Hydrocodone vs Oxycodone

[Kwazylegs]

Could somebody please tell me what the difference is between hydrocodone and oxycodone?

When my RLS goes nuts in the early evening, and I take one-half of a tablet of hydrocodone 10/325, I usually have to wait 1-3 hours for the symptoms of RLS and post-surgical right foot pain to subside.

But when I take one tablet of a remaining prescription of oxycodone 5/325 that the orthopedic surgeon prescribed last November for post-surgical shoulder pain, my RLS symptoms and pain subside within 30 minutes.

Is the oxycodone more effective for RLS and pain than hydrocodone? Or is it simply more effective for my symptoms?

Since DA's aren't an option for me, I need to find a quicker, more effective means to deal with the symptoms.

Thank you all, and hope you all have a restful night.

--Andy

[Neco]

It's a matter of strength, and your metabolism vs certain substances.

Pretty much all opiates hit me within 5 - 15 minutes, and full effects usually within 30 to 60.

Hydrocodone is significantly weaker than Oxycodone too, so that will always play a role in things.


When I used to take hydrocodone, it usually took taking a couple at a time to see fast onset, even with a huge honking 64oz glass of water (not all at once, but throughout my dosing schedule).. These days I've taken to soda of some kind, like a Sprite/7up type. The carbonation can sometimes help things move faster.

But in general its about taking adequate liquid and an adequate strength relative to your symptoms. Sometimes the right kind of food will help also, as it gets your GI track going and the pills can dissolve faster.

[Kwazylegs]

Thanks Zach for your helpful information.

I really haven't been taking the meds with more than 1/2 cup of water, but I'll try your suggestions about ways to possibly make the meds work faster and more effectively.

I'm going to ask my PCP for a prescription for the oxycodone instead of the hydrocodone, both because of its increased effectiveness and rapid onset of relief.

I will also ask whether or not the oxycodone is available without the acetaminophen.

Thanks again, and hoping you have a good day.

--Andy

[Neco]

Oxycodone can be prescribed without acetaminophen in 5mg and a couple other higher doses.

I suppose if it would help you could use the acetaminophen as leverage too.. It does nothing and you really don't need it

[Polar Bear]

We are all learning all of the time.
I also only ever took a mouthful of water with medication, nothing like a big glassful.

[Kwazylegs]

Zach, thanks again for your help with this. I'm going to ask my PCP for a prescription for oxycodone 10mg, without acetaminophen.

I'll call the pharmacy to ask if the tablets are scored, so that I know what quantity to ask the doctor for...if the oxycodone continues to be more effective than the hydrocodone, I may need less of it to control my RLS and pain, and so might need to cut the tablets in half.

Good to hear from you again Polar Bear. I hope that all is going well for you. I agree with you about the need for us to constantly be learning about this disease, whether primary or secondary to another condition.

Our conditions and their effective treatment are continually changing...I'm learning this, and it's only through the sharing of these changes that others might be helped.

I personally have only come back to this forum when something changes in my condition...medications no longer work at all, or as well as they did previously. When all is going well, I've been selfish, and dropped out of this learning/sharing process.

When things were going well, I thought that I didn't have anything to offer anyone here. And even when my condition deteriorated, I stubbornly tried to figure things out on my own...and this usually doesn't work out so well, with much unnecessary pain and sleep deprivation.

It's just my flawed nature, I guess. It doesn't work in 12-step recovery, and it doesn't work here either.

In 2006, I believe, this forum had a peak in activity/membership/posting, and I've noticed many threads here now seem to be a bit dated. I wonder if this is because others are doing well, and so have moved on like I did, or is it because another forum is currently more active than this one. Or have I just become a dinosaur of sorts, using the "old traditional" method of posting, while others are now using more modern communications?

In any event, thanks again for you being here to help.

---Andy

[Polar Bear]

I reckon all members have something to offer. Sometimes just hearing that someone else has 'been there' and got through it gives a wee lift.

[ViewsAskew]

The 2006 info potentially isn't accurate. Well, misleading may be a better word.

