Epidural or morphine

I must say that I will never ever use the morphine pump in my life. I had surgery several years ago and they gave me the morphine pump and the next day, my doctor found me unresponsive. A Code Blue was called (which I do not remember) and woke up in a special care unit. I'm not sure if the pump did not work properly or the doctor prescribed to much medicine with each pump. My surgery is scheduled for 2/20 and will be using the epidural. I am anxious about the whole "surgery" route but will be glad to lose the ovaries and uterus. There is a light at the end of this tunnel

Well the day finally came Feb 25th, and I hadn't really decided for sure until a hour before surgery that I would go with the epidural for pain management. I didn't know either until that morning that the epidural is placed prior to surgery, so I was a little nervous but decided better to feel the pain prior rather than after surgery. It didn't hurt at all when they put the epidural in, I was joking around with the nurses while they were doing it, and waking up after surgery I felt great as the whole area was numb, there was no pain at all. Only issue I had was the following day my right leg also went numb and it was heading further up my body than normal, so they changed the epidural medicine to just pain medication without the numbing medication.. I would definately go with epidural again if your worried about the pain after surgery.

Hi
I had 2 csections with epidurals ( a very bizarre experiene as you cann ot feel the incision or any pain, but you CAN feel them push down on your upper tummy to help get the baby out!)
I remember no pain in the hours after surgery--only the following days from the incision.
My doc recommended that if I had a choice I should have the surgery with an epidural because she thinks its better for pain control Unfortunately I was too anemic. So I had a general, plus a morphine pump. For me the morphine did nothing. I was in really bad pain (Probably a 9) from the time I woke up from the surgery until2 or 3 in the morning--which I think means 8-10 hours. Only when they started putting torradil in my iv did I get pain relief.
My doc says that is common with generals/morphine, because when you come out fo the general you have no pain med in your system at all, so you really feel the pain,. adn then it takes a while to get back on top of the pain. She also says the morphine doesn't really stop the pain, just puts you to sleep so you feel it less, whereas an epidural actually stops the pain and you feel fine while awake.
My advice would be to take the epidural if you can...
Deb