Shoreline

Hi Jozey, Sounds like you have a monster surgery coming up. Docs d o usually stick to short acting meds imediately post op because it's easier to make a rapid adjustement rather than wait for a 24 hour pill to wear of before making a big change. They can combine meds like percocet and dilaudid or Hydro and dilaudid and pain can be managed post op after the intial stay in the hospital where you would likely have IV meds via "PCA" "patient controlled anesthesia" It can deliver a contninous dose and then you have the ability to give yourself small bolus doses by pressing a button every 5-15 minutes dependning on the settings. If your not comfortable in the hopital, it's best to have someone there to advocate for you. Somethat can stomp the halls, yell and demand to see the surgeon now to manage uncontrolled pain. You won't be in shape to do that yourself, It's too easy to simply close your door and say this is what the doc ordered, but an advocate can make a sceen untill the anesthesiologist or surgeon get there to adjust medds. I would never leave a loved one alone in a hospital untill I knew their pain was managed.

AS far as taking #4 7.5 lortab or vicodin or whatever a day, that's not a huge dose that's gong to make you tolerant to all post op meds. taking 2 10mg norco would triple your present dose of hudrocodone. 2 10 mg percs would quadrouple your present dose, 4 mgs of dialudid would be 4 times your present dose. There is plenty of room with the short acting meds to make qdjustments and use something stronger and control the nausea.. But do discuss your fear and your mild tolerance to hydro with your docs..

By the way, Morphine is morphine, short acting morphine binds to the exact same receptors that Long acting does, It just doesn't have that kick where a big dose is released at once, it's just spread over time. The same goes with all LA and SA meds, Oxycdone is oxycodone, whether it's OxyContin or percocet, it still binds to the same repeptors, but different classes of opiates do bind to different receptors and even drugs in the same class, like the synthetics, "hydrocodone, Oxycdone, Hydromorphone, Oxymorphone" although they bind to the same group of receptors each group of receptors have several sub groups that one may bind to and not the other, so there are differnces even among the same class, like the difference between Oxycodne and hydrocodone.
Meds like hydro and morphine are two different classes and the side effects may be intolerable with one and not the other and they do bnd to sligtly different receptors.

Oxy and hydro are in the same class but you responded better to hydro. It's not uncommon to respond better to one med than the other and with the stronger hydro product Norco that only has 325mgs of tylenol in each 10 mg dose, you can take enough to manage pretty severe post op pain. Some docs are using LA meds after you leave the hospital although that's not what they are intended for and surgeons have no clue how to comfortably taper you off them. Just discuss your concerns and options with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist.

Good luck, Dave