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What was your post-op pain?

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amanda03994
amanda03994

Hi, I am concerned with some things about pain management. For starters, November of 04’ I broke my hip in a car wreck. I was held in the hospital and on a morphine pump for X amount of time. With this injury I experienced some pain but nothing and I mean nothing like what I went through with this catastrophe. 

  Well, let’s fast forward to March of 18 where I have recently broken my ankle in 3 places. This required an extensive surgery and here I sit with my leg elevated a mere 6 days after. Presently, I am not having unmanageable pain and I am taking my pain medicine less and less. 

  To get to the point here, the day after my surgery when the nerve block wore off I was in HORRIFIC PAIN!! It was unmanageable and basically my mind started thinking of other things I could do to help my pain level. For example breathing into a paper bag until I passed out or drinking a bottle of everclear to go night night. The pain meds did not even make it bearable. Out of shear desperation I called the doctor and explained that I was ready to take a warm bath with razor blades and I was basically told by my surgeon that, ‘post op pain after the first couple days is pretty much severe and unmanageable for most people and there was nothing really that could be done”.  I accepted that answer, prayed and cried myself to sleep. I think from the exhaustion of the intensity of pain, my trashing around and my pulse and BP being through the roof I was able to settle down and sleep a few hours. Oh, I forgot to mention that having my leg at an upward bent angle and tightening my pants leg around my thigh and pressing on the back of my leg did help. I guess that I was pressing on a nerve or something...I don’t know. 

   Anyway, my concern here is that medical professionals are not treating pain directly after surgery sufficiently. The first couple-three days after surgery is always the worst. Our surgeons are aware of this so why not adequately treat the pain? 

To conclude, the good news is that the pain level did go down pretty drastically from what it was and I’m only 6 days out. My breaks were pretty awful too. So to those of you that are going to endure a surgery I would recommend that maybe you press your insurance company or doctor to let you stay in the hospital a couple of days so your pain can be treated there. I was sent home directly after surgery to manage on own and this was a bad idea. Anyway, they say hind sight is 20/20!!! Good luck!

0 likes, 2 replies

2 Replies

  • amanda84923
    amanda84923 amanda03994

    Posted

    I broke my ankle in 3 places and dislocated it in December. I have one plate and a bunch of screws. I also had a nerve block when I had surgery and they sent me home that same day. Even though I had the nerve block, I started taking my pain meds early, since I didn't know exactly when the nerve block would wear off. I took the pain meds exactly as prescribed, waking up in the middle of night to take them. When the nerve block finally did wear off I had pain meds in my system. I think this helped keep my pain manageable. Yes it hurt at times, but mainly the pain and irritation came from not being able to get comfortable to sleep and couldn't have been managed by anything other than me figuring out how to get comfortable. A hospital stay may be a good idea for some and it's worth looking into, but I would've been annoyed if I'd had to stay in the hospital.   

  • tricia09818
    tricia09818 amanda03994

    Posted

    I think it depends on your age, what help you have at home, and the severity of the break. I am 63, bimalleolar fracture of left ankle. They woke me up, made sure I could go to the bathroom and keep something down and boom I was discharged. No crutch training or hints at how to do things at home. My physical therapist said I should have been kept overnight (my surgery didn't get over until 6pm)and the next morning, visited by physical therapy for crutch training and how to transfer onto the toilet, etc before discharge. I fell twice in the first couple of weeks, luckily not breaking anything else, but a hard fall on my hip on my good side made comfort pretty much impossible for days.

    ?Sorry you went through that!

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