I've found the most interesting discussions in that right side bar under Recent Posts! Sure hope your daughter is coping with the pain, John, and will be improving very soon. As to pain meds: earlier in June of this year (2014) I had miniscus surgery on my right knee and have been dealing with the pain of that recovery. The knee (and the pain) are doing better, but I'm not back to 100% yet - or even 85 to 90%. I took Tramadol for a while for pain before the surgery until the night I had little twinkly lights running around on the bedroom ceiling - my first (and I hope my only) hallucination. Then I was perscribed hydrocodone acetominophen after the surgery June 10. Now I want to try to get off that and the doc said to take Tylenol or call him for another prescription of the hydrox-aceto. I'm such an anti-pill person you would not believe, but I've had to come to terms with meds to get through the past six months. I just talked to our nurse practitioner here at our office and will try getting off the hydrox-aceto by taking one in the morning and 2 extra strength Tylenol at night and see if that manages the pain while I continue to recover. Thanks to all for your posts.....I read every one. Teresa

My surefire no-fail cure for the common cold is the Sammich of Death: 1 heaping tablespoon each of chopped garlic, chopped ginger, and Chinese mustard (the kind made fresh at a Chinese restaurant is best). The garlic and ginger are from jars sold in the produce section at grocery stores. Put all three ingredients on a slice of bread and eat it. Your head will explode. But the explosion will clear out your sinuses, allowing you to breathe again and exposing any nasty anaerobics to oxygen. Do it again about four hours later if need be. My theory is that these ingredients make your body so unpleasant that any viruses promptly either die or leave. The only problem is that you probably don't want to be too close to anyone for awhile. For coughs (the dry, itchy kind) I find either licorice (the real stuff), horehound drops, or Pine Brothers cough drops work best for me.

I have seen a couple of sides of the story. One heroine addiction is not always caused by being prescribed pain medications but due to the Mental Health system not treating patients correctly or in time. My son, yes my very own flesh and blood was a heroine addict (whew) hard to admit. We were an upper middle class family and knew from an early age he had issues. We took him to therapy, doctors you name it. He'd tell them what they wanted to hear and they'd call us over protective. He started drinking and drinking to the point I had to pick him up from PC at jail with a blood alcohol lvl 3xs the legal limit. I drove him straight to a treatment facility who told me eh kids will be kids just because he drank too much this time did not mean he had a problem. I tried explaining to them he was depressed, he stayed to his self I knew what I was seeing I lived with it with my mother she was bipolar. They sent him home. Fast forward a couple of years. He comes to me Thank God and tells me he has a problem with alcohol and heroine. When I asked why he took those things he told they made him feel better because there was something inside of him that was dark that he couldn't explain. When he drank or did heroine the darkness went away. We called a treatment facility. Ready for this? They would not take him unless he was high. I am dead serious. I called my doctor begged him to see my child even though he wasn't his patient. We took him in and my doctor tried to get him a bed at a treatment facility they told him the same thing he had to be high. My doctor was shocked!!! My doctor tried admitting him for another health issue to a regular hospital to try and move him from there to a treatment facility. No health issue no admitance. He even suggested my husband and I take my son and get him high. He couldn't believe he was having to suggest this. None of us were willing to do this so finally the doctor made some high up calls to be he knew and after almost 24 hours we finally got him into a treatment facility. 2 months in a facility. What did they do? Traded one addiction for another. They gave him suboxone, prozac and ready for this Adderall (an amphetimine). Once he got out of treatment he was now on more drugs and drugs that are extremely hard to get off of. He went to out patient programs, Narcotic anon. He was told he needed a phychiatrist. The wait for that 6 months!! Guess what happened in the 6 months we waited. He aged off our insurance and now could not get any of his meds because they would not fill the meds without insurance even though we offered to pay in cash. Now he was spiraling again. He could not get insurance, this happened before Obama care and he had no job and could not afford insurance. We had to sit with him day in and day out while he cold turkey withdrew off the medications the doctors had prescribed him because he could now not get them at all. He finally got over that but still fights his darkness. He got a job with insurance and we are now again in a 6 month holding pattern waiting to get him into a mental health doctor. I have seen the increase in him drinking, I know he is struggling. I watch it like a hawk and try to get him to talk to me but he says he can't explain what it is inside of him. I have called to see if we can speed things up, he has called to see if he can speed things up. We are both told unless he is suicidal there is nothing they can do. There are so many patients and so few mental health facilities and because he has a job and functions he is not a high priority to them. I fear every day that he will find a way to find drugs to help him cope. I also fear when he does get into see a doctor they will put him back on a similar cocktail that to me is just as bad. So don't always blame the drug epidemic on doctors over prescribing pain meds, some of the issue is also the mental health system and them not treating patients in a timely manner to the point they seek out relief in other ways. A regular PCP will not help as they claim they do not have enough training to help with a mental health patient, therapist can't prescibe medications and even if the therapist suggests to the PCP what might help just as with the pain meds a lot of doctors now wont even prescribe mental health drugs as they are scared to prescribe anything.

very high level of pain-nothing helps(well didn't try morphine). I had a long scary tooth story..not even Percocet helped. Was climbing up the walls. Slightly lower level of pain-Percocet Even lower but still high-Vicodin BTW I don't find them addicting at all as if the pain goes even a bit down-they especially Vicodin give me awful nausea. hate Vicodin. so I personally never take them the moment I can help that. I have a lot saved from all sorts of painful procedures..what if somebody breaks a bone or something? otherwise all these reactions to pills are highly personal. Have you ever had depressed mood from antibiotics? l I had..from two different ones already. And one of them I was given before several times and never had this side effect. Well now I do. So weird. I won't even start with other bad peculiar reactions to harmless over the counter stuff even..normal people take Melatonin to help them to sleep, I tried-and almost found myself in emergency room. Etc etc. I don't do well with pills, as a rule. Same with alcohol. low tolerance. on the other hand I take huge amount of Benadryl for example if I need to, and nothing bad happens. So it all is, again, very weird and personal. Lower pain-Ibuprofen. But. Advil is better than other forms of it. Why? no idea. just feel the difference, and feel it very well. and should be capsules.. Strangely I also find Tylenol totally useless. Add Aleve to that. And Motrin too. And Excedrin. Not taking these. But some people are not allowed to take Ibuprophen. My DD for example. She takes Tylenol if she has to. And yes, once I took too much of it, and it started hurting ..luckily the pain passed the next day, but got me scared all right. it's bad with migraines because this freaking Sumatriptan also makes me very nauseous. But you can't beat migraine with Advil. You just can't. And other pills they're not for that kind of pain. I take three Advils plus Sumatriptan then need to wait out this nausea thing..then it'll get somewhat better then better..if i caught it in time. I struggle to never take more than one Sumtriptan per day even though you're usually allowed to take two..no..I remember last time I took two..horrible. Oh wow long post. yet again. lol.