7th February 2005
Hey Feelbad, Although the hydrocodone wold be considered stronger, like feelbad said, It all depends on why you take it. Firocet conatins ingrediennts that Lortab doesn't.
Lortab is 500mgs of tylenol and 5 mgs of hydrocodone. Fiorocet is tylenol, codeine, Butalbatol and cafeine. Butalbatol is a barbituate and has more sedentary or relaxing qualities, as in tensoion headaches, the cafeine also constricts throbbing vessels that may be the cause in yur brain. I get the exact oposite efect, the cafeine and codeine make me sick as a dog, where plain hydro and apap works fine for moderate pain.
Thy really are very different meds, Hydro is stronger than codeine but doesn't have the relaxing effect or the vascular effect. An older doc may be comfotable with the small amount of barbituate in the Firocet where a younger doc may be concerned about dependence on both barbituates and opiates, not that there is alot of opiate in a Firocet, but all you can do is explain it just like you did hear to your doc. Hopefully he will exlain his logic.
As far as upset stomache, you can take both of these meds with food and that normally does the trick as far as nausea. Needing an adjunct med for nausea for the mildest version of hydro and barely a step above Davacet and codeine may be kind of hard to justify. The nausea from opiates usually demnishes with time or by laying down.
So what works better for your headaches. Opiate nausea can usually be relieved by laying down because it's not actually eating at your stomach causing stomache upset, it acts on a part of your brain that causes nausea linked to equilibrium , hence the easy cure for opiate nausea.
Barbituate withdrawal is much more dangerous than opiate withdrawal becauee barbituates are als anti seizure meds, Discontinuing a barbituate abruptly can cause a seizure along with the normal withdrawal type "flu" feelings where pure oiate withdrawal is just that, pure opiate withdrawal when discontinued abruptly, but people don't generally have seizures from opiate withdrawal, just the nasty flu like symptoms..
You are really at the very beginning of treatment by a PM doc, It's all trial and error finding what works for you, there are abortives, preventive meds for headaches and some off label use of other meds for headache, Some of the antiseizure meds work well as a preventatitve but there is a slew of meds out there that just take time to work through to use as prevenative treatments so your not dependent on opiates alone to treat the pain after you allready have a headache.
Then there are preventative modalities "treatments" for headaches. Occipital nerve blocks, trigger point injections, Botox, Robaxin and DHEA infusions, some of the meds used for bipolar are also use like depekote, another anti seizure med. So don't expect instant relief or complete preventon untill you have worked through and tried lotsof the other options before a doc can say there is no other choice other than treat the pain from headaches with opiates. You can have rebound problems with this apraoch.
There are also non medicine techniques like acupuncture, chiropractic, PT, self hypsnosis, yoga breathing techniques, Bio feedback and guideed imagry. You have a long way to go and simply giving you pain meds to deal with a headache after it occurs really isn't the best they can do, if they can prevent the headache completely with meds like DHEA and other non opiate meds, it doesn't create the dependence on opiates.
Good luck, Dave
Lortab is 500mgs of tylenol and 5 mgs of hydrocodone. Fiorocet is tylenol, codeine, Butalbatol and cafeine. Butalbatol is a barbituate and has more sedentary or relaxing qualities, as in tensoion headaches, the cafeine also constricts throbbing vessels that may be the cause in yur brain. I get the exact oposite efect, the cafeine and codeine make me sick as a dog, where plain hydro and apap works fine for moderate pain.
Thy really are very different meds, Hydro is stronger than codeine but doesn't have the relaxing effect or the vascular effect. An older doc may be comfotable with the small amount of barbituate in the Firocet where a younger doc may be concerned about dependence on both barbituates and opiates, not that there is alot of opiate in a Firocet, but all you can do is explain it just like you did hear to your doc. Hopefully he will exlain his logic.
As far as upset stomache, you can take both of these meds with food and that normally does the trick as far as nausea. Needing an adjunct med for nausea for the mildest version of hydro and barely a step above Davacet and codeine may be kind of hard to justify. The nausea from opiates usually demnishes with time or by laying down.
So what works better for your headaches. Opiate nausea can usually be relieved by laying down because it's not actually eating at your stomach causing stomache upset, it acts on a part of your brain that causes nausea linked to equilibrium , hence the easy cure for opiate nausea.
Barbituate withdrawal is much more dangerous than opiate withdrawal becauee barbituates are als anti seizure meds, Discontinuing a barbituate abruptly can cause a seizure along with the normal withdrawal type "flu" feelings where pure oiate withdrawal is just that, pure opiate withdrawal when discontinued abruptly, but people don't generally have seizures from opiate withdrawal, just the nasty flu like symptoms..
You are really at the very beginning of treatment by a PM doc, It's all trial and error finding what works for you, there are abortives, preventive meds for headaches and some off label use of other meds for headache, Some of the antiseizure meds work well as a preventatitve but there is a slew of meds out there that just take time to work through to use as prevenative treatments so your not dependent on opiates alone to treat the pain after you allready have a headache.
Then there are preventative modalities "treatments" for headaches. Occipital nerve blocks, trigger point injections, Botox, Robaxin and DHEA infusions, some of the meds used for bipolar are also use like depekote, another anti seizure med. So don't expect instant relief or complete preventon untill you have worked through and tried lotsof the other options before a doc can say there is no other choice other than treat the pain from headaches with opiates. You can have rebound problems with this apraoch.
There are also non medicine techniques like acupuncture, chiropractic, PT, self hypsnosis, yoga breathing techniques, Bio feedback and guideed imagry. You have a long way to go and simply giving you pain meds to deal with a headache after it occurs really isn't the best they can do, if they can prevent the headache completely with meds like DHEA and other non opiate meds, it doesn't create the dependence on opiates.
Good luck, Dave