Hi,
I’m currently 2.5 weeks post op from my second knee replacement and I totally understand your concerns. I have chronic pain and go to a pain clinic, and take opioids daily for my chronic pain. My normal dose is the max that most hospitals give now for post op pain relief. So I’ve had a really hard time since the opioid crisis that si making it so difficult for those of us with chronic pain, and people recovering from surgery, etc.
I just read my post, and returned to the top to check it over - it’s super long! I hope it’s not annoying, and that maybe there’s a tidbit in here that you haven’t already heard about.
Some things that have helped me..............
1) to talk with the dr. about how I rate pain, and the fact that I would probably never say it’s a ten - because I’ve had a 10 (forceps delivery with no meds - none!) I talk to the nurses too about this, because the pain scales are a little open to interpretation, but, most nurses can tell when you are hurting. However, I’ve run into a couple who didn’t believe me when I said I hurt.......or maybe they are used to people saying 10! when I would say 7, so now I always have this talk.
2) I ask about combining pain med with anti anxiety med, and muscle relaxer. Anxiety makes pain so much worse, and pain makes us tense up our muscles, which then makes pain worse, which makes us tense up more, etc., etc.
3) if you are staying overnight in the hospital, maybe make sure they give you pain medicine in post op before you go to your room. This last time I didn’t have pain until the minute they started rolling me to my room, and it got worse and worse, and then when I got to my room, the nurse said she couldn’t give me anything (at least anything that would help me - it may be different for a non pain clinic person) until she consulted with the doctors. And she didn’t know when that would be. Ugh. I take great pride in being honest, but in this case, I wish I’d known to get some pain medication before I was transferred. with my first knee, I did have pain in post op and they gave me a nerve block. I had two different surgeons, and the one I used the second time did the nerve block right before surgery - maybe it was wearing off. Anyways, it got so bad that I was crying (I hate that because then you wonder if it looks like you are pill seeking) and it took almost two hours for me to get any pain relief. Unacceptable.
4) ask the nurses if your meds are scheduled or if you have to request them, I didn’t get any sleep because there was an error in my chart and they didn’t give me my regular medications that I take at home to prevent a migraine, and to help me sleep. I found out the next day that they were put in the chart as “as requested.” Ugh. It was a long painful night.
5) if you are able to, bring music that you love and bring good earphones with you so you can listen to it - it helps me a bit with the pain, or a good meditation - there are free apps and podcasts that are good, but you’d want to have it ready to go. You don’t want to be searching for something when you’re in pain.
6) I realized later that I should have put a timer on my phone to replace the ice on my knee. I found out twice, that the ice pack wasn’t even in the bed........and other times, it hurt so much and ice would have been helping, but my ice pack was warm.
7) earplugs and sleeping mask.....and your own pillow if you think that it will help a lot. Just put a colored pillowcase on your pillow. I lost one pillow in the past.........and a cream colored teddy bear.
Now that I write this out, it sounds like I had a bad experience. This experience actually was so much better than my first replacement. But I want you to know that their inability to control my pain while in the hospital had more to do with me having built a tolerance to opioids, even though I had tapered down to nothing prior to surgery. It takes so long for your body to adjust. The nursing staff were the most responsive that I had experienced in my multitude of orthopedic surgeries (4 back fusions too) and I loved all of them (the staff, not the surgeries). Truly the worst part of my stay there was the food. Yuck.
I hope some of this helps, or maybe gives you an idea of something else you would like to bring with you from home that will help you relax. I’m up at 4:00 am for the second night in a row because my legs are so achy......and while I was typing this, I didn’t notice it as much, so thank you for the distraction. LOL
Best wishes for your surgery..........remember to breath too. I always have to remind myself of that when I’m feeling pain.