Oxycodone

When surgeons cut open parts of your body and then sew those parts up again, pain ensues. Therefore, pain medications are ordered and the patient gets to take those meds home and use them in a safe manner to alleviate said pain.

Patients also get to take those pain meds home and use them in whatever manner they deem appropriate, safe or not, because there is no one monitoring one's usage in one's own home.

When you google oxycodone, you get a lot of information and most of it seems straightforward, logical and serious. The risks are obvious, of course, especially addiction. In reading about oxy, the thing that struck me was the variation in dosage.  The dosage suggested to me is one or two pills every 4 - 6 hours as needed. My pills are 5 mg. However, I just read that the usual starting dose is 5 - 30 mg every 4 - 6 hours.  WHAT???  That is up to six times what I was prescribed! 

Maybe in cases of really, really bad pain a dosage of 30 mg (instead of 5-10) would be warranted. I get that. But it seems like such a huge dose that it would not be surprising to hear that people were getting addicted to the drug if they were taking 30 mg every 4 hours. 

The effect on me was not one I would seek out. It made me lightheaded, dizzy and sleepy. It did mitigate the pain, or at least it made me less aware of the pain. The most I took was 10 mg every 4 hours and that was for a 18 hour stretch the day after surgery when the pain was at its worse. After that, one 5 mg pill every 4 - 6 hours was enough and after a couple of days I didn't need any.

Don't get me wrong; if I or someone I loved was in incredible pain, I would suggest the maximum dose, even with the risk of addiction.  It just seems that the guidelines are so random and so vague that over medicating could be an easy mistake.

That's all, just my report on my experience with current narcotics.  Seriously, I liked it when I needed it, was happy to stop taking it when I didn't need it. The side effects, especially relative to constipation (need I say more?) are another reason to not overuse the drug.  If I want to feel spacey and lightheaded, I would much rather have a couple of fingers of a good bourbon. Doesn't dull the pain that much but it tastes a lot better.

Good night.