Amazing few days. The surgery was uneventful and I am surprised by how little real pain I am experiencing. My goal was if I can keep the pain below a level 3 of 10, I would try and not keep taking the pain meds that were offered. By Wed I was going 10 hours without them. It really is amazing. I do appreciate all of your comments, thoughts and prayers. I feel very good, had great doctors and some excellent nurses. Anesthesia was easy and kind of cool. SWMBO has been fantastic - but is tired - she does not sleep well when the KING is not next to her. Thanks again.
Great to hear the news. Definitely a good sign you're handling the post-op healing so well. Appreciate the update -- get some rest, and hang in there!!
Glad to hear you are doing well!!! another reason to give thanks Take care and I wish you a speedy recovery Raf
first, congrats. It sounds like you had great pain management...opiate addiction in patient's recovering pre-op is way, way, way lower than what is generally thought or feared (less than 1% of all opiate addiction occurs in treatment of post-op management of pain). Modern pain management studies now instruct practitioners to disregard the possibility of an opiate addiction as a possible reason to restrict opiate dosing....People in the past have been nearly been killing themselves with pain and PRN (as needed) orders for years. In fact, most of the opiate addiction (and tolerance)is a result of the PRN type scripts. Here is what happened a lot in the past. you get the operation you get put on a minimal amount of meds, or PRN. you experience a big spike of pain you are forced to take a big amount of drug. repeat several times. you become "tolerant" you need ever more drugs to make your pain "relieved" you may become addicted this is what happens more and more with advancing medical practice -you get the operation -you get put on a moderate amount of opitates and NSAIDS, each working together to eliminate the nagging onset of pain -you get your pain constantly evaluated -you are given meds more regularly for a sustained amount of time -your pain never reaches the point of requiring a series of large doses -you can gradually taper the need -end result, less meds taken over the entire process, less chance of addiction or tolerance Some of the problem is of course, the stigma of "opium" and the illicit side of the use of these powerful and effective tools. This was probably compounded by high profile lawsuits, big names addicted to "pain killers" and the use/abuse cycle by people who would probably just be abusing something else if they would or could.
