Pain Control

[SherryOP]

Hi everyone,

Today I learned I get to have THR surgery on my right hip. Yippee! lol

My biggest curve to overcome is the post-surgery pain. In 1998 I had rotator cuff surgery. Honestly, it was worse than being in labor (childbirth) for 24 hours. Of course, ultimately I recovered and the pain of my severely torn tendon disappeared.

Any thoughts on how to get the medical world to understand this element, and help me get through this phase more successfully?

This is a great forum, very encouraging. Even with the knowledge I have about the upcoming surgery, I really am looking forward to the relief my new joint will provide, and improved quality of life.

Thanks, Sherry

 

[Josephine]

Hi there , Sherry. May I first tell you that I baulked at having a rotator cuff surgery last year. After so many years seeing patients in pain after it, I was not at all keen!!! The immediate post op pain is unlike any other and our skills were often tested to the limit, trying to get the pain under control.

Not so with hip surgery. The pain receptor nerves around the hip joint are nowhere near as numerous, sensitive or reactive as those around the shoulder. Plus, most THRs are carried out under spinal anaesthetic these days which means that you will be numb from the waist down for around 6 hrs afterwards.

Thereafter it is very likely you will have a "morphine pump" which is actually a device you activate yourself with a kind of remote control button - hence the term PCA or Patient Controlled Analgesia. The machine will then deliver a tiny amount of morphine into your IV on demand every 5 minutes. The trick is to use this when you are simply feeling uncomfortable or just sore, achy or throbby, rather than in real pain. That way the small doses can act quickly and keep things under control. You will probably have this for about the first 24hrs after which you will change to oral medications.

Trust me, the pain is quite different from what you experienced last time in your shoulder and is much more easily dealt with. I rarely, if ever, saw a patient in extremis in the same manner as they could be after shoulder joint surgery, I promise.

 

[SherryOP]

Oh thank you for replying to my post.

I think sometimes too they send you home too soon after rotator cuff surgery. In fact it was a question at the time if I could go home the next day, as my pain was not under control. Then it cleared, they took me off demoral, put me on oral meds, and sent me home.

It's so easy to talk yourself out of it all when it does not hurt. Then you go to do something and then of course have the resulting pain. I worked out in my flower gardens for 1.5 hours only this morning, which was great being outdoors, however it did aggravate my hip.

Get it over with is my current mantra, so I can lead a more active lifestyle. I'm very high energy, so it's hard to be slowed down just because of a silly hip!

Thanks so much, you are helping me work through the process and I really appreciate you responding to my post!

Sherry

 

[Josephine]

You are welcome, Pleased to be able to help. And do come back if there's anything else I can help with, no matter how small!