Author Topic: Tylenol and Motrin as effective as opioids in many types of chronic pain  (Read 3029 times)

MillCreek

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Quote from: Angel Eyes on August 09, 2018, 01:56:15 AM
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zxcvbob

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https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/03/09/592305410/questions-and-answers-about-opioids-and-chronic-pain?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20180309

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2673971?redirect=true

If you have chronic back, hip or knee pain and are taking opioids, talk to your medical provider about alternatives.

When I have a backache, I might take one dose of my precious Vicodin then I switch to generic Aleve, two pills twice a day.  If the pain is not all that terrible I skip the Vicodin.  The Aleve works better than the hydrocodone after the first dose.  I don't know how long it's safe to take at that dosage.
"It's good, though..."

GigaBuist

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I've had legit lay-me-out back pain that started hitting me in my teens.  I've never found an opiod to really be helpful with the pain. Granted, I only took them because I had them around for something else... but they never helped. Oddly enough of the off-the-shelf stuff naproxen sodium (Aleve) works better for me than acetaminophen and ibuprofen.

Weed also works.  That one works really well. 

Jim147

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I'll agree. I blew out two disc's in the early '90's, tried the normal opiods with no luck so the doc put me on naproxin and it did more then anything else to help me get done with my day of slinging 75lb crankshafts and cylinder heads around. But it helped too much and I started tossing bare blocks up on my bench when I had an air hoist right beside me.

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brimic

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Naproxen worked really well for me when I blew out a disc a year ago
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just Warren

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Naprox is da bomb. Just one clears up any pain I have.
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T.O.M.

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Back when I broke my arm (compound fracture of radius and ulna), I was given a script of some opiod when I was discharged from the hospital.   I took one dose, then switched to ibuprofin. Worked better, without to mental fuzziness and drowsiness of the opioid.
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K Frame

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Naproxen worked really well for me when I blew out a disc a year ago

That is my go-to pain reliever, as well. Stuff works great for me.

Motrin also works, but not quite as well, and Tylenol works even less.
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HeroHog

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I take 1000mg of Tylenol (Acetaminophen) and 800mg of Ibuprofen together up to twice a day. If that doesn't work, then I start tossing half or up to 2 5mg Hydrocodone-Acetaminophen (Lortab, Norco, Vicodin) on top of that.
I might not last very long or be very effective but I'll be a real pain in the ass for a minute!
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230RN

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I found that too much aspirin screwed up my mental operation, to the point where I could not integrate a series of tasks needed to accomplish a goal.  Four or five of the regular adult aspirin tabs a day.  Helped my arthritis, for sure, but wow, did I get dumb.

I don't have an excuse for it nowadays.

I don't know about the other pain relievers.

just Warren

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It's all the Heavy Metal music you listen to. That constant head-banging has got to be injurious in some way.
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BobR

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I take 1000mg of Tylenol (Acetaminophen) and 800mg of Ibuprofen together up to twice a day. If that doesn't work, then I start tossing half or up to 2 5mg Hydrocodone-Acetaminophen (Lortab, Norco, Vicodin) on top of that.

Maybe you should talk to your doc about prescribing straight hydrocodone (minus the Tylenol). While within the max for Tylenol in a 24 hour period it wouldn't hurt to cut back a little on it just because.

bob

HeroHog

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Maybe you should talk to your doc about prescribing straight hydrocodone (minus the Tylenol). While within the max for Tylenol in a 24 hour period it wouldn't hurt to cut back a little on it just because.

bob

If I anticipate a "bad one", I cut back on the Tylenol. The Hydrocodone is 325mg Tylenol. If I hurt enough, liver and life be damned...
I might not last very long or be very effective but I'll be a real pain in the ass for a minute!
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Mannlicher

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I took Norco 10/325 for years to help with the pain from osteoarthritis in my hip.  On my own,  reading and asking questions,  I discovered that 500 mg of one of the brand NSAIDs and a 500 mg Tylenol did as much pain relief as the oxy stuff.  The problem for me, was that the NSAIDs exacerbated my heart condition,  so I did not go that route often.
After the hip replacement last May,  I stopped taking all pain killers.  Just don't need 'em.
As opposed to some folks,  stopping the Norco after all those years was no problem.   Just didn't take them any more.  No issues.

