"doing too much"

Listen to your body. If you get tired, stop. If it hurts, stop. Don't know what surgery you had but I was told not to lift anything, and can't drive for 6 weeks (insurance would be invalidated if
I drove in that time)

The trouble with pain killers is that you can be fooled into doing more thn you should. Pain is there for a reason, to stop you when you do too much.

The problem with listening to my body is... it's letting me do whatever I want. I feel great.
Haven't noticed any issue. So I keep going.

until over doing it Wednesday and sleeping all day thursday... I was just trucking along happily.
Then I had to cut the pain pills suddenly and that SUCKED.

We knew I would have issues after surgery because I was on Percocet for 6 week BEFORE surgery.

So today I set myself up my first scheduled taper. I'll be taking 9 less pills a day than originally prescribed.

Also I did have some "complications" from my surgery... literally called "pain complications"
I was in the recovery room for 5-6 hours after surgery instead of an hour... because they couldnt get the pain under control. So... yeah. We knew this pain crap was going to be an issue.

I really think over doing it Wednesday and then having to screw up my meds the next couple days; set me back.
So today I am starting all over :)

I created this handy dandy little checklist/form for my next weeks worth of pain meds.
And I'll be able to keep notes for the next 3 days before I see my surgeon on Tuesday. I have my follow up and get my staples out.

So I have light activities planned (crafting stuff instead of say, yard stuff) and less pills scheduled... so we'll see how this goes.

Thanks for the tips on what is "light activities"
I wish my body would have just told me to stop. But it didn't. And like you said, maybe thats the pain pills masking what I actually could and couldn't do. But at the same time... maybe that first week it helped me to build up some muscles and recover faster. It was just this second week that got away from me.
So third weeks will be the charm! :D
Also figured out a way to sleep with my adjustable bed much much less angled so looks like Husband is coming back to bed! Yayy! And my sleep is a much better quality, so that's exciting.
I only get up to pee 1-2 during the night and empty.
I've been emptying about 5 days during the day and 1-2 at night. So I'm pretty happy with that :)

Well im not a doctor. That's why I ask you guys so many questions!

6 weeks before surgery I was on percocet 2 pills every 4 hours for pain.
after surgery my script was for 1-3 pills every 3 hours of oxycodone.

I wad taking 3 pills every 3 hours thr first couple days I was home.
went down to 2 pills evrry 3 hours and had some issues. Probably because I was doing to much (hindsight.)
Went back to 3.

So yes... over 20 pills a day.
as prescribed.

I do have a tolerance built up from being on them so long before surgery.
Iv steroids do diddly for me. The oral Oxy seems to be the only thjng. Though I had oral dilaudid before and those seemed to work.

So I should be resting more and tapering pain pills faster.
gotcha.

I will adjust my new forms to what I have planned for 3 days.
then increase time between doses as well.

embersglow1 said...
Also I did have some "complications" from my surgery... literally called "pain complications"
I was in the recovery room for 5-6 hours after surgery instead of an hour... because they couldnt get the pain under control. So... yeah. We knew this pain crap was going to be an issue.

Katie, to be clear, when I say uncomplicated I mean that the procedure itself was uncomplicated. You didn't develop an abscess or infection or code on the table -- things that might have caused you to be experiencing more pain during recovery than a typical colectomy patient.

Eva Lou is completely right. "Building up muscle" happens now with adequate rest and nutrition, not physical activity. I think a 20 minute walk each day is a perfect goal. I can tell you are goal oriented, so try to set some non physical goals for yourself each day so you can feel accomplished without overexerting yourself. I tracked my food intake after surgery and set a goal to eat 80 g of protein every day to improve my recovery. I am a TERRIBLE sleeper (I hate to do it) so I set a goal for a certain number of hours of sleep plus naps every day.

I will repeat what I said above: consult your doctor for a tapering schedule. I applaud that you are being proactive on your own behalf, and I totally get how as IBD patients we develop an attitude of knowing our body best and wanting to dictate our own regimen, but you are not a pain management expert. You have not dealt with weaning off of painkillers post-operatively before, but your surgeon has overseen that process hundreds if not thousands of times.

right, I don't mean to come off as a bit*h... but 3 pain pills EVERY 3 hours seems excessive. Try 3 pills every 4 hours & keep pushing the timing of your dose out. That's how one tapers. There were times when I was in pain, yes, but I'd hold off as long as I could before taking more meds. In the long run, the chronic use of them will hamper your recovery, simply because you can't "hear" what your body is trying to tell you. You need to expect some pain, it's not like you can expect agony, but seriously??? Pain is the bodies way of telling you something.

