After The Operation...

[carriekate]

I am scheduled for surgery and was told that after the operation I will have something that I can press and pain medication will be released into my system by an iv line. Has anyone ever had this experience and would know what I should be wary of. Thanks so much.

[jerseyangel]

Hi

I had major surgery last winter. Anything injectable--nothing to worry about from a gluten standpoint. The morphine drip is fine!

When you switch to oral pain meds, you will need to have the hospital check those. The nurses at the hospital I was at carried cell phones in their pockets, and were able to call the hospital pharmacy to check anything that was ordered.

Not every oral med. was safe, so you do need to check.

[carriekate]

Patti,

Thank you for your reply. It eases my mind to know it will be safe. I hope it all works out.

Julie

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I have heard great things about the pain pumps.

My own post-surgical (outpatient surgery) experience was with endocet (generic Percoset), and it put me in the hospital. I did a totally non-scientific, casual little poll of everyone I met who had taken it, and 21 out of the 26 people that I talked to had had bad to very bad to disastrous experiences with it. One man ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks because of his severe reaction (I was only hospitalized for less than 24 hours).

5 people really did like it, and 2 specifically mentioned that they loved the loopy feeling it gave them.

At any rate, I found that over-the-counter Ibuprofen worked better for me than the Endocet--I was pain-free on the Ibuprofen, but the Endocet didn't even touch the pain, and caused massive retching, vomiting, sweating, dizziness, etc. In the hospital, they gave me plain old Tylenol, which worked nearly as well as the Ibuprofen.

Good luck! Ihope your surgery is successful.

[jerseyangel]

Alison,

That's interesting about the over the counter pain relievers vs. the prescription.

After my surgery, I had the "pump" for the two days I was in the hospital. The day I was to be released. they switched me to Tylenol 3--which I believe is the same idea as Percoset (Tylenol and codene).

It was gluten-free, but made me dizzy and nauseous--generally spacy. As soon as I got home, I took only Extra Strength Tylenol for the pain--which was considerable. The Tylenol was about equal to the prescription for pain relief, but had none of the side effects.

The only thing to watch out for when taking Tylenol is to not exceed the recommendations for a 24 hour period. My doctor even said this was fine to do. We had my prescription filled for the Tylenol 3, but I never used it.

Julie,

I'm sure everything will be fine. Please let us know how you do, and if there's anything else I can help you with, let me know.