Darvocet Recall- Good and Bad

As a chronic pain sufferer who was on Darvocet for years, I have mixed emotions about this. There is so much pharmaceutical drug regulation when there are so many OTC medications that can kill you and kill many each year with misuse.  The problem with the lower dose narcotic medications is that they have tons of Tylenol in them. Because they have such minimal narcotic amount, you can easily take a couple at a time or maybe one extra a day to manage your pain relief and not really feel high at all. You can function pretty well but slowly you could be killing your liver.

I was going to the hospital and being seen for ailments that were miserable and showing elevated liver enzymes as a result of the Tylenol in my Darvocet. I was honest about how much I was taking and never took more than the prescription would allot for. But no one, including myself, ever did the math on the Tylenol amounts + the time frame I had been on it and how it could be contributing to my misery.

But sadly the life threatening side effects of Darvocet don't end there. For decades, pharmaceutical professionals have been aware that you can stop breathing when you take seemingly non-toxic amounts. The narcotic ingredient can suppress your breathing particularly in your sleep. You start breathing more shallow and more infrequently to the point of death.

As horrible as those two things sound....it is also responsible for irregular heart rhythms for some people. So those in charge of recalling medications decided the risks far outweighed the benefits associated with Darvocet. But for chronic pain sufferers who were able to function on Darvocet are now at a loss. Which is why I'm torn on how I feel about it.

I wouldn't go back on Darvocet, but plenty of people are able to take it and not have problems. But apparently enough people did. Regulations on meds seem to be weird and strangely timed when the powers that be knew all along but waited so long to jump in and investigate.

My final say is: For every person who suffered long term or life threatening problems on Darvocet there will be hundreds going on higher dose narcotics to get pain relief. What will result because of that?

-Shara
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