Shoreline

Hi ACL. Wild guess,you have knee problems?

I hope this surgery does the trick, but you questoon is pretty simple.
Morphine is the gold standard to which other opiates are compered to in strength. It's by far not the most potent.

Their are conversion tables called equianelgesic tables that guide docs how to safely move from one med to another.
There may be some variation between charts but the most common conversion is .8:1 meaning hydro is roughly 80% as srong as morphine. So 22.5mgs of hydro is roughly equal to15-16 mgs of morphine. This is talking instant release or short acting oral morphine. The way long acting opiates work like MSContin or OxyContin work is they start releasing half their dose at about 45 minutes and the second release is about 5 hours later. So 30 mgs of long acting morphine is equal to taking 15 mgs of short acting every 4 hours. 15 mgs of short acting roughly is equivelent to what you were taking with the hydro. What he's done is take away they instant release that people feel and associate with the onset and removed the need to watch the clock every 3-4 hours for your next dose.

There are some longer acting morphine products called Avinza and Kadian that last 12-24 hours but those are name brand only.

Charts and tables are really designed to move a patient safely from one med to another, Everyone responds differently so docs tend to start on the low side. Better to error on the side of caution than OD a patient. Everyone is different so the tables may not apply as well to you, you may need more or it may be too much as far as side effects, seation, nausea but very unlikely too much respirtory suppresion unless your allergic to the natural opioids like morphine and codeine.

Morphine tends to be more sedating than an equal dose of Hydrocodone or oxycodone, but that sedation does deminish as you become accomadated to the drug. Side effects like that should deminish long before the effectiveness or anelgesic properties. If someone makes the mistake of associating sedation with pain relief, staying sedated would require ever increasing doses. Don't be concerned if it doesn't make you as drowsy after a couple days, that's not a reflection of how well something works unless it's a sleeping med.

Basically it's a slight increase if not the same. You just won't be poising your self with apap.
Good luck, Dave