AussieHipster
new member
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2020
- Messages
- 14
- Age
- 48
- Country
- Australia
- Gender
- Male
Wow, what a disaster this has turned out to be…
I got the surgery last Wednesday afternoon, on the 29th January. The surgeon had to do a small bone graft to repair the holes in my pelvis before he could do the full hip replacement. These holes were caused by the first core decompression surgery, as the first surgeon had penetrated my femur head three times, causing two new holes in the pelvis. The hip surgeon decided to take photos of the damage, which was clearly visible, and I think he wants me to pursue legal action against the first surgeon, though he was loathe to directly say so.
I woke up from the op in extreme pain. I've never felt anything like it. Unfortunately the hospital did not have the morphine sulphate that I was prescribed for post-op pain relief, so for the first night I only had a Ketamine drip for the pain. I had told them before the operation that Ketamine causes me to have extreme anxiety, so didn’t want to use it, but they proceeded to do so. After about 3 hours I had extremely bad thoughts about suicide, how bad life is, etc – thoughts I NEVER have normally. It was horrible, so I asked them to lower the Ketamine IV. They did so, making it about 6mg per hour; the result was a sound mind again, but terrible pain.
There was no doctor on duty that night, so they couldn’t give me any oxycodone tablets or a morphine drip, instead having to wait until 8am the next day before the nurses could get the right prescription to do so. So I spent most of the night almost screaming in agony… I actually did scream a few times :(
The next day my pain specialist and surgeon sorted out a new prescription that the hospital did have in stock. However, for the first 20 hours or so, the nurses mis-read the script, and gave me half what the doctors had ordered. It took me a while to figure this out, but when I did, I immediately contacted my pain specialist who sorted the issue out within an hour or two.
By Sunday I was still in extreme pain, but was able to walk around 10 metres with the aid of a walking frame. I figured I’d rather be in bed at home than in bed at hospital, so after a quick visit from the physio, I was discharged. Unfortunately my pain specialist only prescribed me enough pain killers for 3 days, so today I went to my GP to get another week’s worth, as my pain specialist had directed me to do. I had asked my pain specialist via email to contact them before I went to the GP, to let them know what to prescribe, but it seems she didn’t do so.
As a result, I’ve been prescribed enough of the morphine sulphate for another 36 hours, but I wasn't given any of the Tramadol I was also meant to be prescribed. I informed my GP that the morphine sulphate is barely working now as I’ve built up a tolerance over the last 3 weeks, and asked if he could swap it for an alternative medication of the same strength (I'd asked my pain specialist to direct the GP to do so, as the pain specialist had been rotating my pain meds for the last month or so). The GP wouldn’t do so until he heard from the pain specialist, and after I spent a painful hour in the waiting room, as he tried to get hold of her, he gave me 36 hours worth of Morphine Sulphate. No Tramadol. I’ve tried to get hold of my pain specialist myself, but she’s been busy. I’m left here post-surgery with just over a day’s worth of some of my necessary pain meds, but not all of them. I appear to be on the rather extreme end of the scale when it comes to pain from hip surgery, and I’m still suffering pain in my other hip, which hasn’t been treated yet. In fact, that one is worse than usual, as I’m having to favour it while I can’t put weight on the hip that was replaced.
I’m really angry that I’ve been left to suffer large amounts of pain, with the looming prospect of having no pain relief in just over a day. I don’t know what to do given that my pain specialist is unreachable, and the GP won’t prescribe anything until he can speak to her. I’m feeling hopeless and depressed about all of this, likely due to the huge amounts of pain I'm in, as I’m generally a very easy going person. I feel like bursting into tears, and wish I could rewind time to get the hip surgery done elsewhere…
I got the surgery last Wednesday afternoon, on the 29th January. The surgeon had to do a small bone graft to repair the holes in my pelvis before he could do the full hip replacement. These holes were caused by the first core decompression surgery, as the first surgeon had penetrated my femur head three times, causing two new holes in the pelvis. The hip surgeon decided to take photos of the damage, which was clearly visible, and I think he wants me to pursue legal action against the first surgeon, though he was loathe to directly say so.
I woke up from the op in extreme pain. I've never felt anything like it. Unfortunately the hospital did not have the morphine sulphate that I was prescribed for post-op pain relief, so for the first night I only had a Ketamine drip for the pain. I had told them before the operation that Ketamine causes me to have extreme anxiety, so didn’t want to use it, but they proceeded to do so. After about 3 hours I had extremely bad thoughts about suicide, how bad life is, etc – thoughts I NEVER have normally. It was horrible, so I asked them to lower the Ketamine IV. They did so, making it about 6mg per hour; the result was a sound mind again, but terrible pain.
There was no doctor on duty that night, so they couldn’t give me any oxycodone tablets or a morphine drip, instead having to wait until 8am the next day before the nurses could get the right prescription to do so. So I spent most of the night almost screaming in agony… I actually did scream a few times :(
The next day my pain specialist and surgeon sorted out a new prescription that the hospital did have in stock. However, for the first 20 hours or so, the nurses mis-read the script, and gave me half what the doctors had ordered. It took me a while to figure this out, but when I did, I immediately contacted my pain specialist who sorted the issue out within an hour or two.
By Sunday I was still in extreme pain, but was able to walk around 10 metres with the aid of a walking frame. I figured I’d rather be in bed at home than in bed at hospital, so after a quick visit from the physio, I was discharged. Unfortunately my pain specialist only prescribed me enough pain killers for 3 days, so today I went to my GP to get another week’s worth, as my pain specialist had directed me to do. I had asked my pain specialist via email to contact them before I went to the GP, to let them know what to prescribe, but it seems she didn’t do so.
As a result, I’ve been prescribed enough of the morphine sulphate for another 36 hours, but I wasn't given any of the Tramadol I was also meant to be prescribed. I informed my GP that the morphine sulphate is barely working now as I’ve built up a tolerance over the last 3 weeks, and asked if he could swap it for an alternative medication of the same strength (I'd asked my pain specialist to direct the GP to do so, as the pain specialist had been rotating my pain meds for the last month or so). The GP wouldn’t do so until he heard from the pain specialist, and after I spent a painful hour in the waiting room, as he tried to get hold of her, he gave me 36 hours worth of Morphine Sulphate. No Tramadol. I’ve tried to get hold of my pain specialist myself, but she’s been busy. I’m left here post-surgery with just over a day’s worth of some of my necessary pain meds, but not all of them. I appear to be on the rather extreme end of the scale when it comes to pain from hip surgery, and I’m still suffering pain in my other hip, which hasn’t been treated yet. In fact, that one is worse than usual, as I’m having to favour it while I can’t put weight on the hip that was replaced.
I’m really angry that I’ve been left to suffer large amounts of pain, with the looming prospect of having no pain relief in just over a day. I don’t know what to do given that my pain specialist is unreachable, and the GP won’t prescribe anything until he can speak to her. I’m feeling hopeless and depressed about all of this, likely due to the huge amounts of pain I'm in, as I’m generally a very easy going person. I feel like bursting into tears, and wish I could rewind time to get the hip surgery done elsewhere…
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