Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with vicodin

Vicodin + work = trouble.

naju — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:24:26 -0800

I have to take Vicodin for my pain, but it makes me want to pass out at work. I have a mindsplittingly-painful toothache, and my appointment to get the tooth extracted is a whole 2 weeks away. In the meantime, my doctor's prescribed me Vicodin for the pain. It helps, as long as I stay on the stuff pretty much constantly. The bad news? This stuff makes me really drowsy and dizzy while at work, to the point where I could probably pass out if I close my eyes for 5 seconds. Coffee doesn't work for some reason.

Thank god I don't operate machinery or anything, but I do have a semi-important lawyer job that forces me to be alert and with-it for most of the day.

Just trying to weigh my options here. 1) Is there anything that will snap my senses back into place while on Vicodin? 2) Should I request a different painkiller? OTC stuff is useless but maybe there's a better prescription with less side effects? 3) 2 weeks seems like a long time for an appointment while I'm in moderately severe pain, but not sure what I can do there. My dentist won't budge on that date. If I call up another dentist they'd have to schedule an initial appointment, then schedule a 2nd appointment, and by then it would probably be longer than 2 weeks. 4) Any other ideas? Taking time off work is not an option. Thanks hive mind for helping with this silliness.

What are some safe, non-addictive drugs that have the same positive side effects of Vicodin?

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:40:23 -0800

What are some safe, non-addictive drugs that have the same positive side effects of Vicodin? I can't believe I am asking this question, but here goes. Two weeks ago I underwent minor surgery to extract a lymph node for a full biopsy. The doctor gave me a prescription for Vicodin, for the pain. I was on it for 2-3 days before my wife flushed the pills; probably for the best.

The thing is, the Vicodin was AMAZING! I found that I was able to focus and get things done like never before. The two days I was taking Vicodin were two of the most productive days I've ever had. Apparently this is a positive side effect for a small percentage of the population.

So, I'm smart enough to not get addicted to Vicodin, but I would absolutely love to find a non-addictive drug or stimulant that does exactly what the Vicodin was doing: helps me focus and makes me more productive.

Or is this just an incredibly bad idea? I hate to admit that I think I need drugs to help me focus and be more productive but I found the Vicodin experience to be very positive.

what to do about a vicodin overdose

assasinatdbeauty — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:41:58 -0800

Took 21 500mg(i believe) Vicodin in a 24 hour period. this was on monday. threw up 3 times on tuesday. oh but wait there's more... I had a reconstructive operation on my nose to cure my sleep apnea on friday. i was is a lot of pain, so they gave my percocet in addition to the antibiotics, and when that ran out on monday, they called in a perscription for vicodin that morning,and by the next day i had taken 21. bad move, i know, i don't need any lectures on addiction or irresponsibility. that night, i threw up three times. no pills, just bile. today is thursday. i finished the antibiotics yesterday, and today i feel like hell, very run down, like i have a bad cold, and my legs hurt.

main question is- should i be concerned about any lasting effects from taking that many vicodin in such a short period of time? no family doctor or anything like that to go to.

vicodin dosage

pilibeen — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:43:52 -0800

My dad's passing a kidney stone tonight....he already took two 5/500 vicodin within the last hour and he's still in a lot of pain....can he take another?

pain control

mustcatchmooseandsquirrel — Thu, 24 May 2007 12:19:39 -0800

Vicodin is not working for my post-wisdom tooth holes, what do I do? Appointment was at 8:20, was home at 10:30. Took Vicodin (5mg hydrocodone and 500mg acetaminophen) #1 at 10:49. Then I took a nap and woke up at 12:20 at which point I was in a lot of pain. I changed the stupid bloody gauze and took Vicodin #2. Vicodin #2 did not get rid of very much pain and I was still feeling pain and crying after taking it.

Now it is 2:17 and my former teeth hurt quite a bit but I am being told not to take more drugs for some absurd amount of time. What do I do? Can I just take two now and hope that it works?

How do people order Vicodin online without getting arrested?

thebrokenmuse — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:58:42 -0800

I just watched an episode of Intervention where the woman was addicted to Vicodin. How does one go about ordering vicodin off of the internet without being arrested? This woman ordered lots and lots of Vicodin off of the internet. How did she do this without getting in trouble? It seems to me that she should have gotten caught somehow. Am I wrong?

Also, this woman seemed to be in fine health, with the exception of desperatly needing Vicodin. Does anyone know someone who was addicted to Vicodin? What does it/can it do to you?

I was just sort of taken offgaurd at how easily this woman was able to order this drug online with seemingly no legal consequences.

If not Vicodin, then ... what?

spaceman_spiff — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 22:55:23 -0800

[HouseMDFilter] What *are* the options for treating addiction in patients with severe chronic pain? (Spoilers for the January 9th episode and In the TV show, one of the major subplots is House's addiction to Vicodin. This is explained as having begun 5+ years ago when he experienced muscle death in his leg, which resulted in high levels of pain at the time and (I believe) continuing to the present.