That was about the time we got involved as moderators because of all the spam. Those posts and fake registrations vastly inflated the actual activity.

That said, it does seem quieter here these days. Over time these forums seem to take on different personas. The board has changed its tenor over time and is maybe less personal that it used to be.

But, I also think we do tend to be here when we "need" it and just gravitate away over time when things are going well.

[Neco]

10mg may be hard for you to find.. Although technically they are made, a lot of places do not seem to carry them..

What is your current dose from your Oxycodone prescription thats leftover?

Honestly I would start with that and not outright ask for a higher dose, on top of switching to a stronger medication.. The Doctor may read false warning flags for drug seeking, etc..

Its important to recognize your doctors comfort level with what they are giving you also.. If you've had to poke and prod them, or something like that to even get what you've got this can potentially be a bad idea and leave you without -any- medication, much less a doctor to see in the future...

Hopefully that is not the case, and your doc has been willing to let you try anything without a fuss.. Just be sure you bring it up appropriately.

Saying something like, "Gee doctor, you know the Hydrocodone works well enough when it actually works, but it takes a couple hours for me to get any real relief.. But I was given this other medication for some post surgical/whatever pain recently and I noticed that it helped a lot quicker and controlled both my RLS and my pain much better. I was hoping maybe we could switch to this other stuff instead, and I think it's also more healthy that it doesn't contain any acetaminophen either, because that stuff does nothing for my pain/symptoms and I don't like the idea of taking something I don't need, just to get what I do"

Or something like that.. Sorry if any of this just sounds paranoid, but we've all learned from experience here that doctors are easily rattled about anything relating to opiates.

[Kwazylegs]

Ann, regarding the previous "misleading" numbers of those involved in this forum's activity, I now understand.

I guess my question regarding the participation here stemmed from my perception that many of the posters here a few years ago seemed to interact almost as a "family", and while I still sense this relationship between those that still post here, I do miss some of the people who no longer post.

I guess the nature of all things in life is the certainty of change, and so it is here. After all, considering my own personal "abandonment" of this forum for months at a time, I of all people should understand.

And Zach, thank you for your cautions and suggestions regarding my requesting a change to more potent controlled substances.

The prescription I had from last November's shoulder surgery was for oxycodone 5/325 tablets, and was written by the orthopedic surgeon who did that surgery.

Since November, I've seen this same orthopedic surgeon (who's sub-specialty in orthopedics is spine surgery) to treat my increasingly severe right foot "shocklike" pain and numbness which I acquired after my spine surgery in Illinois 26 months ago.

The recent MRI of my low back shows both recurrent/residual disc herniation as well as scar tissue which is apparently entrapping some of the nerve roots leading to my right foot. And this problem, unfortunately, is also giving rise to increasingly severe pain and RLS every evening, and insomnia into the early morning hours, probably in anticipation of further pain.

A selective nerve root block I had done last month didn't do bubkus for my symptoms. This lack of response to the steroidal injection told the surgeon that he could do nothing surgically to relieve my symptoms, and that the only treatment option he could offer was palliative in nature. He offered to prescribe medications to accomplish this relief of pain and RLS, and although I've only known this doctor for 11 months, he also trusts me to not abuse any of the medications he prescribes.

I still have a quantity of the hydrocodone 10/325 (prescribed by my PCP), which I'm going to be using for the next two weeks while my wife and I go back to Chicago for a visit. I'm going to take it, along with the gabapentin and clonazepam, earlier in the evening (with larger quantities of water), so that hopefully I won't have another night like last night, and maybe fall asleep before 5am.

I think that I'm under-medicating my symptoms...hoping that maybe I'll be able to get by with smaller quantities of meds than prescribed by my doctors. I guess I'm still resistant to "needing" these meds to control my symptoms, and I'm paying too high a price for this. I'm still trying to be a better companion to my wife while taking these medications in sufficient quantities to control the RLS and pain, and now know that I have a choice of either medicating sufficiently, or going through my days and nights sleep-deprived...either way I'm not going to be like the person I was before.

Sorry to ramble on... maybe that's another reason to hang around here more frequently...to spare you all yet another "novel" of my thoughts and experience. Yet I seem to remember posts of similar length when I first joined this forum (the actual year eludes me).

