TAH: On-Q pump for pain??

When I had my last abdominal surgery I had an On-Q pump for the pain (I also had morphine, percocet, & ibuprofen). I had worked myself up into thinking the pain was going to be horrible but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had worked it up to be in my mind.

Do you think it was because of the On-Q pump? The doc said he's going to use it again this time and I'm relieved but I'm wondering if it's really as effective as it seemed or was it just because I psyched myself out?

Has anyone else had a doc use this?

FYI it's a ball in a bag that goes around your neck with tubing that comes out and goes into your incision. Inside the ball is a balloon like thing that slowly and constantly flushes the surgical site with a local anesthetic for a few days.

I'm just curious if anyone else had experience with this.

Thanks!

wow, have never heard of such a thing, sounds good.

I had a pain pump and loved being able just to hit the button for my pain med..lol..I don't know if this is the same thing you are talking about but the one I had was set on a timer so you can't overdose an all I had to do was hit a button to get my medicine..It was great I loved it!

I will have a pain pump with morphine as well, but no they're not the same thing. The On-Q has a tube that's kinda like a super soaker hose that constantly drips a pain medicine directly into the incision.

After 3-5 days it's empty and you remove the line from the incision. I've heard for a small percentage it's painful to remove but for me it felt like someone was tickling my stomach.

Of course, I've heard almost everyone say that staples don't hurt when they come out but mine did.