Pain Medications

After the intravenous pain medication was stopped a few days after surgery, I was placed on oral pain medication.  What they neglected to tell me was that I was required to request the pain medication every four hours.  Sometimes they would ask if I wanted it, and I learned quickly to accept it whether I needed it or not because the nurses would inevitably be too busy or nowhere to be found when I needed the medicine.  I'm not sure what they were giving me, but I assume it was Oxycodone w/APAP (generic name Percocet) because that is what was prescribed when I was released from the hospital.

Perhaps it was because I crossed state lines to return home, but there was a problem with the prescription for the pain medication, and my pharmacy refused to fill it.  This threw me into a panic because it was a Saturday, and I already knew that my doctor had gone to New York City for the weekend.  What saved me in the end was a left-over prescription I had received from my dentist for a root canal some months prior to my surgery.  The prescription was for Hydrocodone/APAP 7.5/750 MG (generic name Vicodin ES), and it worked very well.  By Monday the prescription problem was corrected, and I receive my regular prescription for the Percocet 5/325 MG.

Although the Percocet is considered stronger (and more addictive), the Vicodin did a better job controlling the pain.  Also, Percocet caused me to "hear voices," which was a little disturbing to say the least.  When the Percocet prescription was finished, my doctor then prescribed the Vicodin in a smaller dosage (500 MG) than I had taken using my dentist's prescription (750 MG), but by then I no longer needed any pain killers.

Later, when I told my dentist about the Vicodin-Percocet comparison, she told me that dentists have learned that Vicodin is a really good bone pain killer.  If I were to have hip resurfacing again, I'd make it a point to tell the doctor that I'd prefer Vicodin instead of Percocet in the initial week of my recovery.