Bummed...

[Goat]

It has now been ten weeks since I had "minor" surgery to repair a lower abdominal hernia and I am still in a LOT of pain. I recognize that I am not made out of the same stuff as my grandparents who would likely have just went on with life in this level of pain, but I am tired of this level of pain. My Dr. and Surgeon seem to have no plan except to cover the pain with medication and hope that time will bring healing. I am a patient sort and like to think I have a decent tolerance for pain but enough is enough. I have had a headache my entire adult life (yes, I have had medical attention and tests),and have suffered a lot of knee pain since blowing a knee at the La. State Police Academy in 2001. This level of pain is beginning to affect a lot of life... Now the Dr. has changed my pain medication to include a barbiturate that keeps me lethargic and down. I had an excellent day in the woods on my hunting lease yesterday but have been melancholy today. I am not nearly as excited about my Primative deer season next weekend as I should be. It will be the first time that I get to hunt with my new 1885 High Wall in 38/55. Regular deer season will open the following weekend but big deal...
I guess we all face things we would rather not but I am tired of the pain. God has been good, I am very blessed. My family is very supportive, my children incredible and my boss understanding.
I am through with my pity party now... May God continue to bless us all and turn back the land in which we live to Him.
Goat

[AJMD429]

Thanks to the "war on drugs", most doctors are totally afraid to treat anyone's pain rationally; as many as one in five adults may metabolize pain medications so fast, they need way higher doses than the slow metabolizers, and as of yet there is no practical way to measure that rate. So, for fear of being labeled an 'over-prescriber' due to the computerized databases monitoring us, we under-prescribe those patients.

In addition, we're pressured to prescribe more-toxic medications, with more side-effects, that don't usually work as well for post-operative or post-traumatic pain, to avoid the dreaded 'narcotics'. As a doctor, it's really no fun to find out a patient had a seizure or fell and broke a hip, due to the side effects of medications you had to prescribe instead of the ones you felt were safer, but weren't 'politically correct' enough for the DEA.

To get it off our backs, primary care physicians wind up referring most patients with pain to 'pain clinics', which are usually just places where interventionalists see what kinds of stuff the patient's insurance will cover, then do 'nerve blocks' until either the patient gets relief, (thankfully, sometimes they actually do), or runs out of money. Most of the time the pain specialists won't actually prescribe pain medication!

That's not to say that you should be on pain medication the rest of your life, but studies show that appropriately aggressive pain management immediately after surgery or injury can lead to far better recovery, function, and pain-free status in the long run. Not treating it aggressively at first sets up 'chronic pain' syndromes, so the end result is often more pain medication, including narcotics, and more pain, vs. if it is treated properly at first.

One more reason to thank those "drug warriors"...

Chronic pain also can affect testosterone levels, and thyroid and testosterone levels can affect pain, creating a vicious cycle. Also be sure your vitamin D level is plenty high (don't just take over-the-counter vitamin D, as it is not strong enough to help, and if you take the Rx kind that is strong enough to help, you need to have levels checked so it doesn't go too high), as vitamin D levels below 50 or so seem to make for less energy and higher sensitivity to pain.

[Ysabel Kid]

Sorry to hear your recovery is taking so long. I know what you are going through. I am coming on a year since my back surgery, and I am no where near 100%. Still, I am a heck of a lot better than what I was before the surgery, so I am thankful - and trying to be patient.

Prayers up for you!

[adirondakjack]

Pard, ya got a chronic pain problem, not just yer hernia.

When we use pain meds all the time, the body's own ability to produce pain suppression chemicals is severely hampered. Ya end up ALWAYS in pain, just trying to get from one four hour pill to the next.

I lived it for 8 or 9 YEARS after a serious neck injury and two attempts to surgically rebuild my neck. What you describe is VERY familiar to me, right down to the chronic depression only lifted by the occassional "good day".

I was being seen by a pain specialist and they worked me through whole families of drugs, added a TENS unit, etc, and NOTHING worked real well. Even methodone (synthetic Heroin) only helped a little. I had to personally drive 100 miles round trip for a NON-REFILLABLE scrip every month, etc.....

Then one day, as we were in the run-up to a family vacation to the Caribbean, I had to look up and find out my meds couldn't even LEGALLY be imported into the country we were going to. (I'd smuggled em into one other country the year before).

I said to myself "fuggedaboudit! I am going, and this stuff is not going with me." I simply left the stuff home, no longer willing to be chained to a pill bottle, literally afraid to run out, etc. It was a rough few days of withdrawl that probably should have been managed via a hospital, (the phrase "all inclusive" and a bar that never closed was a bridge that helped in that week), but by the time I got home the spell was broken, and I NEVER went back. I bet I haven't used more than 6 Ibuprofen in a month during the 8 years since, no longer use the TENS device, and suffer far LESS pain than I did when on the meds. Oh, FWIW I do NOT use booze as a substitute. I used it simply to take the edge off withdrawl.

Just somethin to consider, when yer ready.

[gyrhed]

problem with pain is its personal. you cant say i beat my pain by doing this and you can too. You really do not know what kind of pain the other person is in. You may think your pain is bad because you have never felt anything worse, but it may not even compare to what the next guy puts up with and almost ignores everyday.

Almost everyone agrees that the worst thing for pain is to not keep the mind occupied on other things, even watching Oprah. left to concentrate on the pain the mind will concentrate the pain.

I have beeen dealing with issues myself lately and staying busy is the best thing I can do. I remember my grandfather got up out of bed one day and started painting the house. he was like 80 or so and had just had prostrate cancer. This was the old days when they bent you over cut it out and then gave you chemo therapy, and radiation on top of it. The pain killers left him in pain and in bed. He just got up one day and went to the store and bought paint. He really suffered painting that house. Took him hours to move a ladder and get up to paint and area. He wouldn't take any help, he saud he had to just do something. He eventually healed but always had pain from the surgury the rest of his life.

