Opioids major post surgery pain pls HELP

[hardknoxkicker]

I am currently on 160mgs of methadone at a clinic. I just had my gallbladder removed and have a really bad cough, which feels like someone is stabbing my stomache everytime I cough. the surgeon sent me home with 4mg dilaudid. which isnt doing anything for the pain. called the surgeon and he said I could trade my dilaudid for 5mg percocet. WTF?? what pain med is best for this type of post surgical pain? I am in tears it hurts so bad. if anyone has any ideas please respond I am so angry that I am in this amount of pain n I cant get any help.????

 

[sekio]

If you're on 160mg of methadone neither of those is even going to touch you, you should investigate other painkillers that aren't opioids.

 

[The Doc.]

You could up your methadone dose since that will be the best/strongest painkiller of all the ones you mentioned. That's just the way the cookie crumbles unfortunately. If you choose to take such a high dose of methadone then obviously weak painkillers won't help you when your in pain which is why I recommend you to be on a lower dose of methadone for matinence instead of a massive dose. The reason being is once stable, patients can taper down to a lower dose and get the exact same craving relief yet you won't have to wait a week to feel other pain meds in case of a serious injury. There's no reason to be on a huge dose of methadone for a long time when a smaller dose would suffice if you just gave yourself some time to taper down which is quite painless if done right. A lower dose offers Less side effects and is not as hard on the body/mind making large doses unnecessary for long term matinence use.

 

[UnsafePony]

Oramorph is the standard drug that would be prescribed here, do they not offer that?

 

[lilypad5623]

I had a thoractomy done which left me in the CCU for 10days experiencing the absolute worse pain i hv ever had even with 2 previous surgeries under my belt however i wasnt on any opiates at that time of my life. With this surgery they had me on dilaudid pump which left the pain tolerable but not wanting to move which had its own huge list of complications post-op. My pain doc who i swear has it in for me sometimes actually put me on a tylenol iv drip in which she swore was much more efficent for pain control & i had my PRN Oxy IR's at my usual home dose. I hurt so bad that i cried everytime i saw a new ridiculous bag hung. Maybe this may hv helped others but apparently this is one of the worst surgeries out there ( which i guess my cardio surgeon forgot to mention?? ) My PD did send me home w/ a 1 month supply of the dilaudid,the pain hurt clear down to the bottom of my legs when walking or climbing steps& i was out of work for 6weeks. So i guess you might just be stuck w/ the pain as awful as that might sound. Ive been on previously at different points in my life methadone,ms contin ,perks,vics, now im on 37mcg duragesic w/ my 15mg oxy ir's(my PD absolutely refuses to increase this dose even w/me being on this dose for 2yrs now) w/ still no longterm pain relief. The newly scheduled pain med will work for about 1 to 3 months then quit even w/ the titration my PD has tried. Yea anasthesia & waking up after the surgery was a complete joke....again thanks to my long term pain med use. Good luck to you.