Not that it helps in any way, but after seeing three people get addicted to Hydrocodone, it is one drug that scares the crap out of me. When I had my ACL replaced, the surgeon prescribed it for me, but I just took Ibuprofen to manage the pain. That said, I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but everybody is different, so what works for me may not work for you.
Same here. I've had two shoulder operations, one of which involved taking a bone graft out of my hip to rebuild the socket. Only took Vicodin once or twice. I didn't need it and didn't like the way that it made me feel.
the addiction thing is SOMEWHAT overstated....there are two different things, physical and mental addiction....if your a coffee drinker(or other type of caffeine) or a smoker you deal with physical addiction....not that hard to deal with, you just taper yourself off over a couple days and you dont have much of an issue
the psychological addiction depends pretty much on how your brain is wired....with most people its a nonissue....they just will never actually become addicted....ive taken opiates daily for 15 years and this has been a non issue because its not how my brain is wired.....every time the docs want to try something else ive been all for it, unfortunately nothing else works well one thing does but its frowned apon even more.....
if you are recovering from surgery and the doc is saying your gonna need pain meds for a short while i would not worry bout the whole addiction thing at all....you are usually far better off taking the meds so that you can do the physical therapy pain free or nearly so as it will shorten the healing time and get you back to 100% or nearly so alot faster and get you out of being in pain alot faster...you are dealing with short term acute pain which is what opiates are great for, its the treatment of chronic pain where most the issues arrise
as im guessing BGG is just giving me chit over is my b!tching in the past, my b!tching has been related totally to the physical addiction end because of what i take and the political bullchit(not medical) thats lead to what i have to deal with getting my meds from a doc, chit im sure most people wouldnt be anymore willing to put up with than i am if they were in my position.....
but i am not taking a few vicoden a day for a week or two after surgery and i cant just quit taking my meds with out a severe reaction.....me just stopping because i cant get my meds means missing several days of work while my body goes through withdrawls....but once again im on significantly more than docs gives a person to recover from surgery....if you took the pills every day for 10 days the doc gives you for post op than quit cold turkey your gonna have a crappy day but not a big deal...taper off over 2 or 3 days and your not gonna notice much of anything....
trying to heal in pain is often very counter productive, especially when dealing with things like neck, back and shoulder surgery, the muscles unhappy and tense during the healing will often cause more long term issues...
