jspencereds

it might be advantageous to talk with your PMD about consolidating some or most of your meds into something that is more long acting that does not make you so sleepy.

Unfortunately for me...i don't take meds at work or I would lose my job. My days are pretty difficult to handle....but I make it though with sometimes only a muscle relaxer Baclofen on board.

If you are falling asleep maybe a new look at your meds is the answer or at least the easy one. I have just had mine increased and for the first 4 to 6 weeks was really tired but now am able to function most of the time. I have also found that at times the mixture of drugs have this affect and am thankful that I go to the same chemist who knows what I am on and tells me if a new drug is going to interact with another. I hope that you are able to get the help you need from your doctor or a chemist who can help. Here if you need. Sharon

most pain medications will make you tired.
if your finding it hard,use little pain killers while at work and then you have finished work,something stronger.
i look after my 4 children and the pain killers do effect things,short term memory loss,so when they are punished i forgot and the kids enjoy that.
i was working and in cp and ended not working due to the pain.

I just had to get off one pain killer to swich to another one all I did was sleep. I have gotten pretty used to lortab at one point it stopped making me sleepy but I am still carefuly one it. I would talk to your doc about this maybe lowering the doe or something. Drink a lot of caffinee? I dun know that's a sad part of the lives with live either spend all day in pain or curse your pain killerts

I've found that I am usually the most tired when I start a new rx; you are more "prone" to side effects (such as fatigue). After you've taken the meds for awhile most tent to get "used" to such side effects. Is it a new med you are taking? If so (and it is is helping the pain) then you might want to just give it some time and see...try some caffeine (bonus: it is a potentiatior) and see if that helps. I can't drink coffee/energy drinks (they rip up my tummy); but I've been addicted to the 5 hr energy drinks lately...not sure thats a good thing, but it keeps me up at work. I once fell asleep at my desk so hardcore that my screensaver came up (that means it was at least 25 min) and I got in trouble--a manager saw me and told my manager. D'oh!! If you feel like you're going to pass out at work, go to the bathroom; or outside; etc (if you are 'allowed')....you don't need anyone to see you.
After I'd been on my current med for several months and it was helping my pain more than any of the dozens of other meds I'd tried I obviously wanted to stay on the medication...even though it was still making me REALLY sleepy...pain relief DEF outweighs that side effect...so my doc put me on a med to help me stay awake/alert (there are several...provigal, adderrall, etc) so I don't ever pass out at work again!!

Superduck, props to you for not taking your meds at school/work...I can't even get out of bed w/o mine.

Hope everyone has a good day :)

I take norco at work, it doesnt make me sleepy , in fact the opposite.

Most narcotics will make you tired specially when you first start taking them, so you either have to talk to your Doctor about the dosage, or see if he can put you on something for day time like Tramadol, that is not as tiring. Like Superduck said, using long acting or extended release medications can also help, so if you are not on ER medications, ask your Doctor to switch you to something that is ER to see if that helps with the sleepiness, etc...

If you take other meds., call your pharmacist to make sure they are OK taken together. I've been oversedated, once by a combination of meds and once because the med I was on, made me unusually, extremely sedated.