weaning self off codeine after surgery

[lulumcgish]

surgery was tues. I have got it down to 30mg 4 x a day. can I buy it over the counter?

Not that strength no.

What advice have you been given about how long to take it for? I was given codeine post surgery but was given advice that I should only take it for x days and then drop to paracetamol and ibuprofen. If the pain was too bad to do so I was supposed to go back to doctor to work out options. You can get paracetamol + codeine (co-codamol / solpadeine) otc but you have to be VERY careful about the dose of paracetamol. Worth asking pharmacist for advice if you can't get to GP.

You can buy codeine with paracetamol or aspirin OTC, the codeine strength is 8 mg, so x2 tablets will give you codeine 8mg/IG paracetamol or 600mg aspirin. Max dose 8 tabs in 24 hours.

Sorry that should have said 16mg codeine/1G paracetamol or 600mg aspirin

it says take regularly for 3 days then as required.

scant take snails and paracetamol is crap

as is my phone, I have written a million sensible messages which it has deleted

snails =nsaids

Lol, must be the codeine affecting you. Some of the auto corrects are awful

Stop it asap and stick with paracetamol. Or if you must buy the over-the-counter low dose codeine.
It's evil. I personally know/knew two people who got addicted to it after surgery.
Both ended up in serious trouble due to the addiction as they both started stealing it (I work in health care).
I don't believe people should be discharged with it unless no other option and if they need it to take home they should only have a few.
Sorry, hope you feel better soon after your op.

It shouldn't be too hard for you to come off it now since you've only been on it since Tues. The boxes say 3 days but we give it to our PT's for longer and they usually have no problem stopping the drug once the discharge meds have completed, then using ibuprofen and/or paracetamol for pain relief if needed.

As not sure of what you have had done etc you might want to seek advice from the hospital.

Are you taking it because of the pain or because you feel you need to?

Not everybody gets addicted. Take it as long as you need it and stop when you forget to take it for pain and the spaces between get longer. That's all. You're thinking ahead don't worry about it.

I had my gallbladder removed, keyhole. I am still taking them for the pain. I went a bit longer between doses overnight, which is good, but one wound in particular is still v sore.

I was in a panic yesterday because I could see how few I had left and was worried about how I would cope on just paracetamol, which ime doesn't work.l feel a bit better today and I will get dh to get me some co-codamols just in case. thanks for advice!

Tell him to get you a box of paramols to take on a nighttime if it's still that sore they're a bit better than co codamols when it's time to sleep.

thankyou, I will tell him

Or you can mix your 30s by taking one plus one paracetamol which should help. Then maybe 2x 8/500 OTC tabs. Paracetamol is a good painkiller so do take it. Just don't take too many. The codeine dose can be gradually tapered by mixing the tablets.

And take regularly as pain is much easier to control before it gets bad. After only a few days it's snot surprising to still be in pain. Codeine is very constipating, though so do consider a laxative like lactulose if not already doing so.

Hope you feel better soon.

I found after surgery, the time the codeine ran out was the same time I was expecting myself to be up and about a bit more (as did the rest of the world) = double whammy. So please make sure you are resting and asking other people to do stuff for you and so on.

when in pain recently i was advised, ibuprofen, then 2 hours later paracetamol, but was also given something else to protect my stomach

take what is prescribed. Codeine affects people in different ways; some get addicted, some have no effect, some find it a useful painkiller.

because some get addicted is not a reason to scream 'evil' and demand a ban. In this house it allows a life.

Does the sore wound feel hot? If so, see your GP or nurse and get it checked for infection, in which case some antibiotics will sort it out. I found the tummy button wound, which I think is where they put the camera in, was the worst and did get an infection.

I must say that I found myself relying on the co-codamol and panicking about the thought of the packet running out. The nurse at the hospital post-op had the op herself a few years beforehand and cautioned against using co-codamol, and that the pain should be manageable on ibuprofen. I went cold turkey and the pain was fine once the infection was sorted.