RoadKingLarry

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I took Norco 10/325 for years to help with the pain from osteoarthritis in my hip.  On my own,  reading and asking questions,  I discovered that 500 mg of one of the brand NSAIDs and a 500 mg Tylenol did as much pain relief as the oxy stuff.  The problem for me, was that the NSAIDs exacerbated my heart condition,  so I did not go that route often.
After the hip replacement last May,  I stopped taking all pain killers.  Just don't need 'em.
As opposed to some folks,  stopping the Norco after all those years was no problem.   Just didn't take them any more.  No issues.

With my bad hip, Tylenol was all I needed most of the timeonce in a while 2 doses a day, until about a month ago. On the days when I had really overdone it and I had enough pain that sleep wasn't gonna happen I have a prescription for tramadol/Tylenol 37.5/325.
After my forced transfer I went from a job where I spent 50%+ of my time driving from 1 small office to another to a job in the 2nd largest Central Office in the state, 12 story building covering 1/2 a city block with equipment on 8 different floors. I was clocking 4.5 miles or more a day on my step tracker app (and slacking a little doing that). I've been 2 max doses of Tylenol during the day and 2 of my tramadols at night to be able to sleep.
The only side effect from the Tramadol is that it tends to lock me up unless I get ahead of it with stool softeners and that doesn't always work.
Once I get the hip replacement I'm expecting to give all that up.
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HeroHog

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I WAS on Methadone with an occasional Hydrocodone 10/325 until I took myself off Pain Management. I am down to a few 5/325's a week now on average.
I might not last very long or be very effective but I'll be a real pain in the ass for a minute!
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Perd Hapley

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RoadKingLarry

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Indeed, tramadol isn’t just an opioid. It’s also an SNRI, a type of antidepressant, which may help explain tramadol’s formerly-mild reputation: antidepressants also help people cope with chronic pain.

The descriptions of tramadol has changed some since I started taking it. I can't take hydrocodone/Lortab... makes me sicker than hell, get tramadol after surgery and when my back went out a few years ago. I hadn't read up on it recently. I got a prescription for 8 doses of it when I had oral surgery back in the Summer, and in October my PCP wrote me a script for 40 pills for the hip pain, still have almost half of that left. I knew it locked up my bowels if I didn't get ahead of it but knowing that it has an "antidepressant" effect may explain the mood swings on the rare times when I used it for several days in a row.


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HeroHog

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These days most of my pain that makes me reach for the Hydrocodone is headaches! For that, Opioids work better than the rest, Joint pain?, Settle in my recliner and cover my knees with a blanket.
I might not last very long or be very effective but I'll be a real pain in the ass for a minute!
MOLON LABE!

Hutch

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Yeah, but...

My daughter has Crohn’s (autoimmune problem that attacks to colon). When she’s having a flareup, there’s no relief outside of opioids.  When she was last discharged from the hospital, it took my son in law trips to literally, by actual count, 10 CVS pharmacies to find Lortab in stock.  He tried calling around, but they refused to even tell him unless he presented himself and the scrip at the counter.  He couldn’t even get the pharm tech to call around on his behalf.

To add insult to injury, there’s shenanigans afoot to make Imodium harder to get, as well.

Bastards.

https://fee.org/articles/once-again-the-fda-is-making-life-harder-for-sick-people/

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slingshot

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My go to pain reliever is Motrin.  I was perscribed the usual OxyC after surgery several times and only ever took one pill to see the effect on pain.  I didn't see a big difference myself, so unless the pain is really bad, I go with over the counter stuff and increase the dosage based on pain levels.
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lupinus

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Most of the scripts don't do anything for me that Advil, or a combination of Advil and Tylenol together, don't do. Which I often find taking one of each together, instead of a two pill dose of one or the other, to actually be more effective. But I normally stick with ibuprofen on it's own as I'm prone to an mildly unpleasant and odd side effect from Tylenol if I take more than a dose or two. But the combo offsets it when I get cluster headaches.

On the rare occasion a Dr wants to write me a pain script I've found tramadol is the only one that seems to do anything better than otc so I've usually requested they write it for that. Never had a doc that wasn't happy to oblige the request of tramadol in such situations.

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