I am so glad, Lee, that after suffering for 26 years, you have been helped to feel as well as you do now. God Bless that doctor who cared enough to tackle your problem and found a good med regimen for you.

An extended release medication addresses an issue that is not really applicable to me. I sometimes can go a week with no need for a pain med. (Yes, I may have some aches. But an ice pack to my back or neck can do wonders.) My need for pain medication is not consistent day-to-day. That's why those 30 tabs of Vicodin lasted me for almost 3 months. I don't want to take any pain med routinely. I want something available for when I need it.

I understand that there are issues with Vicodin, but I believe it was actually a good pain med for me. Vicodin, as you may know, is hydrocodone combined with Tylenol. Opiates, including hydrocodone, don't cause much problem for the liver. It is the Tylenol (acetaminophen) that is dangerous. In my whole life, I've never been one to need or want Tylenol for much of anything. I'm not prone to headaches. I've always tended to treat pain, successfully, with heating packs or cold packs. They don't quite cut it anymore. Taking an occasional Vicodin really does not put enough acetaminophen (Tylenol) into one's system to be much of a worry. It would be ideal, if they would take the acetaminophen out of the Vicodin. It's in there only for the purpose of discouraging abuse - because addicts know about the toxicity of acetaminophen. Also, I/V drug users are less likely to shoot up hydrocodone, if they know they will be shooting up acetaminophen with it. All of this may not be news to you.

I think hydrocodone would be a good medication for me. (even with the Tylenol stuck in there) He prescribed the generic Hydrocodone/Acetaminophen 10mg/325mg. I was seldom taking more than one tab a day.

My house is messy. I am afraid of setting off a muscle spasm in my neck. I am laying around doing nothing because I have become very depressed. My PCP is gone for 2 weeks. So I am afraid to fill the Vicodin prescription he gave me. My psychiatrist told me - very emphatically - to inform my PCP doctor about me need to taper off Restoril slowly. I can't. He's gone. I don't want to violate any rules.

I'm very depressed. I can't trust these two doctors, whose opinions differ. I'm in the middle and I don't think they care too much. I'm going down a hole and it will be awful hard to climb out. It's like I had a rug pulled out from under me. I felt so secure with that Vicodin in the drawer. I am doing nothing, now, afraid of pain setting in - and nothing to fix it.