Through the past several weeks I’ve been very reflective on my first surgery and am comparing everything!  I can’t help it.  I thought the first one went amazingly well (and it did, don’t take what I’m going to say next as bad) but this time is going WAY BETTER!

Pain Management

I had absolutely no idea what poor pain management I had the first time around (and really for years and years pre-surgery).  I honestly just thought ‘I’m on strong drugs and these are the side effects.’  I just thought that that’s how it was for me, that’s how my body reacts, and even if I used different drugs I’d likely have the same problems.

I was very naive when it came to pain management.  Last time I would just lay still and tried to sleep through the pain, rather then throwing up immediately after taking a percocet or eating something.  That’s how bad it was.  I think I only took about 6 pills after my hospital stay just simply to try to sleep a little at night, I just couldn’t handle it.  This time around, I took meds when I needed and didn’t suffer through any side effects because I told them about my reaction to percocet during the pre-op and they gave me something else (hydro-morphine).  Thank goodness!!

My advice to anyone reading: Tell doctors if the medication is making you sick.  It should be helping, not making matters worse.  I wish that I had done that following the first hip replacement.  I would have been much happier and it would have made recovery a lot easier.  There is nothing harder then pushing through pain, let alone while being nauseous and sick on limited sleep.