Why I hate Oxycodone

Some people have told me that if I really wanted to sleep at night that I’d simply stay up all day.  As if it’s my choice or something that I’m not sleeping at night.  (And can you imagine not sleeping for 30 hours or more, while recovering from and trying to heal a broken ankle, because that is what those people were suggesting!!!)  I am going through withdrawals from Oxycodone; I took my last pill just one week ago.

I had surgery on the morning of July 26^th.  After surgery I was on morphine for about 48 hours.  Then I was switched to oxycodone, 3 – 5 mg pills every 2 hours.   By the time I left the hospital, 4 days later, I was taking 3 pills every 3 hours.  From there, over the course of the following 3 weeks, here’s what happened: once I felt I could handle the pain better I started taking less Oxycodone.  I went from 2 pills every 3 hours, to 2 pills every 4 hours.  Having made it to the 4 hour mark I was then able to start spacing them out more quickly.  Each day I added a half hour until I had pushed the doses out to the 6 hour mark.  At that time I started cutting out pills, once a day I’d take 1 instead of 2, until I made it down to just 1 pill every 6 hours.  Finally I started skipping doses, and pretty soon I wasn’t taking it at all anymore.

My dad thinks that I weaned myself off of the oxycodone too fast, which is why I’m currently suffering from some pretty extreme insomnia. 

But here’s the deal: I am super glad to be off those pills!  Although it was good to have them for pain relief, they made me super groggy.  I felt like a zombie, trying to peer through the fog of my existence.  I couldn’t hold a normal conversation, or stay awake when I wanted to.  All I was capable of was sitting on the couch watching TV, and that gets old fast.  Once I realized that I wanted to stop taking them, I did it as quickly as I could.  And I’m really happy to have my brain back… I just wish I could sleep at night.