Acetaminophen-Codeine #3

That’s what it says on the pill bottle from the pharmacy but it may as well be magic pills. After taking one pill yesterday, the pain in my gums and tooth disappeared after 15 minutes. The pill didn’t just dull or diminish the pain, it was gone. I can see how this can become addictive if you had chronic pain. Tylenol #3 is not even that potent as an opioid painkiller. That fentanyl stuff must be amazing and scary.

Along this line sufentanil, fentanyl and buprenorphine are being regarded as high potency opioids, methadone, oxycodone, morphine, ketobemidone and hydromorphone as medium potency opioids and codeine, hydrocodone, tramadol and tapentadol as low potency opioids.

British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology article

After the pain disappeared, I was still wary of eating solid food so I drank a bottle of the Muscle Milk protein shake I bought. It has pretty high levels of potassium and phosphorus but since we just took blood samples for labs today, I have an entire month to make up for it. Still hungry, I drank a second protein shake (milk chocolate Ensure) for dinner. Along with a mixed berry Nepro I had for lunch, I think it’s the first time I drank three protein shakes in one day instead of eating real food.

Nutritional Item	Nepro	Muscle Milk	Ensure	Total	DV
Calories	425	160	220	805	2,000
Total Fat	22.7 g	4 g	6 g	32.7 g	65 g
Saturated Fat	2.0 g	1 g	1 g	4 g	20 g
Cholesterol	6.5 mg	15 mg	<5 mg	26.5 mg	300 mg
Sodium	250 mg	210 mg	210 mg	670 mg	2,400 mg
Total Carbs	37.9 g	6 g	33 g	76.9 g	300 g
Protein	19.1 g	25 g	9 g	53.1 g	50 g
Calcium	250 mg	30%	25%	800 mg	1,000 mg
Potassium	250 mg	580 mg	10%	1,170 mg	3,400 mg
Phosphorus	170 mg	40%	15%	555 mg	700 mg

I went to sleep right after taking the Tylenol #3 pill and drinking the two shakes and was able to sleep for 5+ hours. I woke up around 1:00 am since the initial painkiller wore off and I could feel the throbbing pain in my gums again. After lying in bed for 10 minutes, I took another pill and now the pain is gone again. Amazing. I have 15 pills so hopefully my dental pain will go away before I run out.

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It’s now ~3:15 am. I’m going to go back to bed and try to sleep some more before the second pill wears off.