August 30th, 2010 | 
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I took my wife to the emergency room last night. She’s having difficulty breathing, fatigues easily, and her BP has been all over the place. The nephrologist told her that she is in the beginning stages of acute renal failure. I suspect that she has been abusing Lortab for several months, and I wonder if that might have anything to do with her kidney problems. In the past year, I’ve hospitalized her for opioid detox three times, but she has legitimate pain issues resulting for major surgery complications, making it easy for her to convince several doctors to prescribe Lortab. Any professional insight would be greatly appreciated.
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Mixing hydrocodone with alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, methylphenidate, benzodiazapines, barbiturates, and a number of other medication can have severe adverse reactions including but not limited to: heart failure, heart attack, respiratory distress, pulmonary failure, liver or kidney failure, jaundice, amnesia, seizures, blackouts and coma. Mixing acetaminophen with other NSAID analgesics like sulindac can cause serious damage to organs.
Constant overuse of acetaminophen can harm the kidneys, and Lortab contains acetaminophen. That is why there’s warnings on Tylenol bottles about taking it longer than 10 days. This article says about 5000 ppl a year have renal failure from this:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9D05EEDD1138F931A15751C1A962958260
It can be tricky to know if someone in pain is abusing narcotics or using it for pain. Not many chronic pain patients get addicted, but it can happen. I’m sad for you and your wife…
Acetamin. in itself won’t damage your kidneys, Ibuprophen will definitely. Tylenol can and will if abused, screw up your liver for sure.
Yes Overuse of tylenol can cause renal failure-(I am a recipient of a kidney transplant)But the person would have to take thousands of milligrams of Tylenol a day for years to be in chronic renal failure-If she does have legitament pain issues#1 she should be referred to a pain clinic#2get off the painkillers thst have Tylenol in them(Vicodin,Norco,Anexia,Lortab,Lorcet,Percocet) She should be placed on any of the following to manage her pain,and I suggest starting on the first and move up if need be(Roxicodone,Morphine,Oxycontin,Opana,Dilaudid,Duragesic) none of these have any aditives-just pure opiates-Her nephrologist will start doing bloodwork,24hr urine clearances,change diet,put on different meds,biopsies,etc-I wish her all the luck,and feel free to e-mail me anytime to ask or discuss anything about kidney disease and what to expect