Is Anyone Very Sensitive To Painkillers

[cleo]

I'm very sensitive to painkillers. Just two hydrocordone pills and I'm vomiting. I may be having surgery and am worried how I'll how I'll do pain killer wise. Has anyone else had surgery with this sensitivity?

[gackedo]

A common effect of narcotics is nausea and vomiting. If you try to take it with some food you might tolerate it better. You can also tell your surgeon that Hydrocodone makes you nauseous and ask for a prescription for an anti nausea medication.

[E Soskis]

I never take two pain pills at one time - recipe for disaster! Start with 1/2 of a pill and take an advil or tylenol with it. You can always take another 1/2 pill if you tolerate it - small increments. I rarely have to take more than one pain pill plus a plain pain killer like tylenol or advil. Just be sure you are not taking too much tylenol as many pain pills have that ingredient in them along with the narcotic. Also, don't take narcotics on an empty stomach - they are a stomach irritant and can cause nausea. There are many different types of pain compounds - talk with your MD about some that may be less irritating or not as strong but, still effective.

[Raisin]

I also have sensitivity to Hydrocodone and get nauseous and clammy and feel like I will pass out. Dilaudid made me itch like mad in the hospital once. But, morphine was fine. In other words, I am sure that something will work for you. I may have a surgery coming up in the future as well. Best of luck to you Cleo!

[imapumpkin]

I have a very bizarre but severe sensitivity to opiates. The first time I was given the smallest dose of morphine, it felt like I got an intensely painful electric shock up my arm from the injection site, up to my neck, and then spread down my limbs to the rest of my body, and then I felt twitchy for the next several hours. The nurse at the time said she'd never seen a reaction like that; it clearly isn't an allergy because those reactions take longer to occur and this was instantaneous from when she injected it.

When I had surgery last year, my first night in the ICU I endured several more of these reactions when the nurses would inject me with some other morphine-related opiate painkillers. By the first morning after my surgery, they said no more and I spent the entire rest of my recovery being treated with high-dose ibuprofen. OUCH.

What kind of surgery are you having? What I found most helpful in terms of pain-management was lidocaine adhesive patches at the incision site, but depending on what type of surgery it is that might not be an option.

[cleo]

Thanks everyone. Imapumpkin the surgery I may have is a sacrocolpopexy. Its done to lift a dropped bladder in someone who has previously had a hysterectomy. Its laproscopic. The surgeon attaches a sling from the front of your body to the ligaments in the spine. My doc initially told me when he didn't think I needed the surgery that I wouldn't want this surgery, that it was very painful. Big mistake on his part.:-) Even if I could have the lidicaine patch I wonder if it would work for me. I know it sounds crazy but lidicaine doesn't work for me at the dentist.