I don't seem to respond to prescribed pain killers. Advil worked better. I took codeine once for a toothache before I could get to the dentist, and it felt like someone had sheared off the top of my head. Never took them again.
When I broke both my arms last September, I was on Dilaudid in the hospital and OxyContin while in transitional care. I don't remember all that much. I know I still had pain, but it's hard to know how much pain there would have been without the drugs.
I took oxycontin for pain after an operation, didn't seem to dull the pain but made me drowsy enough to fall asleep despite the pain.
I occasionally get legs and feet cramping during the night -I take about 3 grams of kratom for relief. Kratom is a mild opioid you can buy legally without prescription.
For several years, due to chronic sciatica from a ruptured disc. Started with codeine, then had to keep ramping it up as I developed a tolerance. Tramadol, oxycodone, endone and finally methadone. Without it I couldn't function, with it I could at least get around a bit (with the aid of a cane) and sleep at night. There was one week I was deprived of it - I didn't sleep that week due to the pain, towards the end of it I was hallucinating. I was hooked up to a morphine drip while in the hospital but don't remember that bit clearly - I was semi-comatose and by the time I was lucid again the machine was gone. The discectomy and fusion gave me my life back - within a week I was off the drugs, within two I was running again. I still have bowel problems and gingivitis due to the long-term addiction. I'm due to have an operation on my haemorrhoids soon (opioids cause bad constipation and thus my rectum prolapsed slightly). My teeth are also shot.
Dang bro...you've been through a lot. My Doc prescribed me some Tramadol. I took one and the the wife and I came home from a early morning job she practically had to carry me into the house. I never took it again. I need a third opinion about getting a fusion...two Docs said it was bad enough that they wouldn't do it.