At any rate, I'm blessed with having two doctors down here who are willing to help me...who know of my RLS and pain, and who also know that I'm sincere in wanting to feel better, without abusing the medications they prescribe. I'm truly grateful for this, and hope and pray that for all of you who are in need of doctors like these, that you either have them now, or can find them.

Wishing you all a restful evening.

--Andy

[badnights]

I don't know if this will make anyone post more often when things are going well for them, but: it's really great when things are the sh.ts to hear from people who are doing well.

If I'm down, it might make me a bit bitter to read happy-people stuff, but if I was really down, it would do me good to hear that things do get better for some people. Or - as Susan quoted Dr B for me - 95% better for 98% of people who get proper treatment. I might have the numbers mixed up (they can't be more than guesstimates anyway). Just: it's good to know things CAN get better.

The moderators and other posters here set a kindly tone and make us feel welcome when we post long rants or post infrequently or lose it. I really appreciate that.

[ViewsAskew]

Thank you, Beth.

Kwazy, it is different. It's not just because people drifted away, either. Some people have chosen to leave for other reasons, and there are many - some personal, some about how we talk opening about drugs, some because of personality conflicts, some felt betrayed...

Just my personal opinion....forums like this are very difficult when they get too personal, particularly because we're often tired, over- or under-medicated, grumpy, and not thinking as clearly as we could. It's soooooo easy to say something in a way you didn't mean, to mean something you wish you'd never said in typing and now can't take back, to take things extremely personally, to have expectations that can't be met. I think we've unconsciously taken a step back from the ultra personal and keep just a bit of a distance from our hearts.

My guess is that someday it will morph into yet something else as others come and go and shape the feeling of it.

[Kwazylegs]

Bethf,

I think you're onto something...that maybe just being here listening, and offering encouragement to those who are going through a rough patch (even when things are going well for us)is a way to pass on some hope that things can change for the better.

Many of us share some of the same symptoms at one time or another, and when we're in the cr.pper with really bad pain/RLS, depressive symptoms, and all the rest that goes along with this disease, it's good to hear from someone that's been through the same stuff, and made it through to higher ground.

In my experience, I've found good and not-so-good doctors in various specialties, and what I've discovered is that when it comes to RLS, most of my doctors have had a hard time understanding the extent to which RLS affects my life...beyond the pain and sleep-deprivation, the side-effects of medications that put me into crummy moods, mental fogs, and that reduce my ability to do things and remember things that not too many years ago would have been much easier.

But despite their inability to understand much of the clinical science of RLS, the better doctors that I've been fortunate enough to find, at least try to help...and it's this attitude of "caring" about me as a person that sets these doctors apart.

And, bethf, I agree with you that the moderators here do make us feel welcome, and they, along with all the other posters here, help me to understand that I'm not alone in this journey. They anchor this place, and maintain it as a place I can go to when the doctors, pharmacists, researchers, and even the people in my life who are closest to me don't "get it".

When I can't figure something out about medications, doctors, or anything else related to life with RLS, I know that somebody here will either have answers, or will be able to point me in the direction to find those answers.

Something you said about how hearing people who are doing well makes you feel bitter, frustrated and perhaps depressed, also made me realize that I've never wanted to shove all my "sunshine" into someone else's not so swell life, fearing that I'd be making them feel even worse.

But I've got to remember the other thing you said...that sometimes well-meaning words from anyone (whether or not they're doing well themselves) can make a difference in the life of someone who's hurting...that I don't need to fear offending someone so long as my intentions are right, and my words are soft.

Have a quiet and restful night.

--Andy

[ViewsAskew]

Gosh, Kwazy, I missed you. I hope you decide to hang around for awhile again.

[Neco]

Sounds like you got a lot going on.

You definitely seem to have as legitimate a case as anyone, for taking Oxycodone, so just make sure you argue that point well if you meet any resistance.

Sounds like you know what you want, and what you need to do. Good luck.

Also.. have you tried Lyrica? It may give you better results with the nerve pain.