painkillers

[jojo]

When I went in for a mastectomy 2 years ago, I found to be allergic to morphine & vicodin. Even codeine did not work for me, instead just ONLY extra strength Tynelol did me good, during my recovery from the mastectomy.

Just curious... if you are allergic too, what else do you take in replacement of morphine and / or vicodin?

Thanks.

[anne]

Hi Jojo,

Sometimes there is a cross allergy between morphine, codeine and vicodin. You can try Ibuprofen, Naproxen or NSAID that are only given by prescription. There is also Percocet ( with is slightly diff. narcotic than Vicodin). Go to an allergist and they can isolate exactly what you can use.
Hope that helps.
Anne

[jojo]

Before chemo, I NEVER had any kind of allergies -- just only to insect bites.

After chemo, I get heat rashes quite easily, I am sensitive to anything plastic (I am tired of saying to nurses "paper tape, please") and then the painkillers. I was rather shocked to hear about my allergies to NSAID's.

If anything, I would bet that chemo has caused all this.

I asked about the replacements, cuz I read somehwere in which it said that morphine was the strongest NSAID, and vicodin came in 2nd after morphine. So, of course I wouldn't want to feel any pain! :-)

[Lisa]

Jojo,

I take morphine and I'm curious as to your allergy symptoms.

Love and light,

Lisa

[Fontaine]

I am allergic to all opiates and most painkillers. My PCP gave me non-codein cough syrup at one point which still made me itch.

I found out that pain and itch receptors are very close in structure--some moreso for some people. Apparently, I'm one of them. Knowing this, I decided to try and outsmart my body and so took some allergy Bendryl along with my cough medicine. Worked like magic!

I get frequent headaches from fibromyalgia and take Fioricette which normally works like a champ. It's some kind of downer (I think) and tylenol (so no upset stomach--I also have a hiatal hernia so aspirin won't do).

I haven't tried the Benedryl allergy with the normal pain killers like Vicodin that made me itch but next time I need something, I'm going to try it.

In this day and age, you almost need a medical degree in order to get by--or at least as much medical knowledge as you can pick up so you can make suggestions to your doctor about how to treat you. A lot of times they just don't think of things until you suggest them.

I had a boyfriend way back in college who said that to get by in present society, you needed both a law and medical degree. I laughed. But the older I get, the more I stop laughing!

[jojo]

Lisa, you asked for my allergic symptoms to morphine... I just itch, itch, itch, and scratch, scratch, scratch, and many rashes appear all over my body. Of course, the itching rashes are known for such very common symptoms, but in my case, I get rashes one too many, and they are more severe.