Pain medication & Liver

[marzbarz999]

Hi everyone,

I am well aware that the maximum daily dose for acetaminophen is 4000 mg. I am currently on a regimented pain medication plan but fear that coming close to 4000 mg daily is bad for me. I never go past that dosage and I don't drink alcohol, but is it dangerous or bad for your liver to always be near the max daily dose? I try to give my liver some breaks by cutting my dose way down for a few days here and there, but I still get scared. I read stuff online about liver pain symptoms and I can't tell if I'm causing my body harm or if it's all in my head. I had a blood test in June and my liver was normal. As long as I'm staying within the safe daily dose am I ok? Or can it cause damage?

Also, if I was causing damage what are the symptoms? Is jaundice the first symptom or could it cause liver pain? How can you tell the difference between liver pain and heartburn?

Thank you.

[Catdaddyz1]

Can't take it. Causes pain and digestion problems with me. My doctor said it raised my liver enzemes too.

[Tuckamore]

There's been a recent scare of the amount of acetaminophen that the average person is consuming on a daily basis. As Mellie said it's every where. It's difficult to take anything OTC that doesn't contain acetaminophen. Ppl aren't always as aware as you are of this fact... so they may take 3,000 mg a day of acetaminophen but then add it in other things such as a sinus of flu medications.

I don't know what opiate you are taking but such meds at that contain hydrocodone and acetaminophen like Vicodin, Lortab and Percocet can come with as little as 325 mg per tablet of the acetaminophen. I had hoped for years that they would remove this from hydrocodone as they have from oxycodone but all I've seen is the decreased amounts of it.  

If possible request that your acetaminophen dose be lowered, it doesn't have to lower the opiate ingredient. As long as your physician is aware and monitoring the enzymes I would not be overly concerned. I certainly would not begin cutting any tablets in half without his consent. Be cautions as if this is an opiate then you are most likely on a contract and must follow those guidelines.

If you are not talking about an opiate then there are other, probably better pain relievers then acetaminophen. Be sure and discuss all the possibilities with your physician. You don't want to increase your pain levels either so again be cautious.

Best of luck to you and please keep in touch.
~Tuck

[mellie4]

Liver pain would be a symptom that showed up later in liver damage.  If you stay with what your doctor prescribes, you should be fine.  I don't think you have anything to worry about, especially since your doctor checked your liver enzymes.

I'm sure you're aware that a lot of things have acetaminophen in them.  So you just want to make sure you don't take anything else that has it in it.  You also shouldn't drink alcohol, especially if you're at the upper limit.

I always worried about it myself.  I rarely drink, even socially; I just don't care for it.  But I tend to be a worrier so I asked my doctor to give me just oxycodone, which doesn't contain acetaminophen.   I'm not sure what you're taking but if it's percocet, you can ask for just the oxycodone.  If you're taking something that doesn't come in a form of just the narcotic, you could talk to your doctor about it.

My primary care prefers percocet as she feels it works better for pain.  She believes it can help you take less of the narcotic.  Acetominophen doesn't agree with me in general, and I don't feel it helps with my pain.  I prefer ibuprofen, as that also helps with inflammation.  But either way, I would still prefer to take the narcotic and take the ibuprofen or acetaminophen separately when needed.