Managing pain naturally after lobectomy

KattZR

Thirty days ago I had left lower lobectomy due a 2.1cm tumor stage 1a.  The first week was mostly living hell for me, dry cough, mucus cough, sleepless, no appetite, and severe pain.  The pain is like a metal wire burning and cutting into my skin from stomach, below left breast, all the way to the back. The medicine my doc prescribed helped some but the pain still kept me from moving around or sleeping.  I’m always sensitive to any medicine and hate those side effects.  When I came home from the hospital on Day 4, I tried three medicines for one day, tramadol, Celebrex and prescribed Tylenol.  The side effects were terrible and I couldn’t breathe.  

I realized I got to find different ways to tackle the two main issues, coughing and pain.  So coughing was the first one to deal with Because it caused more pain.  I bought a Chinese herbal cough syrup called NinJiomPetipaKoa on Amazon and two other supplements, BreatheEasy tea by traditional medicinals and Breathe capsol by Eu Natural.  After a week, the cough was less and less, also more productive. By now it’s totally gone.  I still drink the tea and take the supplements. 

Because one rib was cut and nerve stirred up during the surgery, I was told this reflective nerve pain would last 3-6 weeks or even longer. For the pain, I only took OTC Tylenol two pills three times a day after the day when the bad side effects hit me Really hard.  Then i stopped Tylenol on the second week because the bottle warns no more than seven days at max amount.  By that time, the pain subsided to be like a thin thread cutting into my skin, not a metal one.  A doc friend of mine told me to try Aspercreme with Lidocaine no mess applicator on the painful areas three to four x a day.  Meanwhile I found two other things that help with the pain. One is slow walk and the other, deep breathing.  This is how I do it.  I lay down, close my eyes. Inhale with mouth close, hold it for 3 sec, exhale with lips like a circle, and slow down as much as I could.  I’m still doing it to this day and found it helpful with occasional shooting pain.  I stopped the lidocaine cream after 7days of using it.  A few days ago, I read online that Penetrex cream (natural cream, bought on Amazon) reduces pain on joints and nerve pain.  So I started applying it generously on the pain areas as well as my incision Twice a day.  Within two days I noticed the inflamed incision became more leveled and less red in color, and the pain significantly subsided.

 Still, I take one pill of Tylenol before going to bed to ensure a good night sleep.  All in all the recovery from such a major trauma to our body depends a lot on our immune system. Sleeping deeply will rebuild immune better than anything.   For that, I take various vitamin supplaments, specifically My Brain capsols by Eu Natural and AirBorne VC and Zinc. Now I can sleep 6-8 hrs straight without coughing or pain.

i hope my experience can help someone who is struggling with pain after a lobectomy. 

Katt