HYDROMORPHONE

[nonnieyrissa]

i posted a week ago I have been on norcos 10/325 (hydrocodone) for almost 3 years and i have been getting sharp pains in my sides possibly a sign of kidney damage from so much tylenol (i take 4 at a time now it has slowly increased over the years to now only 4 works) I want too be off of them and someone here suggested I talk to my doctor about tapering well i told him how I felt and hiow many I was taking at a time and about my worries for m y kidneys he said he was going to prescribe something else this time and called in my script when I picked it up it was HYDROMORPHONE 4mg tablets i had no clue what this was so i called his office and he is out for two weeks vacation and i looked it up online and it said it was bacsically half heroin/ half morphine and now I am scared to take it and going thru withdrawels from the norcos. I s what i read online true?? I really dont know what to do.

[DutchessGolden]

Hydromorphone is derived from morphine via a catalyst usually and can chemically made to be more potent than morphine but with many less side effects and a much lower dependency rate than morphine or heroin. You might have heard of one of it's U.S. brand names before: Dilaudid. Your doctor might have given this to you because it is usually just as effective as morphine in the relief of chronic pain but has no acetaminophen (tylenol or APAP) and like I said, less of the nasty side effects that you get with morphine. If your renal system is damaged it is recommended that you carefully monitor your doses of hydromorphone because renal damage can cause the drug to build up in the system and cause the drug to last up to 40 hours. Has your doctor done any blood work to check your liver and kidney function?

xoxo- D.

[nonnieyrissa]

so basically it will take away the pain with out the high over hydrocodone right? so then this is a step in the right direcction right? no my doctor dosnt reallt check anything he just keeps prescribing diff things, he tried to prescribe oxycontin this time but I said no because from what ive heard that is more addictive. what I am not clear on is why this would be prescribed if i was worried about the tylenol because of my kidneys if this can be worse? how much tylenol is equal to 1 of these (they are 4 mg)

[DutchessGolden]

Well you most likely will get a high from the hydromorphone if you take enough or just depending on what your tolerance is/how much you need to relieve the pain. It's not necessarily worse on your kidneys, it is the tylenol that is so damaging to your kidneys and liver. That's why I'm thinking he gave you a potent pain reliever without any tylenol because if your kidneys are ok then you will no longer have that high risk of damage to the kidneys from all of the tylenol.  It is true that oxys are more addictive than hydrocodone but hydromorphone can be more addictive than hydrocodone but is less addictive than morphine and heroin. Have you ever tried ultram? It might not be strong enough to relieve your pain but ultram is much much less addictive than hydro, oxy, morphine, even codeine. Some people get high but I only know a few people that do. I have never felt high from ultram it just relieves the pain that hydrocodone and codeine won't. It also increases serotonin and norepinephrine which with the opiate effects are very helpful in relieving pain for many people. And tylenol has no equivalent to hydromorphone. Tylenol is simply a pain reliever and fever reducer that you get over the counter. They usually put large amounts of it with opiates like vicodin( 5mg hydro./500mg tylenol or 7.5mg. hydro./750mg tylenol) norcos (10mg hydro./350 or325mg tylenol) percocet ( oxycodone/tylenol)  So your doctor wanted to give you something without the tylenol and he first wanted to give you oxycodone which is almost always effective releiving even severe pain and since it was too addictive he gave you hydromorphone. If you do not like the hydromorphone you might want to talk to your doctor about ultram,maybe more mg. than normal since your pain is severe, it has no tylenol.  I don't know if you have tried some muscle relaxants in combination with motrin or ultram that might help if you do not want to take the hydrocodone anymore. You can also get what I take for pain: vicoprofen Instead of tylenol it has 7.5mg hydro. and 200mg ibubrofen(motrin or advil) Even my husband gets more pain relief from one of those than any of his other meds.

xoxo-D.

PS if you are concerned about your kidneys you really should tell your doctor that you want blood work done to make sure your kidney and liver function is normal. Unless there is an immediate problem most doctors will not do these tests on their own so just tell them you want it done to be safe.