There are stories that very famous people from the last century suffered rom things like chronic sinous infections that kept them from sleeping. Cancers and toumors that continually worked on you until you died. These people tended to work 24/7 to deal with the pain. After the civil war it is interesting to see how laudnum and alchol abuse rose from all the solders trying to deal with the pain.

Growning up in the 60s I watched a freind of the family drag himself everywhere he went on a pair of crutches. he was always obviously in great pain, but he was always there. He looked older than he was because of it his kids were only a little older than i was. one day after 30 years of dragging himself arround he got knee replacement surgury and bang the crutches were gone as was ll the pain.

I suffer with a lot of things currently that treaten to ruin my life. Things that are painful and some are just disabling. Even though I do not take precribed pain killers very often I have a much differnt perpective on pain than I once had.

Good luck buddy, stay with it and keep busy. Keep your mind active it helps push the pain to the background and also helps with depression.

[Sixgun]

Get used to the pain. I had both sides done. The first, my left side, was in '96 and it was a good three months before I could lift anything heavier than 50 pounds. Fast forward 14 years and I still feel it from time to time, but usually only when I am lifting something heavy. Must be the mesh, I don't know.

Right side was done in 2007. Maybe a week of pain and I was good to go. Have not felt nothing since.

I took a few Percs and gave up on 'em. The body does better with no drugs and with feeling the pain, it "self adjusts". -----------Sixgun

[Nath]

Goat, good post.

It does get you down I know too. Luckily I don't get the back pain I use to because I am very carefull now but my skin, oh boy sometimes! I have bad psoriasis and sometimes the sores make me grind my teeth and then there is the mess etc. Very depressing but, I swear I would drag myself on my belly to the woods if I had to, tis the only place I find peace so please please make the effort friend and take a bloody camera

Nath.

[Blaine]

The pain pills they gave me for my Low On The Left hernia left me stupid and seeing things. I stopped taking them on the third day and stayed with Tylenol and coated asprin. Sucked for a few days, but I think it might have been better in the long run. Gently moving around as much as you can stand it helps, too.....Motion is Lotion

[AJMD429]

One other thought, if the pain is around the incision, it could be a little slip of tissue from one layer sticking in between the stitched sides of the next layer, or something like that. Not always something you can 'find' or really even do much to fix per se, but if it is a small spot that seems to be the main issue, perhaps at this point an injection of cortisone, lidocaine (more likely a long-acting derivative), or even a nerve stimulator applied right there, could help immensely.

Also if it is mostly incisional pain, but not as focused on one spot, ask your doctor about Lidoderm patches or Flector patches (two entirely different drugs in a patch). I've had patients where one of those (and not the other) worked wonders. Unfortunately, due to insurance not covering them without us writing appeal letters and filling out forms, most doctors will just not bother to try them. Even if you have to pay $5.00 a day out of pocket, if the patch gets you some 'momentum' so you can get up and start doing things, you'll be better off. Likely you wouldn't need the patch (or nerve stimulator, if that's what finally helps) on a 'forever' basis, but just long enough to get more comfortably mobile.

[LeverBob]

Howdy Pard...I'm praying for you, Nath & everybody else that has pain, injuries, diseases, etc. I have pain too. I'm currently passing my 60th kidney stone. Believe me....it is a big pain.

Proposal: Hope everyone will storm the gates, healing for everyone....let's go to it pards...

LB

[FWiedner]

I vividly recall my experience with Senor Hernia a few years back.

I took a knife to the belly, but was back on my feet within a week or two. I was really glad that Tylenol w/ Codeine exists.

I never even knew those parts were there and could hurt like that.

I feel for ya, Goat. Take it easy, dude, You don't sound healed.

[Lobo]

Prayers sent to Ultimate Healer !

[Goat]

I thought I posted this last night.... but somehow it didn't work so here it is.
Thanks guys for all the responses and suggestions. I wish I were tough enough to suck it up and forget it but, I am not. I have appointments with both my Dr. and Surgeon next week. I am ready to lay it on the line and say if you won't help me I will find someone who will. The pain never goes away even with the pills and they work less and less. Today I began to experience some sharp, stabbing pain and if these continue I will not wait until next week to seek additional treatment.
My Grandfather on my Mother's side was made of rawhide and bone. Born in 1899 he moved from Ill.to MO. in a covered wagon crossing the Mississippi River on a log ferry. He ran away from home at 14 and even worked on the Panama Canal. He was TOUGH.... I am a modern man who thinks he was born too late.... except for this pain.
I have not yet come to understand all God has for me to learn through this ordeal but I am open to whatever He wishes to teach me. Those of you that pray ask God to show me what I need to learn and let's move on.
Thanks for letting me vent my frustrations here. I appreciate this place more than I know how to say. My step-mother is amazed at the support we have here on a "gun website." My answer is that most gun people seem to also be God people.
Goat

[piller]

AJMD429 is telling it to you straight about doctors underprescribing pain medicines, especially in the initial phase. I have had the State and the Feds both subpoena my records in the past for Doctors who they thought were overprescribing. I also agree that there might be a problem with where the incision was. I have known someone who had hernia repair, and they needed the incision re-opened and cleaned out. The pain was gone within 24 hours of that. He is an MD, and he didn't think about that as the problem---his nurse did. Usually the person in pain doesn't think of things like that. He knew enough that he could have figured it out, but he was in pain.
By the way, I have Plantar Fasciaitis and take 4 Ibuprofen tablets every day. If I don't, I end up hobbling around and am in pain for days after a standard 11 hour day on my feet. No, I don't sit down at all when at work, there are no chairs in the pharmacy.