I wish I could take Tramadol, but it landed me in the ER....I thought I would die right then and there. I never went thru so many bodily dysfunctions at once. That seems to happen to me when ever I take an SSRI.

I don't seem to have issues with opiates, except for stimulation, so I have to choose between sleep or pain relief. To the amazement of my docs, I seem to have no withdrawl issues, other than an exacerbation of RLS briefly. I was at one time on Fentanyl, but didn't like it, and went off it. I was on Oxycontin and had an issue with it not disolving due to gastroparesis and apparently I have some denervation issues with the esophagus, so slow release stuff is inconsistent....so my doc perfers I stay on short acting stuff. Right now I am on liquid opiates. Pills won't go down. That said, I don't use a lot of it, but when I 'flare' up or have an issue, I won't hesitate to ask for it. When I don't need it, I go off of it.

Every one has their own Cytochrome P450 genetic fingerprint. You can actually be typed. You can make a decision on opiates....not every one does poorly on them. Hydrocodone can be called in to the pharmacy, oxycodone is stronger and you have to go pick up the script or have it mailed which is a pain...and you have to do it every month. That alone has made me more partial to hydrocodone. I recently read that Darvon or Darvocette is not much better than aspirin and can cause heart damage, so that went out the window recently, and I 'upgraded.' Because I had bowel issues prior to opiates, and it is due to denervation, the opiates really don't bother it as much as it would for folks without those issues. I won't ask how your bowel issues are.

I have no clinical inflammation, and they have enough pieces of me to know, so, anti-inflammatories won't work, and with my esophagus in the state it is in, they are out of the question, unless I want to bleed.

As far as where drugs or anything is made these days, I would assume at least some ingredients come from China...in everything.

You know your level of pain, and it is your decision. Read all the opinions, and like always, make the best decision for you.