I'd always wondered how soccer moms turned addicts until I was prescribed hydrocodone (the generic name for Vicodin) after having my wisdom teeth taken out.
One of my wisdom teeth had come in and developed a cavity, and had caused me trouble off and on for quite some time before I had it removed. After oral surgery, I started taking the prescription pain killer right away. I'd suffered enough from that tooth before it was removed.
It didn't take long to notice that I not only felt no pain from oral surgery, I also didn't have the neck and back pain or the headaches I was accustomed to, or the throbbing in the bunion on my foot. I fell promptly to sleep every night. I woke up refreshed in the morning. I stayed fully awake throughout the day. My mind was sharp and my time was organized. I got everything done that needed to get done, and the household was under control. I was June Cleaver and Mr. Clean all rolled into one.
My husband said I was high. I didn't feel high, I just felt normal, or, like what I thought a normal person should feel like.
When there was only one pill left in the bottle that said "1 refill", it was so hard not to go down to the pharmacy and pick up one more bottle. I knew I didn't need it, the extraction sites after my oral surgery were healing nicely and there wasn't any pain, but it had been so nice to feel normal.
My son recently had oral surgery and he had his own hydrocodone prescription. With constant extreme fatigue, pain in my muscles, burning in the joints, inability to keep up with life's demands, and the recent return of insomnia, it has been so difficult to refrain from "borrowing" just one little pill from his prescription. All my problems could be resolved if I could take just one.
But I didn't do it.
