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Vicc · 09-01-2007, 01:50 PM

Hey wakegirl and Desi,

After my 1995 spine and back injuries (that also led to my RSD), it was obvious from the start that the 8 to 10 propoxyphene I had been taking for a previous spine injury wasn't going to be strong enough. I talked with my pharmacist about which pain drugs offered the biggest bang for the buck, and she told me that mg for mg, hydrocodone is about 7 times stronger than morphine; that 7.5mg of hydrocodone was about equivalent to 50mg of morphine.

I believed she was telling me the truth, and it didn't hurt that my pcp had already written a scrip for it, so hydro made sense to me. Since then, I have reached the point where hydro isn't enough: The mfg warns not to take more than 50mg a day, and I needed more than that. My neurosurgeon switched me to 40mg of oxycodone and 30mg of hydro daily.

I find that 5mg of oxy gives better relief than 15mg of hydro, and is enough to keep my pain pretty quiet, as long as I don't do anything at all. I learned to stop doing things after I figured out that all of my attempts to fight the pain and keep walking only made me weaker and in more pain. My formal surrender came when I began using a power wheelchair to get to the bathroom; I was falling so often I was risking an even more serious injury.

Anyway, these drugs control my spine/back pain, but don't seem to have much effect on the RSD pain (which we know doesn't respond well to opiates), so the quantity I take is too low to help with your awful pain: But if my pharmacist was right in saying that hydro is 7X stronger than morphine, and if my experience with oxy gave even greater relief, I suggest thinking about one of these two,

Work comp pays for it, but my monthly scrip for 240 oxycodone only costs $45.00, and that sounds like more bang for the buck than morphine (which has been around so long it should be dirt cheap). I hope you will give this some thought...Vic