Your physical therapist was partly correct and partly wrong. Yes narcotic painkillers (and other medications as well) can cause something called 'rebound' in which after a period of time the very symptoms the medication is supposed to treat (and did treat for a time) come back even stronger. The rebound effect with pain medication is well known in people with migraines. Interestingly most of the information on rebound refers to headaches and not other types of pain.
Your PT erred in stating that hydrocodone 'will' cause this effect. Rebound only occurs in a small percentage of patients and many patients are able to take these medications for years without having this problem.