Okay after clarification, it is not as serious as I thought. The reason you may be having trouble breathing after stopping is because narcotics relax smooth muscles and you may be having a rebound effect with your breathing muscles contracting too much from still trying to overcompensate for the pain medication because your body still thinks it's in your system. Do you have trouble getting enough air, like you breathe in and it feels like you can't get a deep enough breath? This is what happens to me sometimes when I'm not on pain meds. Let me know how it goes and if this was helpful!
Since it starts when you stop taking your meds, could it be because you're pain is going up? I have trouble breathing when my pain is higher.
I'm seeing my doc in November and will ask him about changing meds. The funny thing is , the difficulty breathing doesn't start until I stop taking the meds. When I'm taking them I'm fine, no problem breathing at all. But I'm still going to see if he will prescribe something else. Thanks for the response.
This can be a serious problem. It sounds like you may be on too high of a dose or you may need to change to a different pain medication. Breathing problems is a serious side effect of opiate medications such as hydrocodone. I would talk to the prescribing doctor to see what exactly to do. Let me know what you find out!