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.