Hydrocodone is in the middle of those as well as codine. The codine is not very strong and the hydrocodone is stronger but if you are in pain it will help.

Some of the trade names for hydrocodone are: vicodan/lortab/vicoprophin

the first 2 are compunded with tylenol and the last is compounded with ibuprophin.

Hydrocodone, norco, whatever you call it is the middle ground. There are many forms and quantities to choose from. You can start low and get larger dosages up to about 10mg from a conventional doctor and 15mg from a pain clinic that has their own pills made. The ultram or tramdol is the same pill with one being name brand the other being generaic. They have the same active ingredient which is not codine. It does work for some people but usually its for mild pain and rarely works for back pain, I have found. I took have taken it, but at about 900 times the strength prescribed before it would work. Once you get the first bottle I believe the doctor fully expects you to call the next day and get something stronger. By the way, good choice on holding off on the oxy. You have to be super carefull on that stuff, as you will also find on the hydro's but you will have more control with the hydro's.

Warning: the only warning on the hydro is the acetaminophen which you will clearly find labeled as the second number on your script. Your doc will likely start you off with something like 2.5/750. The lower number is the codine amount and the higher number is the acetaminophen amount. I believe that anything more then 4gm of acetaminophen will cause liver failure. So at 750 mgs' you can only take 5.3 per day. That is about 1 per 5 hours or so and no more or you risk liver failure. You will find that this is a very easy number to get to very fast. As such, if you take more, need more, then you doc will have to lower that second number, so that you can get more codine into your system. The combo of the two supposedly work well together, but for sure one of the main reasons they love to keep it in there is so that you will throw up when you take too many. You will find that taking more then needed will cause you to be very nausious. Thats because of the acetaminophen. Dont be suprised to find out that the 2.5's stop working all that well if you take them for more then a few months. If they no longer work for you and you need to take more, then either get the doc to drop the acetaminophen to 500 or 325 or get him to up the hydro part to 5mg/750. In all honesty you should take as little as the acetaminophen as is needed. Its the hydro part your after for the pain relieve the other part is just tylenol. Who the heck takes tylenol for serious back pain.

Hold off on the oxy until you have run through the hydro circuit, if you even need to take it that far.

Hydrocodone will probably do you fine and if you do not have the propensity to abuse, you will not have any problem following the prescriptions orders.

As far as taking too much tylenol, there is sufficent evidence that if you are taking even 2000 mg/day for a long time, you can irriverseibly damage your liver and basically die. The doctor will be required to test your blood on a fairly regular basis or change your prescription to either a formulation of pure hydrocodone which can be had at a compounding pharmacy, at that point the doc can prescribe amount up to 100 mg of hydrocodone with no tylenol because the pharmacy makes the compounded pill on site.

Another option will be the obvious, percocet/combunox the first is oxycodone/tylenol and the latter is oxycodone/motrin, that is a much stronger medicine than hydrocodone but if you are going to a pain doc, they have a much larger arsenol in their possesion and can try differing amounts of morphine/ dihydramorphone/oxycodone/hydrocodone/fent anyl, and there are truly many others!

Always remember, let the doc be the doc when going for pain treatment and always be receptive to their method of treatment, don't just allow them to do whatever they want but if they seem to have a real plan of care in mind, let them do their thing and see if they are helping. You are the only person that will know if it is working but they will know too if it is not working and if you end up using all of your prescription medicine too soon in the month and need higher quantities each month, they will flag you and cut you off as fast as your hed can spin.

If you are prescribed narcotic pain medicine, use only as prescribed and all prescription say: "as needed for pain" not every x hours and dont miss a dose.

Good luck and hopefully we can help you out along the way,
brian