I am scheduled to have my implant at 1:00 PM. The surgeon said it would be done on a same day basis but I am wondering about post op pain mgt. I am not a wimp but I am concerned about how I am going to feel that night and the next day or so. My regular meds are not going to take care of the increase in pain after having the surgeon rooting around in my tush. Even if the device is working perfectly coming out of the gate, I have other pain issues that it does not address. Am I over reacting? Thanks.

If your implant is as was mine, while it is a same day procedure, send you home approach, the unit is not sent home in operation within you. My surgeon required two weeks of healing before the unit was switched on/programmed.

I was sent away from the surgery center with a scrip for pain meds which were calculated to be relevant to the surgery and in addition to the pain management meds on which I was existing...... so we stopped at the pharmacy on the way home and filled me up, then took me home to bed and looped me up.

Yup,
That's the way it was,
mark56

I was in and out of hospital within 4 hrs, with unit buzzing.....but I only had the percutaneous leads rather than getting the laminectomy surgery.
Doc sent me home with post op meds (which were basically what I already had on hand from my regular pain doc)

The hospital usually keeps us very well medicated and feeling 'good', as you probably already know from experience....but then their meds wear off.

The first 2 days were uncomfortable of course and I laid on ice alot and spent most of the time recouping in bed.....I recall getting discouraged about the whole thing during this time, but by day 3 I felt much better and got very excited while bonding with my new buzzing buddy.

Rae

No laminectomy for me either. The surgeon said the bone quality is poor, which I knew, and he doesn't want to take any chances of another "crash". I agree. I was told I would leave there buzzing. I am supposed to stay with my daughter for a few days. I will discuss my concerns with Pain Man on the 11th and come up with some battle plan. I have reservations about this taking place at the end of the day. I have visions of my son in law taking a script to a large pharmacy, which is all that will be open at that hour, and running into problems getting it filled. I am probably over reacting. I know he had difficulty getting my daughter's script filled after she had her gall bladder removed. The pharmacist said she needed to come in and do it herself. I am most likely getting silly in my mature years.

I would have thought your Pain Mgmt. doctor would be on board as far as current and any additional meds needed for your procedure. Whenever I had any additional procedures, surgeries, I had my Pain Doc work with getting my pain covered beforehand.

Pray all will go well and any additional pain will be manageable.

Gerry

My guess is that is what this upcoming appt. is all about. He has managed my pain for going on 13 years now and hasn't let me down yet. He has always set up for a pain specialist to manage my pain when having surgery out of town as he hasn't been satisfied with what the surgeons did. I need to settle down. I'll be glad to be on the other side of this. I have never been this antsy before.

Unless Pain Manager and Surgeon are one and the same, surgeon will always take precedence in issuance of the immediately post surgical pain scripts. This is why I have even received scripts which we filled at the hospital pharmacy before leaving for home for fear the usual pharmacy would be closed before we arrived at home.

Check it out Spine, and take advantage of the abiltity to be adequately and professionally medicated and forarmed before leaving for home or your daughter's home,
Prayin,
Mark56

If your procedure is occurring within the hallowed halls of a hospital/medical center, regardless of the time of discharge there is usually a twenty-four hour pharmacy onsite which may fill scripts issued therein for patients. Price us usually higher, but the comfort of avoiding frayed emotion is generally well worth the while. Check it out. I know we have used such a pharmacy before for the likes of me and the scripts I needed filled due to lateness of hour of a discharge from the hospital.

Yup, and prayin,
Mark56

absolutely not
an large number
of even large chain pharmacies
i myself am a mom and pop client
of their establishment for the sake
of helping the small businesses
but it feels good doing your part to help
you also most importantly have a
personal relationship with your
pharmacist
in addition
you almost become family
during "Sandy" i went several days without meds
since then i haven't been the same
though the point being a major chain pharmacy
"Walgreens" right up a few blocks
would not allow my daughter to pick them
up and would only fill one my scripts Lexapro
it happens the only other way
was a physical script for controlled drugs
now in my case my doctors practice is in
Hoboken NJ the town that was under
extreme circumstances
something to think about
a system should be devised
in the event patients are on
certain powerful drugs
that cannot just abruptly stop
without possible death
due to withdrawal
insurance companies should kick in
and do their homework and see that
this patient has a history and not leave
people like myself in such agony
and in a possible life or death
situation

and that is my view

someone who cares

I stay in prayer for the folks in your area. I have been so concerned about the chronicly ill who can't get to their doctors who had to relocate and their pharmacies that were wiped out. Twice, my Part D provider decided not to cover my Lyrica and I only take 150mg a day. Both times it took six weeks of Pain Man faxing and personally calling those idiots before I got reinstated for Lyrica coverage. I was in full blown w/d the entire time. It never let up. I wonder about the cardiac and pulmonary patients who can't access treatment/therapies.

I have a new neighbor from New Jersey. She has stage three breast cancer and her chemo got all out of sync when her oncologist's office went under water. He ened up relocating to a new area and is now using different hospitals. She lost her pharmacy that she had been using for decades. Her daughter and son in law drove over there, packed up what was left and brought her here. We get foreign countires back on their feet faster than this. I better shut up.