When can you get off pain meds?

I had the surgery on August 3rd. Now i've had alot of setbacks, mainly ileoitis (inflammation at the site of the pouch) which led to another week stay in the hospital. At this point im still on percocet every 4 hrs, if I don't take it i'm in agony by 5 hrs. Usually when I wakeup I need to take an extra half a pill for breakthrough pain, if not a whole pill as when i'm sleeping I usually don't take it for 5-6 hrs.


Anyone else still in this much pain at this point? Should I be able to go down after the course of anti biotics? I am very scared of pain meds. I was on Dilaudid until Tuesday and was able to drop down to percocet without a problem.

ByeByeUC said...
I was on Vicodin for 2 months after my step one surgery. Reason being I developed an abscess in my pelvic area that needed to be drained. They put in a trans gluteal drain (that's a nice way of saying they punched a hole thru the muscle of my left butt cheek) and it had to stay in for six weeks. So that hurt all day, everyday. That plus the regular post op pain.

If you are in legitimate pain, don't be afraid to take the pain meds. It's only been a month for you and as you said, you have had setbacks. If it persists then definately let your surgeon know. Hope you feel better soon.

My surgeon stopped prescribing the pain meds as I was nearly out of pain about 2 weeks post op, my general physician is prescribing now as my surgeon is about 2 hrs away, costs alot of money to get to her in the city (about $100 round trip) so my physician is doing me a huge favor taking over the pain med management. I think my surgeon thinks I am off the pain meds at this point. I am seeing her wednesday and hoping by then I can move down to every 6 hrs. Everyone tells me if you are in legitimate pain don't worry but the pain is different, post op it was surgery pain and I understood it. Now it is from an infection/ileoitis and no one has an answer when it will clear it up. Its not like UC pain or surgery pain, it feels more like a bad stomach ache that just gets worse until the meds and the pain doesn't feel like it deserves pain meds, but it also is unbearable.


I am starting to get depressed too I had this surgery to get better, done with the UC but at this moment I am worse than I was with the UC for a year+. Im thinking by the time I beat this it will be takedown time and a whole new book of problems opens... I had to withdraw from school this semester because of the complications, I am carrying a 4.0 GPA and was interning in the city and a asst manager at my local burger king - I am only 18. Was building my resume nicely but this is taking 6 months of my life away, MINIMUM. Really hard to wrap my mind around it. Only thing that brings any hope is that if the takedown goes good and I can get down to 4-6 times per day eating what I want I will never worry again.

Post Edited (brian-legacy2) : 9/6/2012 5:02:20 PM (GMT-6)

bostwis1 said...
This is a major surgery and it is rough, but it does get better. I had to withdraw from school also due to complications. I had 3 surgeries in 32 days, a blood clot, and too many NG tubes to count. Depression is normal and it took me some time to accept that school can wait and that I needed to focus on my health first. I am now back in school and set to graduate this December. My journey has been difficult so far, but I would do it all over again because it was worth it. I spend a lot more time enjoying life like a normal 22 year-old and less time sitting on the toilet in agonizing pain.

Did you ever have a takedown

Be sure to tell your surgeon you are back on pain medications. There could be something else going on, since you said you initially got off of them. Perhaps an ulcer? If the pain is in your actual stomach, it might not even be related to your surgery. The pain needs to be investigated.

Sue

I was on pain meds for a little over a month. I came off because I ran out and was determined to come off of them. The pain stuck around for about 6 weeks, but did gradually get better after 4. I know my recovery seemed longer than normal, but a lot of that had to do with being so terribly sick going into surgery.

Takedown is not in my near future. I am having my j-pouch created in January then takedown will be in March or April sometime. I'm okay with that. My body needs a break. Honestly, if I was having unbearable pain a month out of surgery I would get a CT scan done to see what's going on in there. Every time I had unbearable pain there was something not right. Better to be safe than sorry.