In calling him an addict, is the implication that his pain is no longer real, but is now a physical dependency on the drugs? Or is his pain still as real as ever, but his physical dependency is 'too strong'? Or perhaps he has two issues going on - pain, treated by Vicodin, and an addiction fed by an overavailability of Vicodin, and his behavior and personality are seen as symptoms of the latter. Or his Vicodin-seeking behavior - hoarding the drug, stealing it, etc. (Too many 'or's. I'll stop now.)

Then assuming he is addicted, what would his options for pain management be? In a Season 1 episode, Cuddy tells him that there are other ways of managing pain, but it's not clear what these are - presumably if there was a nonaddictive method of treating pain, that would have been the original treatment. I can't imagine that anything less effective than the narcotics House is on would be acceptable to a patient with that kind of pain. Are there alternatives that are considered more acceptable because there is less of a risk of psychological dependence, at the cost of a greater physical dependence (in contrast to Vicodin, which is the other way around), or a difference in the euphoric effects?

Note: I'm aware that there are a broad range of opinions on pain management, ranging from the relatively prohibition-ish attitude of the DEA to the more permissive attitudes of some pain management doctors, including some who have been accused of acting as 'prescription mills'. But I suspect there's more to this than that.

(One last thing, as long as I'm here - Wikipedia says that buprenorphine is not administered orally. Wouldn't someone have noticed that the pills were Vicodin, or something other than buprenorphine?)

What in the world did my dentist twin with the vicodin? I was floating in a timeless void.....

dogandponyshow — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 01:15:55 -0800

I can't remember the name of the second drug that my dentist gave to me with Vicodin following my wisdom tooth extraction, and I suspect it might been what hurtled me into an abyss beyond the reach of time, concepts digestible by the human brain, any higher synaptic functions, or the vital organs' basic need for sustenance. So what was it? So I got A singular wisdom tooth out last week,
which took a grand total of 1'30" to remove,
and my dentist, in sending me home with my much-anticipated Vicodin prescription, also gave me a prescript for 2 tablets of something else, which he mysteriously assured me would "make [me] more succeptible to the Vicodin".

Holy hell.
Timeline is:
3 pm, tooth out.
4 pm, at home with Deadwood Season 2, took 1 Vic and the other pill, passed the fuck out promptly.
8 pm, my brother told me to roll over (was sleeping on the couch in the living room), found I would do this without any verbal or physical response otherwise.
8:05 pm - 8:30 pm, my family rolls me around the living room floor by telling me to do so, which I apparently just kind of did. Would also not-really-wake-up now and again and ask where "the noise" was coming from.
Midnight, groggily wake up, take 1 more Vic and the OTHER THING, pass the fuck back out.
8 am, wake up briefly, absolutely no pain or swelling or bleeding, and can't really rouse myself.

I did NOT take any more of either medicine, but literally could not stay awake for more than 5 minutes until 8 pm that night....That's 28 hours of pure unconsciousness, where there was no past, present or future, not to mention id ego superego God food movies or drug abuse; those last 14 hours should have been fully beyond the potentcy of the second dose (12 am - 6 am).

So...what the heck happened? I can't remember the name of the other drug, and threw the prescription away once I'd taken the second (final) dose of it.

Does this coma have anything to do with whatever that might have been? Am I just doomed to be a zombie whenever I have to take Vicodin? Or what?

I am worried that I take too much vicodin.

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 23:29:58 -0800

I am worried that I take too much vicodin. I have two forms of degenerative arthritis for which I take vicodin for pain, DMARDs (Humira and azathioprine), an NSAID (diclofenac), and as of this weekend, prednisone.

Over the last few months, due to a combination of the stress of my mother's death and general bad health, my arthritis has flaired causing me to take up to six or seven 5/500 or 7.50/750 vicodins a day to reduce my pain. On the pain scale it takes me from a 9 to a 6 or 7. Basically, it allows me to walk or do what most would consider limited daily activities.

My concerns are threefold. First, I am very concerned about addiction. I tell my family and friends that at my level of pain, addicition is unlikely since it is for true pain and not recreational. Am I deluding myself?

Second, I have common opiate side effects. Zero energy, constipation, interruption of sleep patterns, and inability to concentrate. I cannot sleep well unmedicated due to the arthritis pain, but the vicodin affects my ability to sleep deeply. Any advice on how to mitigate these side effects?

Third, while my rheumatologist has been excellent in treating the arthritis, and sympathetic to my pain, she has been leery about stronger pain medicine. My thought is since she is a high profile doctor, she is worried about increased DEA attention for prescribing narcotics. She did take me from a 5/500 to a 7.5/750 prescription. I worry about how to be honest about my pain without seeming like I am just looking for a high. What is the best way to talk to my current or a new physician about my pain management?

I can deal with some chronic pain, but at this level, with this amount of pain killers, I worry that I will never feel normal again. I appreciate your help and advice.