I have followed your threads the past few weeks because I had steps 1 & 2 done on July 8th so I was using you as a benchmark. I was really getting depressed because I kept reading that you were doing so much and I felt like a wimp, but now I understand. My goal has been to get as much rest and healing as possible while getting off the pain killers quickly.

Now I was in the hospital for 8 days because of my stoma not cooperating and taking so long to wake up. I came home with a script for 40 percocet taking 2 every 4 hours. After day one I started to freak out because if I kept on the schedule, I was going to be out by Sunday. I have not left the house and only done about 20 minutes of walking a day since being home and have slowly been able to push it to 2 tabs every 6 hours during day and during the night I was given Norco (a step down that is 1 every 6). I have found that I do not need as much during the night because I was also given lorazepam .5 mg to help with relaxation and sleep.

I think you will find if you force your mind to believe you do not need as much or as often you will be able to get off the drugs in a few weeks. DO NOT TRY TO DO IT IN ONE DAY. You still need the drugs because you can't heal while you are in pain. The key is to deal with the emotional side. I had my first panic attack in the hospital because one night I was feeling pain and asked for something to tide me over and it took over an hour for the doc on call to get back to my nurse. That showed me how important my mind was in my recovery process and why telling myself that I did not need the drugs at the prescribed time has helped me taper in a few days.

Good luck

I think it's great that you feel capable of doing so much at this point. It has only been a tiny bit over a week since you had surgery. That said, I don't think you should overdo it and as others have said, you are probably taking more pain meds than some other post surgery people, which may be giving you the false sense of being less sore than you are and you need to be careful that you don't hurt yourself unknowingly. It's really tough because you were so sick for so long and you have probably become dependent on the pain meds physically to some extent... It's going to be hard to stop them, especially now that you have quite a bit of pain but I think it would be best for you to do as Eva and the doctors recommended and try to take less and less until you're not taking any. I can't imagine it's going to be easy but it will be difficult to assess how you're doing while taking these pills. I wonder how long most people take pain meds after surgery? I remember suebear (I think it was her) said she was back to work after a week or two. I do think you should be getting a lot of rest and taking it easy, even if you feel like it's not necessary. it sounds like you've been up and about quite a bit and I am so happy for you. I can't imagine how great it must feel for you to be able to go out without worrying about an incident! :) Please take it easy, another week or two and you will probably get the okay to do a lot more and over time, you will get the OK to do everything you want. Crazy how quickly time passes.

Embers, doing too much this early on will result in all sorts of complications and possibly a hernia.

My new surgeon told me nothing heavier than a dinner plate for three months.

After my emergency surgery, while I could have done a lot, I forced myself to lay low, rest and let others do for me what I couldn't. I killed me, but my healing was successful.

Slow down, one day at a time.

K

I love my Lily too....I will be sad so see her go in October. Guess I will have Lily 2!!!

Eva Lou said...
me too, never had that Freak Out moment! I kept expecting it, to suddenly find myself in the bathroom, crying, output spurting everywhere, a wadded up wafer in my hand. Nope, just didn't happen... in fact, every day it got less & less of a big deal. My first truly naked shower I didn't even look at my stoma, it still grossed me out. This was maybe a week and a half after I'd been home, so about 2 1/2 weeks post-surgery. Now, I look at it but I don't even really see it, it's like one of my many tattoos, just there... a birthmark, mole, etc. even the actual bag doesn't register much, it's sort of like an extra limb or something. Weird.

It was like the New Normal for me because I was healthy again; I never freaked out about it either, It's an ostomy and it gave me back my life for which I was thankful for. It was just nice to be able to do things again and not spend half the day in the bathroom.

So im feeling better today about my recovery and being confident and proud of my progress thus far.

Ive got myself down to 2 instead of 3 and spaced 4 hours!
thanks for all the responses everyone!
def napping extra. And powering through some "discomfort"
Also "hearing" my body and doing quite a bit less.

Tylenol I was good with when I got home but forgot... so I've been taking two extra strength rapid release if I start t

ks and I have the same [awesome] surgeon and his recommendation is two regular strength Tylenol every four hours, whether you feel like you "need it" or not (for the first couple of weeks, not forever obviously :)). Tylenol builds up a serum level over time so if you take it regularly on a schedule like that it's actually pretty powerful. It's the only painkiller I used after they took me off the epidural in the hospital.

DISCLAIMER: make sure you track your tylenol intake, including any tylenol that might be in other painkillers (e.g. vicodin) and never take more than 4000 mg per day.