I have a history of industrial strength pain. Tips?

So

On Monday I get to schedule the long-awaited hyeterectomy (or freedom surgery!) I was reading the checkpoints and came the the part about women who have lapriscoptic hists only need ibuprofin for the minor pain and almost panicked. Or laughed. I wasn't sure which to do.

in 2007 I had a lapriscopic, out patient surgery to laser out the endometriosis. The discharge instructions said I would be back to work in 2-3 days and have mild discomfort.

WRONG

I spent four days in a near coma from the pain, and was off work for . . . well, long enough to lose my job. My surgeon was excellent and so was the hospital, so forget blaming her.

I didn't have anyone to help me then, and I don't now, so I learned lots of tricks during my recovery, like how to ease myself out of bed carefully, and of course, take my vicoden, and call the doctor, etc. I'm just hoping that this time won't be SO bad and, yes, I'm going to talk to the doctor about it, but wondered what other people had to say . . . Everyone I've talked to has said their histerectomy was a breeze . . . I can't be the only woman in the world with industrial-strength pain . . . I hope. . .

You are wise to talk to your doctor ahead of time. No one can predict the amount of pain you will be in and it is a good thing to be prepared. I was very concerned about being in pain after as I don't *do* pain. The doctors and the nurses kept me very comfortable right after my surgery and I was super surprised that that next day, I had no pain except for pulling from the incision when I moved. I am not the norm. I got lucky. I had no idea that I would get lucky so I made sure that I communicated my concerns. Please make sure you do the same.

Well, I had no pain after the second day following my lap assisted hysterectomy. I didn't need any pain meds, not even ibuprofen or Tylenol. I did, however, have multiple complications so it was not even close to be being a breeze. It was just pain free until the UTI! Then it was pain free once that cleared up.

Years later when I had excision surgery with a specialist, I had a LOT of pain for my recovery! Thankfully, his office had warned me that the more meticulous he was, the more pain I would have during recovery. They were right and I was glad I had been warned!

So, if your situation turns out like mine, the endometriosis surgery can be more painful than the hysterectomy, though I didn't really have much pain after the first day following my first lap where my local OB/GYN cleaned up endometriosis but did not use an excision method.

That said, you are aware that a hysterectomy is not a cure for endometriosis, right? And you have a surgeon who will be able to excise any existing implants?

We do have an Endometriosis Support forum and you are welcome to check out our resources there and post any endometriosis related questions you may have!

I've never had endometriosis surgery so I can't comment on that. I did have a laparoscopic appendectomy 10 years ago and was in extreme discomfort-I usually handle pain fairly well. I kept imagining my LAVH recovery to be like the appendectomy recovery so I was terrified of pain, escpecailly because my appendix was so much smaller than my football sized uterus! As it turns out, this surgery was nothing like the former one so hopefully you have the same experience. I haven't had horrific pain, in fact I was off pain meds 4 days out. Best wishes to you and I will be sending good thoughts your way.

I had Davinci and was on prescription pain meds almost 3 weeks.Everyone is different, so make sure you have your pain managed properly so you can heal comfortably.
:cathugs:

Certainly not all Lapar Hysters are the same. I laugh at the thought of just needing motrin, myself. I just had surgery Monday. My endometrial masses were larger than expected and there was more scar tissue and binding than expected, so I had lots of cutting, lasering, removal, etc. I was set up to have plenty of pain. The stuff they put into my iv worked well, but once I was conscious, they removed the iv and gave me oral medications. They seemed to be stuck on just giving me tylenol and motrin. I had to ask several times to get the stronger stuff. It made me rather mad to not have my pain managed properly. It wasn't until I got home and could take my meds as needed that I got enough relief. I suggest talking to your doctor, nurses, or whomever is there to take notes, that you expect pain and want it to be treated effectively. Also, after surgery, when you are in pain and ask for pain meds, tell them/demand that they give you the stronger stuff and don't just hand you a 625mg tylenol and expect that to take care of it. My pain level was at a 7 and they would give me a darn motrin. Gees, you give a motrin at a level 4. I wish I'd had a talk with them beforehand, but didn't realize I would need to.

pinkcarnations,
Sorry you had to go through that but I think your advice is spot on. There is no reason for a pain level of 7! My nurse told me it would take at least a day to get my pain under control if it was really bad out of the gate.

Wow Pinkcarnations! I would have happily traded you pain meds in the hospital. I had mild pain and they kept giving me fentanyl injections! The fentanyl would knock me out in 60 seconds. I hated it. Runningtree: if you haven't handled pain well in the past, let EVERYONE know about. Starting with your doctor, the pre-admin nurse, the check in nurse the morning of surgery, the anesthesiologist, the recovery nurse (if you wake up in recovery, i never did) and lastly the nurses back at your room. Its common to think everyone tells everyone else what going on, or everyone reads your chart, but that so isn't true. For instance, I needed to have an EKG done before surgery at the request of the anesthesiologist and the only person who told me was the pre-admin nurse. No one else was told and the doctor requesting it didn't do the paperwork! I made sure it was done. Better to always speak up.

Thank you all! I took all of your advice. I have a looong list of questions having to do with the pain level after surgery to talk to the surgeon about tomorrow. And I promised myself that I wouldn't take no for an answer. No Motrin for me, (I hope)!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!