Still in pain - med question

Had total hyster. and everything else removed on the 14th..Still in a lot of pain and pain meds only last four hours..Is this normal?? Hope everyone else is doing well and smiling at least a little bit!!

My pain meds suck
Perkacid (spelled something like that )
All it does is make me loopy but the pain ist still there.

Hi - Sorry to hear you are still in so much pain. I had a SAH on July 9. My doc would only prescribe pain meds for me for two weeks after my surgery, but like you I was still in lots of pain after that. I would say that ideally, I would have continued to take my pain meds (Percocet) for 3 weeks regularly every 4 - 6 hours and then as needed for week 4. After week 4 the pain felt manageable to me with OTC meds, and there was a definite shift in the pain level at the 6 week mark. I am now coming up on 8 weeks out and I find that I am still taking Advil once or twice a day, especially after returning to work... hope this info helps ...

Hi! Yes, it's fairly normal for pain meds to last 4-6 hours. Here's something which really helped me, and you might check with your or to see if you can do this:

I "staged" my medications every three hours, alternating Vicodin and 600 mg. ibuprofen. So for example, I would take my Vicodin at 6 a.m. (when I woke up in the morning), then 600 mg. of ibuprofen at 9 a.m., then the Vicodin again at noon, then the ibuprofen at 3 p.m., then the Vicodin at 6 p.m.

The idea is that by taking something every three hours, you always have some sort of pain medication in your system. I tell you, my pain control took a dramatic upward swing when I started doing this!

I was still doing this at 4 weeks post-op, with the approval of my doctor. At that point, I was able to start reducing my meds gradually.

Everyone is different and as long as you are following with your doctor and not experiencing "new" or increased pain, you are probably doing OK. My doctor explained that as long as I was feeling generally better each week, I was progressing -- but for each patient it is different.

Anyhow, you might want to ask your if staging would be OK for you to try. I hope you are feeling much better soon.

I did the same as mjd. I alternated the Vicodin and Ibuprofen. It really helped with the pain. I did not feel drugged up all day long and my Vicodin lasted longer. If you are still in pain, please let your doctor know. I told mine that I could not sleep at night because of the pain and my meds were gone. He authorized 10 more Vicodin to get me through the nights for a week and a half. It helped tremendously.