Pain Control

Hello-

I am curious what kind of pain experiences you all had in the hospital and after. As a nurse, medical practice manager, and I chair a pain committee at work, I thought I would at least be prepared. Wrong. I had four c-sections first, so I had an idea of what to expect. My problem was with nursing, just not seeming to care about my pain.

My IV went sub-q; and stayed that way for 2 hours even after the nurses knew-so I did not get any morphine for 3 hours and this started one hour out of recovery. They then switched me to oral tylenol 3's, but it was not enough and they refused to call the doctor to ask. It was humiliating to have to continue to ask for pain relief......Anyone else experience the same?

Kelly

No I did not have this problem.
I am just replying to get this kicked back yup for others to respond to.

Blessings on your recovery

Yes, I had the same problem. I was in more pain than I could even express. I too had had c sects (3) and thought I knew how it would feel. When I woke from recoverey I woke crying screaming and moaning... ONLY TO HEAR THE RECOVERY NURSE SAY.... "You are gonna have to be patient!!!!" PATIENT????? I yelled. They had me on the pump with Falaxl (or something like that) and I pushed that button every 6 minutes with NO relief. They upped the doages and upped them and even had the head of pharmacy of the hospital come up to ask WHY I was fnding no comfort. So, she upped it again. Nothing ever did help. I went home on Wed and fri I was back at the ER for leg pain and pain in general. They put me on Diaudid 6 mg every 4 hrs if needed. I have had nsuch a tryign time with this and I am scared with the addiction aspect. I wish I would have been told HOW bad this pain really was... I just thought, OH If a Csect was a peice of cake this will be easier ( i had a VH) I thought vaginally will be easy. Was I wrong. I guess we should have known pain wise, if with this they give a pain pump and withe Csect you get tylenol! Well, thats what happened with me. I am sorry you had such a terrible time. These nurses can be sooo EVIL at times! My nurse yelled at me when I was up to go pee when I asked her for help pulling up my undies and pad. She said "SIT BACK DOWN ON THE TOILET AND PULL IT UP YOURSELF!!!!" (Sit back down, did she now know how painful it was to sit and get up once???) I hope your recovery is going better that mine. I am still on pain pills and I am 5 days post op. THIS TO SHALL PASS right??? Sunny

The nurses practically forced me to take pain meds! I was actually on the pediatric floor also. (go figure?) They had me alternate T3"s with an antiinflammatory injection. This is one that apparently doesn't mess with your clotting ability. As a nurse and an oncology nurse my mantra was and still is a person's pain is where and what they say it is. I hope your pain is managed at this time.
Pam

I am almost 4 weeks post. Now looking back on it, I think if they could have gotten my pain under control at the hospital it may not have been as bad when I got home.

Hi and HUGS,

I'm so sorry that you were in such pain.

Here comes the rant:

There is no excuse for that. I'd be so hopping mad that I'd get on the phone to my Dr. (while in the hosp.!) and tell him in no uncertain terms that I wanted, needed, and demanded pain relief.

Because of my prior c-sections, I knew what pain meds were good for me and which ones caused nausea. Prior to surgery, I told my Dr. that I wanted X and Y until I felt like I could go "down" to Z, but wanted the option to go back to X,Y if needed. I also told him I wanted A and B to take home with me. No problems.

I am paying these professionals for their services. I believe in being an active participant in my health care. If I'm in pain, I intend for them to know about it and hear about it until something is done about it. Period. The squeaky wheel gets the grease! There is no danger, including addition, that I have read about or heard about in receiving complete pain relief after a surgery like ours, esp. while in the hospital.

I guess my attitude comes from being over 40 and finally learning to speak up for my rights and for myself!

Please do not hesitate to "bother" these folks. With your being in the health care profession yourself and on a pain control committee, it will give you even more clout to leverage with.

I wish you good and swift healing. Take care of your yourself and let your needs be known.

Toots

Kelly....

Hello

I am soo sorry you had such a hard time with pain control in the hospital. I had no problems with pain what-so-ever. My TAH/BSO was June 7, 2001. When I remember waking up in recovery, the nurse told me I was in recovery and they were taking me to my room (that is all I remember after surgery). I was hooked up to a PCA with morphine and that seemed to do the trick. After that was taken away I had one injection of Torodol and then went to motrin 800 mg every 6 hours which took care of my pain.

I did have some very bad nursing problems also. It is very humiliating when you are not receiving the care you need and deserve. The majority of the nurses were great, but forget finding anyone to help you between the hours of 6 a.m. - 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Two of my favorite stories were on the same night. At 6 p.m. I buzzed the nursing station because I had to go to the bathroom. My problem was unplugging my IV pole - the rest I could do on my own (even getting out of bed). Its bad enough to be short, but to have the electrial outlet high above your head is awful. No nurses ever showed up and finally my roommate (who had a TAH/BSO the same day) had to unplug me. She was discharged that night, so I was lucky she was still there. Later on (around 7 p.m.) the night nurse came in and introduced herself. I asked her to keep an eye on my room call and to come quickly if I buzzed because I would probably have to go to the bathroom (I explained the IV pole plug problem). Her response was "I will get to you as soon as possible, we are short nurses and I have alot of patients and if you go in bed I will clean you up." Lovely answer - I paniced and called my dh and told him to sleep by the phone incase I needed him back at the hospital that night. Needless to say, the next day I told the dr to discharge me. I learned that the more critical care patients receive better care (I guess a major surgery like a hyst is not urgent enough). I think if any of my nurses went through this surgery they would think differently.

Just kind of venting, but I understand how you feel and I hope your recovery goes well and I am glad your surgery did (it sounds like it). My recovery started going really well when I went home.

's

Kelly...

Just wondering what part of the state you are from. I just noticed you are from Michigan. I am from Saugatuck - on Lake Michigan just South of Holland. Let me know if you want to.

Thank you for your responses. I worried about pain management from the beginning mainly because I am on pain meds for another chronic pain condition. My primary care even called my OB/GYN to offer to manage my pain meds for her, and she said no. But, I had a tolerance already going in which did not help.

Once they found out I was on a pain med I was treated like a drug seeker. It was such a weird feeling to be on this end of healthcare and be treated like this. The pain committee that I chair is in place to help patients avoid being treated this way and so they know what their rights are regarding pain control.

It was a terrible experience, but I have learned a lot from it and will certainly pass it on when I return to work.

Kelly

Don't the gyn and the primary share information anyway so one doctor could make adjustments when the other does something?