When do you take Percocet

hercules411
on 6/13/11 8:36 am
I'm home from outpatient sinus surgery this morning.  They gave me 325 mg percocet pills.. Take two tablets every four hours as needed.  I had my surgery this morning and it is now about 6:30PM. I really don't feel a lot of pain. The area around my nostrils are tender to the touch and I feel as if I have a dull sinus headache. They gave me Fentanyl for pain at the hospital.

I'm one of those people who don't like to take a lot of pills. (Pretty funny, considering how many vitamins and minerals we RNY patients take). But I also was sent home with Percocet after my RNY and never took one of them.

I guess I'm looking for feedback from people (especially with sinus surgery experience) if they experienced more pain the night of surgery.. the day after... or days after.

I don't know if I should take one or two just as a precaution before bedtime or just wait for signs of pain. I don't know how long the effects of Percocet takes to kick in.


Max wt. 500+  WLS workshop  4/6/09 440 Surgery  9/21/09  324   9/21/10  218
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PatXYZ
on 6/13/11 8:42 am
Percs will start to take effect in about 15 mins. You'll probably feel sleepy and relaxed if you've not taken a lot of painkillers. I take these occassionally for migraines and have had them for oral surgery as well. My understanding is that it is not neccesary to wait for the pain to set in, for the first couple of days simply take one every 4 hours as prescribed to avoid pain, if one isn't enough, take 2.
Susan S.
on 6/13/11 8:55 am - Roselle, NJ
If you don't feel terribly uncomfortable I wouldn't take them. I was given vicodin after my plastics and never ran into a problem, but was given percocet after my shoulder tendon surgery (I needed serious pain relief) and I ran into Opoid addiction very quickly....just a few days and I was having withdrawal at the end of every 4 hour dose. Both drugs are notorious for addiction in the general population and post WLS patients have even more problems with them (transfer addiction?) according to some of the studies I've seen. I worry about serious pain as the number of effective drugs is limited for us because of the no NSAIDs thing, but I'm very afraid of those drugs now. The most pain really occurs from swelling which occurs immediately postop. If you can tolerate it nnow.....chances are you can do without. I never needed pain meds after my RNY either. That was a walk in the park! Feel better. Glad it's behind you! Susan
Obesity Help Support Group Leader - The Woman Warrior
286/170/131 (starting/goal/current)
LBL - 10-30-08, brachioplasty/augmentation 2-26-09, medial thigh lift 3-16-09
Plastics - Dr. Joseph Fodero

 


286/170/140/131 (starting weight/goal/surgeons goal/current)

LBL 10-30-08 - Joseph Fodero
Brachioplasty/Breast Augmentation - 2=24-09


 

PatXYZ
on 6/13/11 11:14 am
It's unfortunate that the other poster had issues with painkiller addiction, but her telling you not to take them is irrational, it's like me telling you never to have a glass of wine because I'm an alcoholic. Irrational fear of addiction is no reason to not take prescribed pain medication. The rate of addiction amongst LONG TERM opioid painkiller users is 3%, even lower amongst those to whom they are occasionally prescribed. The likelihood of experiencing pain and discomfort from not taking prescribed painkillers is probably 100%. Recent studies actually suggest that doctors are under prescribing and patients are under dosing opioid painkillers due to utterly overblown fears about addiction.
PatXYZ
on 6/13/11 11:24 am
BTW - I'm getting my info from studies and meta-analysis from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
H.A.L.A B.
on 6/14/11 1:30 am
post op RNY we have much higher risk of developing addiction to pills and to alcohol due to lack on intristic factor and the rerouted intestines.  It is not same in general populations that the research you mention is based on. 

Hala. RNY 5/14/2008; Happy At Goal =HAG

"I can eat or do anything I want to - as long as I am willing to deal with the consequences"

"Failure is not falling down, It is not getting up once you fell... So pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again...."

PatXYZ
on 6/14/11 3:07 am
I don't believe this to be true for several reasons;
1) RNYers still have intrinsic factor, it just joins with what they consume further down in the digestive tract and therefore has a smaller window of time for it to act and assist in absorption of B vitamins, that's why oral B supplementation is somewhat effective, just often not enough so.
2) I am unaware of any relation between intrinsic factor and and the body's ability to absob or not absorb orally taken opioids - are you saying there is a connection?
3) opioid addiction occurs due to reactions in two brain systems, the locus coeruleus and the meso-limbic dopamine system and neither of these are mediated by stomach intrinsic factor.

The only connection I can see between some RNY surgery patients and people at higher risk for drug addiction would be amongst those who were specifically food addicts, there might be a hightened response from the reward system with the meso-limbic response (because you can see that this response is abnormal in some food addicts) when opioids are taken and thus drives the person to take more - but this is purely speculative, and would only apply in certain cases.

Can you present any scientific, journal based evidence for what you're claiming, because I've got a degree in bio psych and I'd be interested in expanding my knowledge on this.
H.A.L.A B.
on 6/14/11 3:41 am
google it..

Hala. RNY 5/14/2008; Happy At Goal =HAG

"I can eat or do anything I want to - as long as I am willing to deal with the consequences"

"Failure is not falling down, It is not getting up once you fell... So pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again...."

H.A.L.A B.
on 6/14/11 3:54 am
You made a few good points. I mixed a few terms.  Intristic factor has nothing to do with the alcohol or opiates breakdown or absorbtion. But some of the enzymes and the "whole stomach" can influence how fast and how much alcohol or opiates can enetr the blood stream. 
In RNY

Hala. RNY 5/14/2008; Happy At Goal =HAG

"I can eat or do anything I want to - as long as I am willing to deal with the consequences"

"Failure is not falling down, It is not getting up once you fell... So pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again...."

PatXYZ
on 6/14/11 7:34 am
I thought that might be what you were getting at, but I can't find anything to support it. I scanned medical and science journals this afternoon and online articles from hospitals, etc, but can't find a thing about this. It also doesn't make any sense logically. We have reduced absorption in the stomach and small intestine where most drugs are absorbed. This is exactly why we are warned to stay away from coated or extended release drugs. I can't find anything in the medical literature that says that we have either faster or increased absorption of opioids, so I will continue to disbelieve it. The only thing I can find it that high levels of gastric acid inhibits absorption, so if you previously had opioid therapy and had poor absorption due to acid, I suppose that normal absorption post surgery when acid levels are likely to be normal or low would seem more 'intense' by comparison - but again, this only puts an RNY patent on equal footing with anyone else with normal or low acid levels and doesn't support the idea that RNY patients are at a higher risk of addiction due to some physiological reason. Again, if you have medical or scientific literature from a journal, I'd be happy to be directed to it.
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