etc.). Trial and error is the name of the game.

And BTW - don't neglect NSAIDS (Aleve, diclofenac, etc). I find them to be at least as helpful as narcotics for pain relief. Sometimes I wonder if narcotics actually relieve pain, or make us care less because they impact our morale! (And maybe that's how antidepressants help some people with pain too!)

PS Please don't expect any medication to replace common sense in how our choices affect our pain. Some activities will produce pain no matter what, and it's a great mistake to count on oral medicines to make things right if we strain damaged spines.

Personally, I'm VERY sorry now that I relied on pain relief for a decade instead of changing my spine-related activities. I know my back got much worse in that time. I now believe I could probably have avoided surgery if I had focused on the source of my pain instead of relieving it . Yes, I functioned better temporarily, but at what cost?

[jrnyc]

hi gtucker
am wondering whether, with your job, you would do better with a short acting pain med that delivered a strong punch of pain relief for the hours you are working...but one you dont feel sleepy with...the two you mentioned are both strong...i hope you always eat before you take meds...at least a half hour before!

everyone has different experiences with meds, as Linda said...my own personal experience has been that i dont do well with "long acting" meds...i always get what they call "break through" pain...but with me it is more like "always time" pain...so i prefer shorter acting quick delivery medication...i also used that when i was still working 2 jobs in Manhattan..the difference now is that i am retired, due to pain, and my time is my own..i know you dont have that luxury during your seasonal work...

i hope you can find a doctor who will stick with you for some trial and error of finding the right medication for you...i hope you get some days off from work to ease the stress of all this!

jess