Hey, I just read this... sounds like you're in a better place. Opiates and opioids are enticing and tricky. I'm on 135 10mg Norco a month. I almost always have a few left over to stick in a bottle for these winter months when I need more... however, my wife had a rotator cuff surgery. Her doctor gave the Percocet 10 and Dilaudid 2, told to take one every two hours, alternating between the two. She didn't like the Dilaudid, orally it doesn't do much so I got to use some... the Norcos never give me a problem but after snorting a few Dilaudid I found they have a bit of a siren call. They are a bit like heroin. When I was young I would try anything and did. With H I had a three day rule. Only three days and I'd stop for at least a week. That worked for me but it is the sort of thing you have to decide in advance, if you wait until you're in the soup to decide, it's too late. I wish the Norco worked better for me but they just take the edge off, I can take 9 or 10 in a day and feel better but I'm still in pain. I'll tell you this too... be very careful if you decide you want your doctor to try something else. I've been on Fentanyl patches 50ug per hour, changed every 48 hours. Three days didn't work for me, I was taking 3 vicoprofen for break through pain. (I stopped when I started sleeping 14 hours a day). Been on Avenza 90mg with the same break through meds.. too much constipation.
So, after years of this and that I've settled on the Norco, hydrocodone seems to work for me... BUT I decided I needed to try something else and went through 8-9 months of misery. First my doctor decided to try a Butrans patch. It was really awful, like taking APAP. Next he tried Nucyenta ER... upped the dosage, it too was a joke. Both of these came with no breakthrough meds. I've been thinking of asking to try OxyContin but I feel snakebit and am really scared to rock the boat. So, do your homework if you ever consider a change. My doctor will generally listen and give me what I ask for, if I'm reasonable. I asked for Exalgo and he wrote it but insurance said NO and it was cost prohibitive, so I stayed with the Norco. I'm really careful now but I prefer IR drugs like Norco or Percocet so I can take less on a "good day" and more on a "bad day"... also got my script upped. I was on 4 a day and wanted to go to 5 which was really more than I needed so he agreed to or 4.5 a day so I can take 4 on some days and 5 on bad days. Try that. Also my regular doctor gives me 60 Fioracet a month for headaches and they also help with pain in general. He also gave me 60 1mg klonopin a month but stay away from it. If I knew then what I know now I would never have started on klonopin. My wife's .5mg Xanax was helping knock out headaches, he thought Klonopin would do better, they don't. I still have to take about 1.5mg of Xanax to break cluster headaches, the Klonopin helps keep them from getting started BUT... Klonopin has HOOKS like nothing else. It's like that thing in the Alien movies that attaches to your face... you can't get it off. I've tried a really slow taper and after a month my whole upper back, shoulders, and neck was like a huge muscle spasm. I went back to the full dose and it immediately went away. I had dropped 1/4mg for 11 days then again the same drop for 15 days when it hit. BAD STUFF.. STAY AWAY!
Good luck to you from another chronic pain sufferer. BTW, a really low dose, like maybe .5mg of dried mushrooms will help, a sub threshold dose. They don't normally test for that or an ultra low dose of L5D will help and will never be detected. I mean like 1/8th blotter. It won't make you "trip" but it will make your day better and help with pain. Hofmann considered 20ug to be the threshold dose and Sandoz made 20ug tablets of Delsyd, of course they also made 100ug vials! It is a miracle molecule if you can find it and keep the dose low. You should know your source if you try that because some low lifes are putting nbome on paper and it can be dangerous to someone my age ?. Anyway, just trying to help. Pain will make you do whatever you need to do if it gets bad enough. OH.. and I don't know where you live but some good weed will also kill the pain. Last year the CDC put out its new guidelines, everyone knows about the impact on doctors prescribing narcotics BUT I read them, they also recommend that pain clinicians not test for THC and they suggest that if they do check and detect THC in a pain patient that the clinic does nothing about it. Funny how the medical industry grabs on to one thing and ignores another part... but if you can add it, it will help. Not Indica but a good Sativa. You won't hurt and you'll feel at least 25 years younger. Another miracle drug but the people in charge seem to have a big problem with anything that makes people feel better... we can't have people feeling better!!
Me 4 U