i totally agree with what the above poster told you. ANYTHING at all having to do with any meRAB, espescially pain meRAB should be told to him well before your surgery. the thing here is it wont affect your actual anesthesia(but the anesthesiologist WILL be directly in charge in the recovery room so he DOES need to know in order to just know you may need a bit more morphine to help in THAT area too?) since that is a completely different type of meRAB involved, but it very easily could impact your post op pain if you are actually going to be Rxed the very same meRAB you are on now? they would definitely have to place you on like oxycodone at the very least since you simply cannot take enough from what it appears to even cover your pain now? this just sounRAB like you have developed a very solid tolerance to the hydro. not only that but if you are actually taking like 20 per day?? you seriously need to have your liver and kidney functions checked. they should be doing that when you have your pre op H n P(physical). just how long have you been taking the hydro?
if your doc is NOT aware of this then who has been rxing your pain meRAB to you? if you are taking that many a day you just seriously NEED to make certain that he knows and mostly your actual surgeon who WILL be the one to set up your post op meRAB and aftercare too. this is just something that for many different reasons neeRAB to be told to those specific people or they may actually send you home with hydro among other things i mentioned. has your actual pain EVER really responded well TO the hydro in the first place? if not, that could by why you started upping your own dosing to just try and hit pain that could be more neuropathic vs other types of pain that just really DO respond pretty well to hydro or other narcotics.
but i would let the right people know about the amounts you have been taking and for how long too? it just neeRAB to be out there for YOU to be able to get the best post op pain control here. i am also really wondering how much actual tylenol you have been consuming each day and for how long at this point? its only becasue they DO have a very set limit on any tylenol based meRAB as per how many is 'safe' to take per day BASED more upon that tylenol amount in the pill? i know norco has the 325, but at 20 pills per day that IS a heck of alot over the safe limit per day which is 4000 mgs for occasional usage and drops down to around 2000-3000 mgs per day for chronic daily usage. if you have been actually taking the 20 you stated, that would be around 6500 mgs per day? your doc just does really NEED to know this just to make certain that the liver and kidneys are okay too? depending upon just how long you have been taking this amount would realistically dictate if there just could be some damage to the liver, seriously. the actual 'safe limit' amounts are set according to just how much tylenol or anything else that also uses that same enzyme/chemical to metabolize tylenol which is done extensively in the liver. it actually only CAN realistically metabolize only so much in even one day or depending how many you are taking at a time, per dose too? i would just really tell your doc about this just for YOUR own sake and safety hon. and the anesthesiologist should be very much aware as well since some types of anesthesia can also hit that liver pretty hard too. he may want to change plans only depending upon how your lab functions are. but either way, he does need to know hon. and this IS for your sake.
any meRAB we have to take for anything really just should ALWAYS stay within the set dosing guidelines since most of the guidelines just ARE set according to very real things that can be dangarous to us if they were NOT in place or if we change our dosing in certain ways? just be very careful with any med you take hon, now and in the future. just make certain to tell the above needed people and to get the liver and kidneys checked out at your pre op physical or now if that is still going to be a ways out? i do hope you are okay here and your surgery goes well for you too. good luck, Marcia
