Busted ankle and Opioids
 

My big dogs were playing with me while I was on a sheet of ice. Boom goes the dynamite!

Surgery, plates and screws. I have a bottle of Oxycodone 5 mg x 42 pills. 1 pill every 4 hrs.

The day after op, I was popping them like candy. Helped a bit. 3 days after, 1 per 3.5 hrs. 6 days post op I will take 2-3 for the whole day. Wakeup, Bedtime and a misc.

So the question is how does a person become addicted to these suckers?

I still have 5 more weeks in the cast, then 2-4 in a boot.

Tomorrow, I'll see if just ibuprofen 200 mg will do.

Do they use get high? Trips? Or is there pseudo pain that people use to feel better?

Are you kidding? Those things make you feel amazing. When I got my wisdom teeth out I was popping one every 2 hours or so and when I stopped I got the worst headache I've ever had in my life.

When you are actually using them for pain or post surgery, the euphoric effect is mitigated. At least in my experience.

When you have chronic pain, it doesn't go away 3 days later.

Different people are more prone to it based on genetic brain neurology and chemistry. For the majority of people that get addicted, amount of Serotonin released is at such an extreme that their brain almost immediately craves more. Predisposition plays a big part in all of it.

I tried oxys a couple of times and felt sick. Now hyrdrocodone - with a few drinks - that's the stuff.

The yellow norcos are the supreme shit. Other stuff - same milligrams - not as good.

So... uh... whatcha doing with the rest of those?

FEELS GOOD MAN

Take three of those mother****ers... see how quick it gets on top of you. My advise is to take them for a few days and then cold turkey and go with ibuprofen for a day or two. Then back to the meds. Give your body and mind a break if the pain is manageable. Then abuse the **** out of that script for a few days. :) Take a few days/weeks off. Rinse. Repeat.

My wife is a nurse and my father is a physician and my legal practice involves a fair amount of drug cases so I've researched this issue and discussed it with family members who have expertise. From what I've seen, addiction involves more than taking meds as prescribed. It seems to me that there are generally two kinds of addicts. FIrst are those who are just looking for something to get high. If they can't get heroin, they go for meth; if they can't get meth, they aim for cocaine. This type of addiction is more 'mental' than anything else because it is the feeling of being high that is important more than the particular substance. This is admittedly over-simplifying but I don't want to write a treatise. This doesn't seem to be your issue.

Second are those who develop physical addiction. These people start with some kind of injury and wind up needing meds to manage their pain. If your injury was relatively recent, this is way too early to say this is the case. This type of addiction takes months, if not longer. Managing your pain helps your recovery and it is better to stay in front, so to speak, of your pain than to try to take something to deal with pain after it flares up. This means that if you are to take meds every 4 hours and 4 hours comes and you're feeling fine, you should probably take your meds anyway to prevent the pain from coming back. This is really the case if your surgery was relatively recent, such as the past 5-8, maybe even 10, days. After that, you can start to stretch out the time between meds. And I wouldn't go to 200 grams of ibuprofen. I'd do 600 or so. My wife routinely just recommends 800 grams for headaches, muscle sprains, etc. It is exrtremely doubtful you would become physically addicted to the meds following this course. If you finish your pain meds and your ankle still hurts, you should talk with your doctor. My guess is that he won't be surprised if you need another course but he wants to make sure of it before he prescribes it.

Where I really see people get physically addicted are back injuries. I've represented several people who got involved in oxy distribution rings to feed their supply of oxys because of back injuries. Haven't seen anyone with a foot injury in that situation. And if you do have a situation where you are in constant pain, I'd recommend some type of marijuana. It works wonders, doesn't have the physical addiction or side effects (increasing dosages, constipation and thinking issues from what I've seen) that long-term narcotic use has.

I don't know, but I've read enough articles about people getting addicted to them that they scare me. I recently had a minor surgery. Filled the prescription for 10 days worth of the stuff. The first day, I took 1/2 of a tab. After I just used Advil and gritted through it.

I'm sure it would be different with a major injury, but I didn't want to take any chances on mine, so I opted for the discomfort instead.

I'd flush them if you can handle the pain.

Very difficult to stop, especially if you're getting a euphoric buzz off them.

Just be careful man.

That's too bad. You didn't have to do that. Most news stories are designed to scare you and this whole 'opioid addiction epidemic' is part and parcel of that. I have had my appendix and my gall bladder removed. I took the pain meds until I really didn't hurt anymore. That was about 10-14 days.

Don't take oxy, it's heroin

you should request something else

Get off them as soon as possible even if you have a some pain. You are hardcore and can handle it. Save the leftovers in case you have a really bad day. That's what I do.

What is you plan for strengthening your ankle when its healed? You'll obviously do some physical therapy, but I always do a little extra. Yoga...weights...shower exercises...whatever.