@EL11 , I was on Tylenol around the clock and Dillauded as needed for pain. When I came home, despite the Tylenol around the clock, I needed the Dillauded more regularly. I came home on Saturday and by Sunday I was itching, with no visible rash, which is a side effect of the Dillauded (a short acting Hydromorphone). Sunday night I started having the weird dreams. I had had the weird dreams when on the morpheme pump after a ectopic pregnancy rupture and surgical repair years ago so was expecting them again. I know quite a few people who have had the weird dreams with it. I spoke to the doctor's office and they said to continue to take the Tylenol around the clock, but to stop the Dillauded and take the Tramacet regularly. The Tramacet has Tramadol + Tylenol in it (marked on my Rx) so I had to figure out the dosage amounts of that Tylenol intake plus what additional Tylenol to take to get me up to the max dose of Tylenol. Anyhow, I started with the max dose of the Tramacet, as I was on day four at that point and had pain. I'm still on the Tramacet regularly, but a slightly lower dose as of yesterday, and will stay on it, slowly weaning off
as my body heals. I'm not worried about psychological addiction as, as an active outdoorsie and sportie person, I hate any kind of altered state feeling. I think most people are inclined to drop the doses down slowly as their surgical pain improves, which avoids the physiological withdrawal side effects. I have seen on the forum here a schedule for weaning off as well, but have also seen the comment that most people do the slow weaning without a schedule, as their body begins to recover from the surgical pain. If you have any worries about any of that do ask the moderators to point you to the "weaning off" chart or tag Josephine. This forum is full of amazing helpful knowledge!
I also spoke to the pharmacist (who dispensed my post-op Rx's) by phone when I got home about the differences between the Dilaudid, the Tramacet and the Tylenol. He explained it in relation to the 0 - 10 pain scale. He said that the Dilauded would help pain up to 9/10, but after the four hours since taking the drug, it would fall off dramatically in its effectiveness. It is fast acting and fast non-acting...good for breakthrough pain. The Tramacet will help with pain up to a 7 and Tylenol up to a 4/5. I found that really helpful. In hindsight, and when I get my other hip done in a couple of months, I will probably go straight to the Tramacet round the clock and only used the Dilaudid for major breakthrough pain as needed as my starting pain plan. It may have been explained to me that way at discharge the day after surgery, but somehow I missed that memo!
Glad that you have the lungs of an elephant! I was taking an open water diving course when my Mum was admitted to hospital with pulmonary failure and pneumonia (caused by the PF). I got really panicked at the first ten foot dive (from which you can easily free accent with no issues), just thinking about her being ventilated. As
@lovesstars chats about, life events i.e. THR(!) can be associated with your dreams too! Under normal circumstances my dreams, when I dream, are a variety of fragments of my day! Makes for hilarious dreams at times!
As for the wretched constipation, I took the laxative/stool softener recommended by the OS. It took two days to work. After it worked I did nothing for a day, other than stay on my high fibre, water drinking diet. Things stopped again so I took a stool softener for two days and since then my regular diets seems to be doing the trick!
Well by now I hope you have had a lovely cup of coffee/tea to get through this AM reading!!!! Hope it is helpful.
SO great that you got out for Mexican food! Amazing and good for you