Percocet 10/650 - Janet

[Guest guest]

Hi Janet,

I am not sure if you are thinking correctly about your percocet. By

definition the term percocet has tylenol in it (the acetomenophen

abbreviated APAP by pharmacies). In fact, your 10 / 650 has

twice as much tylenol in it than 's 10 / 325. How you can tell

is the numbers: the 10 refers to the strength of the oxycodone

(the narcotic component of the pill) and the 325 or 650 refers to

the tylenol portion of the pill. I bring this up mainly to warn you

that you have to be careful of not taking too much tylenol per day.

For long term use...it is recommended to not go more than 2 to 3

grams per day of tylenol. Short term it is ok to go up to 4 grams

per day......in your case, you should not take more than 4 to 5

pills of your percocets a day. Going over that puts your liver at

risk.

There is just plain oxycodone pills or capsules that are available

for short acting use ( as opposed to OxyContin which is

oxycodone in sustained release formulation). I get 5mg

oxycodone capsules to use for my pain control because I have a

history of elevated liver enzymes and I shouldn't be taking tylenol

at all. My pills are just referred to as oxycodone....it has no

generic or manufacturers name to it. You can get the 10mg

strength of plain oxycodone too....seeing that this is the strength

that you are currently taking for breakthrough pain, you may want

to consider asking for this instead.

Just a word to the wise.....percocet = oxycodone with tylenol

abbreviated as APAP. Percodan = oxycodone with aspirin

abbreviated ASA. Vicodin, darvocet, utracet ,etc....will all give the

combination of narcotic strength and tylenol in the same manner

as mentioned with the percocet (50mg tramadol / 325 APAP for

example).

Anyone taking medication has to be aware of the potential

harmful effects of tylenol and should know which medications

that they are taking has tylenol in it and at what strength.

Also, you shouldn't worry about OxyContin being any more

" addicting " than your percocets as it is the exact same

medication. Both are oxycodone. One is just fast acting like you

said, and the other is the slow release version (OxyContin). In

addition, there are other factors that come into play concerning

addiction that have been discussed many times here.....if you are

taking Oxycodone for pain relief...it is a very, very, very low chance

that you will ever become addicted - in the true sense of the

word (think losing your job, home, family, etc and becoming

obsessed with finding and taking more and more and more drug

to get a " high').

If you think that you are taking too much tylenol a day with your

percocets ask to have it reduced to the 10mg / 325 APAP dose or

ask for the straight 10mg oxycodone without the tylenol. You

have to be real diligent about taking care of your liver!

Laurie