Opioids Percocet and Ambien

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Hi everyone! I’d like to first start off by saying I am very grateful for this website and everyone’s input. I have been using it for several years as a trusted resource for honest answers to real life questions that not many people will give an honest answer.
so here goes my first post in over 7 years. So I have been aninsomniac for well over the last 14-15 years of my life and I’ve tried many drugs to attempt to help (mainly I’ve been given things that are antidepressants or things that aren’t marked for sleep. However, I finally found that one Ambien CR (12.5mg) a night worked wonders for me and my life was back to normal and I couldn’t have been more thrilled. Iwas on this medication, same dose for well over a year with out every needing to increase the dose due to tolerance buildup.(I should also mention I have been prescribed Adderall for at least 4 years prior to the start of the ambien prescription.
so things were going great and in 2014 I ended up having my first back surgery due to a ruptured disk (there was no accident nor any fall, it just happens) so I had a surgery in hopes of correcting it and sure enough almost exactly 2 years to the day I was being taken in for a SECOND back surgery because the SAME disk completely ruptured again!!! For no reason. The doctors were baffled. Long story short after the second surgery my back not only didn’t get better it continually got worse. I tried everything to help, acupuncture, PT, you name it but afyer
A few years I had no choice but to break down and take the surgeons advice and enter pain management. So I did and I was so afraid so I made sure my doctors had all my transcripts and they knew every medication I was taking etc.
Everything was great for over 6 months until one random day my psychiatrist came out and said I can’t prescribe you ambien anymore becauE you are taking pain pills...
So you basically have to choose.. either you sleep at night or you get to live a somewhat pain free life and continue to take your pain medication!!? I was shocked and devastated so I chose to continue with the pain meds.

So my question for y’all is this... has anyone been in a similar situation where their doctors are okprescribing both of those medications? It seems strange because he was fine doing it for over 6 months and also my other doctor said it shout because a problem to prescribe both
Sorry for such a long post but I would so much appreciate any info y’all may be able to give me...

I should also note that I’m scared to just up and leave to find another doctor because I don’t want to seem like I’m doctor shopping or doing something against the law. I’m trying to do everything by the book

 

[negrogesic]

That's nonsense. He simply is afraid of liability concerns.

The truth is, the coprescription of 12.5mg of zolpidem and oxycodone (to a patient who is accustomed and tolerant to their dose of oxycodone) is perfectly acceptable. Plenty of people on significant doses of narcotics are prescribed benzodiazepines, and zolpidem and other z-drugs produce less respiratory and are in that regard even safer.

Find a new psychiatrist rather than suffer. It is not doctor shopping if you are dissatisfied and he is not providing a good standard of care.

What is the dose of oxycodone and at what intervals out of curiosity?

 

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Thank you for taking the time to even reply to my question! I’ve been in pain management for over two years probably more, and I should mentioned than it wasn’t until this January did they switch me from Hydrocodone 10mg to my current Percocet 7.5 (obviously I took generic for both) and each month I currently get 120qty which is up to 4 pills a day, one every six hours PRN.
I should note that for my entire life as far as I can remember I have had an extremely high tolerance for all medication including anesthesia and Novocain. My doctors/dentist/ surgeons have said it’s due to my body metabolizing the medication very fast. So one pain pilldoes nothing, the legal amount of Novocain doesn’t work at all... you get the picture.

 

[negrogesic]

That is a pretty low dose of percocet (oxycodone).

There is no reason (apart from his ignorance) that the two cannot be combined. Find another psychiatrist or perhaps explain the situation to your pain management doctor. Though the pain management doctor probably won't want to prescribe it to you themselves out of their own liability worries, if they were aware you were being prescribed ambien by a psychiatrist they wouldn't protest it.

Of course, if you were to take a handful of both medications you would certainly be in danger. But ambien can certainly be prescribed to a responsible patient on pain meds, and is quite common, along with benzodiazepines.