I wish I had the sensitivity to all those pain killers you are talking about. My doctor and I worked our way up from the tiny little 5mg Vicodans up through the Narco's, the 20mg Vicodans. When those didn't work, he prescribed percosets and those just gave me a migraine. Then we tried small morphine tabs but they made me nauseous and we went up to Oxycontins. We tried three successive dosings and none of them had any effect. Finally we tried what I'm on now, Dilaudid. We started at 2mg and while it helped a little bit, I had to experiment until I found my magic number. I found that when my pain is controlled I can get away with only 4 mg, but when I wake up in the morning I have to take at least 8 mg. And if I forget to take the pill on time and let a couple hours go by I might need as much as 12 mg to get it down again, especially if I am exerting myself walking too much or trying to do chores around the house.
The thing I would warn everyone against though is to not smoke while on Dilaudid. I am quitting so it is a little easier, but I backslide once in a while and light up. just about the time I get done with a cigarette I get severe nausea and lightheaded. As long as I can stay off the smokes, the Dilaudid is a great painkiller, the only one we have been able to find that actually works.
