Going off Hydrocodone After Surgery - Yep I had withdrawals!

As some of you who read my blog may know three weeks ago I had to go in for surgery to remove what turned out to be a 9 pound tumor and hysterectomy due to where the tumor was.  Take a gallon of milk and pick it up and you have my tumor.  I have a total of 6 incisions with two larger than the others.  Just walking is painful because of the movement of muscles and gravity pulling at the incisions.  My surgeon prescribed Hydrocodone to take care of the pain.  After about week 2 I was able to start going off naturally and use just Tylenol.  I had no idea that I could possibly go through withdrawals after such a short time on the medication as I have never had surgery before and even after giving birth to four children only used IB profen to manage pain.

At day one of no hydrocodone I noticed feeling bad and uncomfortable all over my body.  Just like I couldn't get comfortable no matter what I did.  Day two was worse.  More like having the flu with feeling exhausted and uncomfortable.  All I could do was lay in bed.  Day three was better, and day four I felt back to normal.

This is certainly not bad compared to people who get hooked on pain pills and now I can see what a slippery slope it can be.  I am totally shocked at how little time you need to be on them to have withdrawals and am glad I went off when I did.  In fact I wish I had known of this possibility before because I would have started using Tylenol much sooner.

Doctors recommend tapering off of hydrocodone and not just stopping cold turkey.  I actually was doing that naturally so if I had gone cold turkey my withdrawals would probably have been much worse.  I am posting this information for other people so that they can be aware of how short of a time it can be to experience withdrawals from this particular drug.

Now my withdrawals were livable and I don't feel the inclination to go and take more hydrocodone (thank goodness) so anyone going in for surgery needn't feel afraid.  Just be mindful of the possibility and make sure to taper if at all possible.

Now I am on straight Tylenol and it would work great if I would just remember to take it often enough!