It was my physical therapist who alerted me that I might be
addicted to hydrocodone (Vicodin), a drug I have been taking for nearly three
months since my hip replacement surgery.
I had told her that when I didn’t take it, I started to feel a
stinging, achy feeling in all of my joints, similar to having the flu; and she said that sounded like I was addicted.
She suggested that it might not be wise to stop
using it immediately. Didn’t the doctor say anything about how to wean myself from it?
He did not say a thing. Maybe he thought this 68-year old
woman was not likely to get hooked. But anyone can get hooked, and many of the
people who are addicted to hydrocodone are people like me, who started taking
it after surgery and just couldn’t get off it.
Addiction to pain pills is rampant here in the state of New
Mexico, which is now first in illegal use of these opiates that are routinely given for severe
pain. Seems like any doctor ought to know how to help patients stop using it.
There’s a drug that can be administered to assist in that transition; it’s
called Suboxone.
Hydrocodone was first introduced in the 90s to replace
codeine, allegedly to avoid codeine’s constipating effect. Turns out hydrocodone
and oxycodone (Percoset) are just as constipating; all opiates interfere with
the peristalsis of the stomach that accompanies digestion.
Over 50 additional side effects of hydrocodone are listed at
Drug Rehabs, http://www.drug-rehabs.com/hydrocodone_side_effects.htm
Of course that list doesn’t include the much more serious
side effects of taking acetominophen, which is always included in hydrocodone
pills along with the narcotic. Acetaminophen in large doses causes liver
damage. Warnings to that effect are now pasted on the bottle, but in the early
days of hydrocodone use, patients were not informed.
This is the helpful painkiller we were given to replace
codeine, and we may well ask what was so wrong with codeine that we needed a
new drug with all these risks attached to it -- including that fact that it’s
far more addictive, so much more addictive that it’s now in demand as a street
drug?
PubMed lists only 16 side effects for codeine, which is a natural
opiate, unlike the synthetic form used in hydrocodone. Codeine is still used,
but if you want to get it for major pain like surgery you’ll have to practically
stand on your head in the doctor’s office. Is this insistence on hydrocodone for
our protection, or does it protect the market for hydrocodone? To my knowledge
there are no advantages to hydrocodone over codeine.
After Julie, my PT, suggested the possibility of addiction, I
found I was able to reduce the dose immediately to half a pill twice a day; but
two weeks later, I am still taking that dose for the flu-like symptoms! It’s
surprising how uncomfortable those aching joints can be, perhaps because my
body starts thinking I have the flu and ought to be in bed.
So it’s not just the hip surgery one has to recover from –
but the recovery!
Maybe medical marijuana would be a better solution. I’ve
used it, it works … but that's a topic for another blog.
