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VERY sensitive to pain meds... What to take after surgery?

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Posted 9/15/2017 6:59 PM (GMT 0)
Hello, everyone! I am new to this forum. I have had Crohn's disease for 11 years, and have an upcoming consult with a surgeon about bowel surgery with a colostomy. It will probably be all of my sigmoid colon and most of my descending colon. Unsure at this point if it will be open abdominal or laproscopic.

My question is about pain meds after surgery. I am extremely sensitive to narcotics. They give me horrible anxiety and make me feel just terrible. Is there any way around this? Unlike most people, morphine and dilaudid are not my friend.

Has anyone here had surgery without narcotics? If so, may I asked what you used? I have seen mixed reviews about an epidural, (not working effectively, short duration) and I do not think my hospital offers the transverse abdominal plane block.

Thank you in advance for your time. I am sure I will have a lot of questions for you after my surgical consult. smile
Posted 9/23/2017 3:06 PM (GMT 0)
does your state have medical marijuana? if so give that a try for your pain. Better than narcos.
Posted 9/23/2017 6:56 PM (GMT 0)
Julie1014,

I have a colostomy.... had surgery for it one year ago.. My surgery was open and they left my rectum alone.. I too had issues with the narcotics after surgery...the narcotics dropped my blood pressure so low they ended up having a team work on me. It was pretty scary. I can not remember what they gave me after that. I just know it helped some but I could still feel the edge of pain right there. When I got home I took Tylenol. It wasn't too bad. The low blood pressure and only breathing 4 times a minute was much worse. Lol....

I wish I had asked about the medications beforehand so I could have been prepared....

I wish you the best of luck with your surgery and recovery!

Clo

Oh....and I am the BIGGEST wimp ever!!!
Posted 9/24/2017 1:20 AM (GMT 0)
An epidural worked brilliantly after my first surgery - until the needle came out in the middle of the night. But while it was working, it killed the pain 100%. I'd ask about it. You can probably reduce the risk of the needle coming out by not moving around a lot.

As for narcotics, Tramadol is less nausea-inducing than morphine. It's weaker than morphine but still a decent painkiller. Maybe you would get on better with that?
Posted 9/24/2017 1:52 AM (GMT 0)
I had dialaudid (spelling??) pump for the day of and after the surgery which really messed me up- I don't remember a thing! It just totally doped me up.

Then they switched me to Percocet which makes me really nauseous so they have me zophran and another anti-nausea Ned. That didn't work so switched me to oxycodine which worked beautifully.

I'd say talk to your doc before hand and make a plan. My doc told me even before going into the surgery that there is a lot they c an do to make me comfortable and they never want me to be higher than a 3 on the pain scale. Of course that's not realistic but I was glad they had me something to shoot for.

It's also key to make sure you have continuous pain meds until things really start to feel better. I had to keep telling myself that even tho I felt great it was just bc I took the pain medicine 4 hours ago and it was working! If u go too long and let it wear off, you'll be chasing the pain and it'll set you back.

Hope the consultation goes well. Definitely bring it up!
Posted 9/24/2017 2:49 AM (GMT 0)
I've heard of people doing epidurals but it wasn't offered to be as an option. I am a real wuss anyway, the needle scares me. I ended up having the pain pump, which made me sick, but I had anti-nausea meds to help keep me feeling OK. I barely used my pain pump. I had nerve blockers in my stomach that numbed everything. I had those for a few days. That combined with muscle relaxers helped a lot. The pain pump was necessary too when I initially started getting up on my own. I definitely didn't overdo it because of how sensitive I am to opoids.
Posted 9/24/2017 12:28 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you all for taking the time to reply! I meet with the surgeon this Wednesday to discuss my surgical options. I will speak to him then about options for pain management and let you know what he says.
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