December 29, 2005

Pain control advice by my esteemed surgeon

I had a very rough couple of days since returning home as far as pain is concerned. It seems my surgeon sent me home with a prescription of hydrocodone/acetominophen to control my pain level. This is basically a glorified codeine/Tylenol combination that I am now on after receiving morphine and Torbutol (sp?) by the anesthesiologist in the hospital. That's a little like giving someone clove oil before drilling a tooth as far as the strength is concerned. As a result my healing has been slowed and sleep has been a few catnaps. I called him today about changing the medication to something that might have a chance of actually controlling my pain for the next few days while I become more mobile. He called back and asked about the type of pain and when I had pain. I told him that I had sharp pain whenever I moved. He responded that he wasn't trying to be a smartass but would suggest that I don't move! Of course, this goes against the hospital staff who were constantly getting me to walk the halls and stretch as much as possible. I was too stunned by the stupidity of this suggestion to even give a snappy comeback. He then said he would phone in another prescription. Yep, he sure did that. The new prescription is basically the same thing as the old prescription, substituting hydrocodone for oxycodone! This new prescription is, from the research, a little bit weaker in pain control. To be honest, I can't really tell any difference between perceived pain relief from either of these medications. What he did essentially was to give me about the same thing. I can't believe this level of stupidity. Is it too much to ask that I receive adequate medication to control the pain so my intestines are not constantly tightened against the pain? After the fiasco with the pain meds detailed in an earlier entry I was hoping for something that I could use and monitor to effectively control the pain. Perhaps I am being too critical here but I would think that there were alternatives that would do a better job at pain relief than what I have been experiencing. The real problem here was the cavalier attitude he took in addressing my problem. Though the nursing staff at the hospital totally botched the pain relief issue at least the anesthesiologists did make an honest effort to address it in a complete and modern fashion. I greatly appreciated their efforts and only wish the nursing staff would have followed through with changing the depleted epidural medication bags and arriving with backup support shots in a timely manner. It would have made pain a non-issue.

This will probably add a week or so to my recovery period. I truly despise, as a general rule, doctors and hospitals. The ones I have dealt with during this colon surgery seem to be working at standards I thought went out 100 years ago. In the future I am going to stay as far away from these "caregivers" as I possibly can. If I operated as a teacher at this level of incompetance I would have been fired years ago. Mad? You bet I am!

Posted by on December 29, 2005 04:32 PM

Posted by: not in pain at October 20, 2006 06:39 PM

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