OP
OP
Dulcimer Diva
graduate
I hear you, Toni. In order to be released, the protocol here is to be walking either unaided or with a single arm crutch or (more commonly) cane. According to my PT, I'm well on the way ROM-wise but she is concerned that my quads are still too weak and I need to work a bit more with my OT on balance (and I suspect for the latter that I need to be less doped-up). Falls are a huge concern because at best they can undermine the surgeon's work and patient's progress; and at worst in an aging population can result in fractures that could ultimately prove fatal. Tomorrow I should get my insurance company's decision as to how long I stay (they and not the staff are the final arbiters) here. I may hire a private duty caregiver the first few days I'm home till I assess how much I can do for and by myself. Just have to find one who doesn't insist on being paid in cash instead of check (the agency requires this) and who is bonded and trustworthy.
I would much rather take the original 5 mg/day dose of Opana BID and be able to take my Norco by the clock (even 8 tabs, never mind 9, could do the trick) with Tramadol for breakthrough than have 10 Opana BID and play games with the clock allotting my precious 6 tabs a day (and sometimes forfeiting two of them--I felt today that I was being punished for having stayed up 23 minutes past my bedtime last night). This is compounded by the fact that my husband can never visit me before 10:30 pm due to his workload--no sense in nodding off while he's here, especially after he drove over an hour to get to me. I was surprised in hospital with the array of pain meds I was getting. Last year, once the PCA morphine pump was disconnected, all I got in hospital, rehab and at home was 2 Norco 10 every 4-6 hrs., with nobody objecting if I insisted on every 4 hours. I went home after 10 days in rehab and immediately began weaning myself first by gradually cutting the dose, then lengthening the interval, then cutting the dose further (to the point of halving the 5 mg. ones to achieve a 7.5 mg. dose between having gone to a single 10 to a single 5 (and then 2.5 at long intervals and finally only at bedtime). What did help considerably was Celebrex after my coumadin was finished; my gut may have healed enough for me to take it again. (The Bonesmart Cocktail got me through outpatient PT, but the ibuprofen component is a non-starter now).
I'm wondering if the difference between last year and this one is that doctors have taken additional seminar training on how to avoid discipline or even prosecution for overprescribing opioids & opiates to other than terminal cancer patients; the irony is that just as pain began to be recognized as an ailment per se and pain management a valid subspecialty, the societal one-two punch of rampant recreational abuse by people not in pain, and socially conservative and judgmental medical ethics is hurting the most vulnerable who need state-of-the-art pain management.
I feel that oxymorphone does little for me but make me twitch to a point that Neurontin can't handle. I never liked IV morphine for that reason--even when it eased the pain in the first day or two post-op, the weird dreams and the clonic jerk spasms were less bearable than the slightly lower degree of pain relief afforded by short-acting (4-6 hr) oral opioids.
Don't get me wrong--as rehab facilities go, this is one of the best. (My husband confirms that most hospitals are switching or have switched over to Pillmatix or Pillex robotic computerized dispensers to cut down on theft and abuse as well as avoid human error as to dosage or even drug name).
I would much rather take the original 5 mg/day dose of Opana BID and be able to take my Norco by the clock (even 8 tabs, never mind 9, could do the trick) with Tramadol for breakthrough than have 10 Opana BID and play games with the clock allotting my precious 6 tabs a day (and sometimes forfeiting two of them--I felt today that I was being punished for having stayed up 23 minutes past my bedtime last night). This is compounded by the fact that my husband can never visit me before 10:30 pm due to his workload--no sense in nodding off while he's here, especially after he drove over an hour to get to me. I was surprised in hospital with the array of pain meds I was getting. Last year, once the PCA morphine pump was disconnected, all I got in hospital, rehab and at home was 2 Norco 10 every 4-6 hrs., with nobody objecting if I insisted on every 4 hours. I went home after 10 days in rehab and immediately began weaning myself first by gradually cutting the dose, then lengthening the interval, then cutting the dose further (to the point of halving the 5 mg. ones to achieve a 7.5 mg. dose between having gone to a single 10 to a single 5 (and then 2.5 at long intervals and finally only at bedtime). What did help considerably was Celebrex after my coumadin was finished; my gut may have healed enough for me to take it again. (The Bonesmart Cocktail got me through outpatient PT, but the ibuprofen component is a non-starter now).
I'm wondering if the difference between last year and this one is that doctors have taken additional seminar training on how to avoid discipline or even prosecution for overprescribing opioids & opiates to other than terminal cancer patients; the irony is that just as pain began to be recognized as an ailment per se and pain management a valid subspecialty, the societal one-two punch of rampant recreational abuse by people not in pain, and socially conservative and judgmental medical ethics is hurting the most vulnerable who need state-of-the-art pain management.
I feel that oxymorphone does little for me but make me twitch to a point that Neurontin can't handle. I never liked IV morphine for that reason--even when it eased the pain in the first day or two post-op, the weird dreams and the clonic jerk spasms were less bearable than the slightly lower degree of pain relief afforded by short-acting (4-6 hr) oral opioids.
Don't get me wrong--as rehab facilities go, this is one of the best. (My husband confirms that most hospitals are switching or have switched over to Pillmatix or Pillex robotic computerized dispensers to cut down on theft and abuse as well as avoid human error as to dosage or even drug name).
United States
