I think your husband is unlikely to become physically addicted to Tramacet if he's only taking two at night.

when I start started taking tramadol I felt very ill for about 10 days but once that was over it was fine. The best combination that I had was tramadol and celebrex as that give the most pain relief.
Dee

It's going to be a case of taking the lesser of 2 evils. Is your wife better off with the hot flushes and being relatively pain free or is she better off with no hot flushes and in some more pain? That is something only she can decide as only she will know how bad these symptoms are relative to each other.

If the pain is easing she could reduce her pain killer use and with that the side effects should also start to fade. Suddenly stopping the pain killers would not normally be advisable though as her pain may become quite severe, although she would unlikely get withdrawal effects after such a short period of treatment.

Thanks

I would suspect the tramadol in the Tramacet as the cause of the twitching legs and maybe the other symptoms too. She still obviously needs some pain killers so it's worth discussing with the doctors. Yes, codeine can cause constipation, but so can lying in bed after a hysterectomy and so can tramadol. Any constipation can always be remedied with laxative treatment while the pain killers are necessary.

It is unlikely there will be any long term damage. It is theoretically possible that your body could be addicted to the opiate pain killer in the medicines you have been taking but if your back and arthritis cause pain to a level where you need to take pill to function right now, if a miracle happened (after 40 years) and your pain went you should find them easy to stop.

That's the other point here though - after 40 years of pain killers it is quite likely that you will need pain relief indefinitely but you should have an expectation that these tablets will allow you to do what you need to do and not that they will return you to how you were - pain free and fully active - those 40 years ago.

I have no personal experience of using Tramacet at all, much less in patients how have had gastric bypass surgery. It is a lower dose of tramadol in these tablets than in the tramadol capsules (at least it is here in the UK). If you pain is that bad surely it's worth chancing the side effects so at least you know if the new tablets suit and get some relief or you know you need an alternative.

I can only presume your medication has been changed because the codeine was not really helping. Tramacet is more expensive than the alternatives but if all of the alternatives have been tired already it may be a last resort option. If you still have concerns you should raise these with your doctor.

I can sympathise with your predicament. You have obviously tried several medicines, none of which seem to be providing you any relief.

It's a difficult situation to suggest you take someone else's medication - this is never a good solution to a problem. Would it be possible for you to contact your local out of hours service - they may be able to arrange a supply of stronger pain killers for you before your doctor is available on Monday?

Benadryl is a brand name for a range of products so without knowing exactly which product (and therefore that active ingredients) it's difficult to say for sure. You are probably going to be slightly more drowsy but other than that it should be safe. It is best to check with your local pharmacist to be entirely sure though.