You have been taking 3-4 grams of apap a day. Around here apap is the devil, hehe. So, if you can talk to your Dr. about getting some 5/325 Norco. That way you can reduce your apap intake while not appearing to get more hydro.
30-40mg of hydrocodone each day for 6 months isn't all that bad...And if you are planning on taking more for upcoming surgeries I suggest reducing your intake. Let your tolerance come down.Try taking no more than 6 up until surgery. Work on taking only 4 some days. Just do what you know is best and since you plan on not quitting now a taper regiment would not be appropriate. Just consider taking half of what you have been. Tapering helped me. I was at about 70mg of hydro and when I started my taper I cut it in half for the first day. 35mg, then I took about 3 weeks, each each reducing about 10mg. I've gone through full blown withdrawl and it sucks! the taper thing...not so bad. you aren't completely screwed here. just remember how important your life is...because many of us have let these damn government produced opiaTIC TACS ruin our lives. They give it to us for a reason. I hope you can take control and know what is best for you.
but again, try not to take 8 Vicodin a day. It is SO TERRIBLE for your liver.
I took 3 5/500 for about 5 years. In the last 6 months I was up to 6-8 a day for undiagnosed back pain. Then 30mg morph a day for about a month. Anyway, once they fixed the back problem, I decided to stop. I did an extremely fast taper, morph on Friday, 4 vic saturday, 3 sunday, 1 monday and done. Definately had w/d, but a slower taper probably would have helped.
There's lot's of good info on this site about tapering. Quick isn't for everyone. For the first time in 6 years, I have been off for 3 weeks.