Any Advice for Relieving Shoulder Pain that Accompanies Laparoscopy

Hi everyone! I am having a LH and rectocele repair on Thursday and I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to get rid of the shoulder pain that accompanies Laparoscopies or how to avoid it all together.

I had a Laparoscopy back in Aug. and the pain from the gas was 50 times worse than the incisions & abdominal pain. It lasted for a week and ended up making my neck hurt also. (I suffer from Fibromyalgia so I'm sure that didn't help in any.) A co-worker told me that her mom was given a prescription for that pain specifically post op and it made the pain go away. She can't remember the name though. Does anyone have a clue of what med this was?

Also, if anyone who has had a rectocele repair would let me know how long it took for recovery. Do you think I could go back to work at the two week mark....front office type work?

Walk as much as you can without hurting yourself. A heating pad on the shoulder/neck area also helped me. And take some Gas-X, too! I'm sorry I don't know the name of the prescription.

Ugh! I had the same pain and it was the WORST! I cried mine was so bad!

I was home, taking percocets at the time and they were not helping. I could not sleep or get comfortable. So I called my doc and she told me to take the percocets and piggy back ibuprofen with them. I would take the percs, then two hours later, take ibuprofen, then two hours later, percs again, then 2 hours later ibuprofen again, etc, etc. This was the only thing that gave me relief......talk to your doc about it.

This time, I'm mentioning it to the anesthesiologist when I meet with him before surgery. (Which will now be in just a few hours!!!!)


Christine

I found that rocking in a rocking chair helped when I was sitting. If I was laying down, I propped my whole right side (the side that hurt) up on a body pillow and that helped me. That was the only pain I had post op. And it is the worst!

Good luck.

Thanks for all the replies. Paininthe, please let me know if your anesthesiologist gives you any other information.

I tried using the pain meds also but they really didn't touch the shoulder/neck pain. (I didn't know about the pain meds/advil piggyback idea though so I will try that if needed.)

I did use the Gas X strips but I'm not sure if they helped at all. I also used a heating pad pretty much 24/7 which did offer some relief but I couldn't believe how much pain the CO2 caused. It was the first pain I felt in the recovery room & it only got worse for the next couple days. I could not find a comfortable position and slept on the couch for the first 3 nights because I didn't want to disturb DH. Also, I couldn't imagine trying to climb in and out of our tall bed.

Thanks again everyone! This site has been such a God-send.