I use vicodin for my light pain times. Just got it refilled about a week ago and had no problems at all either with the dr or the pharmacy. no extra forms to fill out or anything.

Stop panicking. It was not a total ban. It was only a recommendation on reducing the maximum dosage of acetamenophen. That means that the drugs will not have to pulled but adjustments will have to be made. Vicodin only has 500mg which would not be affected by the recommendation as long as you don't take more than 8 a day. In addition, this was the panel's recommendation, the FDA has not made that official yet. The only thing that will have to be pulled right away are the OTC tylenol bottles, so the FDA will have to provide retailers as well as drug companies time to make the switch. SO please stop panicking.

Exhausted is right. No reason to panick! And besides.... if that happens (which is not going to), not everyone is on one type of medication. For example: I am on Methadone and Dilaudid for BT, someone else is on Avinza, someone else on Oxy IR and so on...... so do not loose any sleep over this and stop worrying. Listen to Exhausted!

I must be the only one who is not upset by this turn of events. I regularly combine
Advil + Tylenol + Diet Coke to hold off the PRN's for as long as possible. The problem is that the PRN contains Tylenol. I would love to be able to get just the narcotic so I can then use just that AFTER trying the OTC remedy becuase 8 out of 10 times it works.

Hi, I'm new here and this is my first post. I have noticed a change in attitude with my doctor over the last few months regarding pain control. At one time my doc told me pain was the must under-treated condition in America. Now the doctors must be under greater scrutiny due to abusers therefore we suffer. Also, I just tried to get my Soma refilled. Had a refill available and rx wasn't expired. Pharmacy told me Soma is now a class4 drug and they have to call doc before they can refill. This is exhausting. I have also been worried about ban. Thanks for hearing me out.

There will be some changes, but calling it a "ban" is going a little bit too far! It is just creating panic and confusion. Doctor's have been under this type of scrutiny for ever! This is NOT new!! I think that a good pain management Doctor knows what to look for in a person that is truly in chronic pain and the ones that are there just to get a "high".
Every time that a freaking artist dies of an overdose this topic becomes something that puts everyone, specially people in the medical community nervous. It happened with Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Heath Ledger, etc.... Please, let reasoning be stronger than rumor, let common sense rule our thoughts.

Tipper: "Doctor knows what to look for in a person that is truly in chronic pain and the ones that are there just to get a "high".

Glad I stopped by here for the first time.

Hi 3boyz, nice to meet you :) I also have run into the prob with my Soma, I get a 3 mth supply if it from my PCP, she put a x3 rf on it but Expressscripts put a no rf on the bottle. Don't know what will happen there, I'm hoping that I won't have any prob getting my PCP to rf it when it's due. GRRRRRRR..

3boyz,
Let me recommend this great manual for you. You can download it on the internet, just do a google search. Print it and see what I am talking about when I say that real PM Doc's know which patient is there because they are a drug addict and which ones are the true pain sufferers.
The manual is called " The Intractable Pain Patient's Handbook For Survival" written by Dr. Forrest Tennant. It is great reading and very helpful for those of us in chronic pain.

Soma has been class 3 in my state for a long time. Real pain in the tuckuss too.

It does not even work that well for pain.

catlovesdi, I love my Soma! I've been on it for 15 yrs and it still works well. I have alot of back issues and it seems to relax the muscles making the actual pain less. Does that make any sense? I'm punchy from lack of sleep...lol just got home from work and off to bed for a nap. BTW, I saw your comment about Tyl, advil and Diet coke and I'm puzzled, is this an effective pain control cocktail or what? I'm really curious :)

Soma is not a pain medication for those of you taking it.... It is a muscle relaxer, it will help with muscle spasms, but not with mechanical pain. When I took it as a muscle relaxer it didn't work well for me either, Zanaflex is a better muscle relaxer.