Pain management in hospital lacking

Himalaya
Himalaya Member Posts: 4
in Kidney Cancer #1

so I had my partial nephrectomy this morning. Went well I was told. Mass might not even be RCC. Cyst removed as well.

Great friendly staff at small hospital but the pain mgmt approach is confusing.

maybe bec I said I was a “5”. They gave me 100 mg tramadol, few hours later 15 mg hydrocodone,

then toradol 15 mg. 

no change in pain level plus I wasn’t sleeping or relaxed and pain worse after walking.

finally we ask the amounts and times I was given and nurse asks do I want to know what my options are?

of course! Guess what, I can have morphine every 3 Hours. I assessed my pain level is as a 7.

Due to arthritis I take alot of non narcotic pain Med so maybe the pain meds arent as effective. 

Finally some relief 12 hrs after surgery.

 

 

Comments

  • Canadian Sandy
    Canadian Sandy Member Posts: 784 Member
    #2
    Glad you found some pain

    Glad you found some pain relief. I found that surgery quite painful even after I went home

  • Himalaya
    Himalaya Member Posts: 4
    #3
    Canadian Sandy said:

    Glad you found some pain

    Glad you found some pain relief. I found that surgery quite painful even after I went home

    Just frustrated they are

    Just frustrated they are limiting the morphine to 4 mg.

    if it had worked I would be flat in bed. Instead I feel totally normal.

  • icemantoo
    icemantoo Member Posts: 3,361 Member
    #4
    Himalaya said:

    Just frustrated they are

    Just frustrated they are limiting the morphine to 4 mg.

    if it had worked I would be flat in bed. Instead I feel totally normal.

    Those first couple of days are rough.

    Too nuch pain medication is not a good thing. Speak up when you have to. It does get better after those first couple of days. They forgot to tell you about Hell week. That was so you wouldn't worry as  much.

     

     

    icemantoo

  • Steph85
    Steph85 Member Posts: 166 Member
    edited August 2018 #5
    Like Icemantoo said. Speak up

    Like Icemantoo said. Speak up when you have pain. Being at least a little pain free is good for your body to heal. I had an open PN and I had an epidural and morphine and I was still in pain. The epidural was spotty and they took it out and put me on fentynal.  Hope I never have to take that again! Long story short, the nurses are there to help helpget well enough to be discharged. That includes pain management. I'm sorry you have to be going through this. It will get easier with time. Fingers crossed your path. Report comes back negative for RCC. Healing hugs sent your way!!

     

    Stephanie

  • todd121
    todd121 Member Posts: 1,448 Member
    #6
    Narcotics Side Effects

    The are a few downsides to the narcotics. For one thing they are constipating and this is exactly when you are trying to get your bowels back in action. They depress breathing, which is also the exact opposite of what you want, because you want to be breathing deep and frequently to avoid a pneumonia setting in (do the breathing exercises religiously is my advice). And, they don't exactly make you want to walk, which is what you should be doing soon (your bowels need this too). So the narcotics all kind of work against these things.

    For me, all the narcotics cause me to have nausea and it's a nausea their anti-nausea drugs don't help. So they were off the table for me anyways. Although, they didn't initially listen to me on this and gave it to me anyways, causing a nice round of vomiting and dry heaves right upon waking up from surgery. This has happened multiple times and it's very annoying that they don't listen to me when I tell them no narcotics.

    Tramadol worked for me. I was in pain, but I could deal with it. I found I'd rather have some pain and be clear headed, breathing normally, and have my bowels getting started without interference than to be pain free and have nausea, constipation, and feel drugged out.

    These are all trade offs.

    You're in charge of all of this. You just need to decide what you want and push for it. You just need to informed about all of the tradeoffs of these decisions so you know what you are getting yourself into when you decide.

    Wishing you the best,

    Todd

  • CRashster
    CRashster Member Posts: 241 Member
    #7
    You are lucky.

    I had muscle spasms around my incision. They eventually put me on muscle relaxers as well. I was 11.

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