~~~~~~~~~~~ *Good you have the unopened Oxy, one never knows when an immediate need will present itself. I still have Oxycodone left from my fall at Christmas, it is opened though of course, and carefully used along with the acetaminophen. Now the remainder sits on a shelve in the bathroom cupboard, until and if needed in the future. Hang in there @John, what a long darn journey with this isn't it. From a fellow Uro friend who understands the frustrations, struggles and challenges, perhaps different from your condition, but none the less, it's still hard at times....
Thanks, Janine. It's frustrating to have this recurring theme when everything else seems to be in good order. Perhaps I should be grateful it ain't worse.
Day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, and when everything else is in reasonably good order, I can feel ya on that too, I get it. Thing is too, we each feel what we do, as we do, and why we do, bet you knew I was going to say that... Urological related issues, we shall never forget them, will we ...
I worry about pain relief when I sleep. If I sleep too deeply, the pain is much worse when I wake because I don't feel it if I 'sleep wrong'. Hubby just got some of the newer pain meds with tylenol in them and I balked a bit. I think the doctor thought I was a druggy asking about unadulterated hydrocodone. (I can't take tylenol probably from liver issues.) Doctor said hubby could take them or not. Later, I mentioned my concern was more about hubby's edema. crickets. Hubby had had foot surgery and was wrapped pretty tightly. We still have a few pills from prior issues too. Who would have thought it was important to keep those few leftovers. I wondered why fentanyl was a thing. Now I kind of understand.
Yeh, that's the other thing. Pain is there for a reason. I, too, don't like habitually attenuating my feedback mechanisms. But if I don't sleep, it takes a toll on the rest of my health and life. I suffered significant sleep deprivation from those disc issues I mentioned. It's crazy what a lack of sleep can do to you. After surgery, I just toughed out the pain during the day. But I used drugs get my nightly sleep. edit to add: I may start rotating between acetaminophen and ibuprofen. I'm taking low doses, but I hate taking stuff long term (if a week is considered to be long term.)
You can also take lower does of each (acetaminophen and ibuprofen) if you take them together. It is a reported synergism and there is an OTC formula that contains both. Sleep is necessary for healing, so you should get enough pain relief to allow yourself to heal but not to be pain-free all the time, as, like you said, pain is there for a reason.
When I research interactions of things I am likely to take again, I keep track of them. I have a cross-reference for pain relievers (aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, naproxen.) Acetaminophen is the only one that has no interactions when taken with the others (probably because it is not an NSAID.) I recently came across a search result that discussed FDA approval of the acetaminophen/ibuprofen combo you discussed. I've sometimes alternated between the two so as the get the benefit of both, and to diminish the long-term-use side effects of each, but I never would have thought that they enhance each others performance.
***So they DO enhance each other's performance for sure? What is considered a low dose combination, I am thinking Acetaminophen 500 mgs 'with' Ibuprofen 400 mgs?
Advil's product is 250mg Acetaminophen with 125mg Ibuprofen, so a 2:1 ratio. It's interesting that all the NSAIDS (including aspirin) conflict with each other to some degree, while there are no ill interactions between Acetaminophen and the NSAIDS. Generally, you can alternate doses of the NSAIDS, but not take them together. I've not read of any complimentary combo other than Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen.
I wonder if it is not conflict but intensify their action. I can't take acetaminophen, I think it is because of my liver objecting. They had me take it after hip surgery under a different name from tylenol but I told them I could not take it. They laughed it off and then I gave it back to them with an ingested can of diet soda. Aspirin and ibuprophen have the side effect of bleeding in stomach, maybe kidneys and elsewhere. at my age I worry about kidneys. I recently tried something called PEA--palmitoylethanolamide. It takes the edge off. But nowhere as effective as ibuprophen. And not so much info. I basically just deal with pain. I also have some white willow bark. It is natural aspirin, basically. Not distilled to full strength. But like aspirin, it causes ringing in my ears so I am not sure it is that safe either.
That's the negative side effect of mixing any NSAIDS, but especially when aspirin is one of them. The other side effect is that Naproxen Sodium and Ibuprofen negate aspirin's stroke prevention benefits. And I'm with you regarding concern for my kidneys...and for my liver. I think I'm suffering a side-effect from the antibiotic I took 2 courses of (Cefuroxime.) I have had a slightly hoarse voice since Day 4 of the second course and am concerned because it's a known side effect. But I didn't call the doctor because I wanted that lingering kidney infection fixed, so I made a conscious choice to take the next 3 days' doses. Hopefully the hoarse voice is from spring allergies (that I've never had before) or some other cause. Hopefully.
Since I'm posting in this thread, my kidney ache is mostly gone since Sunday (there's still a little left.) I gotta think that the effects of the surgery, the stent AND the infection were not kind to it. It started to feel better the second day of the second course of antibiotics, so the lingering ache was from the surgery and not from the infection. I took exactly 5 weeks from surgery to get back to normal. Everything else (the flow and color of urine) are as they should be. I have the standard post-op ultrasound coming up in a couple of weeks, but I'm not concerned. I also went on the patient portal to read the report that the emergency appointment doctor wrote (because he mentioned "stones"), and I think he was referring to prostate calcium deposits. He had me worried that surgery did not clean everything out...but it did.