I had real surgery for the first time ever this afternoon. A relatively small one, to repair a tendon in my thumb that I severed with a knife - but it was in an area full of nerves and involves pretty much flaying the area. Usually results in a lot of swelling.
Anyway I’m still in no ‘pain’, or even discomfort, and it’s weirding me out. It also didn’t really hurt when I injured myself (beyond the initial slice and an eensy bit of soreness); but I have no apparent nerve damage. No numb areas. Things are just a tiny bit achy, and I can feel my thumb and the area of the hand near the surgery is swelling. But I have much worse muscle aches (not to mention headaches and migraines) regularly - this is like a 1.5 on the Pain Scale.
Docs gave me a script for Vicodin and implied I was going to be in moderate to intense pain which might well keep me from sleeping.
Is there a lot of individual variation in how much pain one feels from being cut open? Or do I just have to wait til tomorrow to discover a whole new world of hurt? Maybe I cut some nerves too? What was your experience?
I’m assuming the area was numbed before the surgery? If so, you may be still experiencing after-effects of the local anesthesia and you aren’t yet fully sensitized in that area yet.
I was intubated and put under with Propofol (:D), so I’m not sure if they numbed the hand… that is a thought. But I woke up at at 5pm and it was more sore at that time then it is now at 11pm.
Yup. Using local anesthesia (and other pain management techniques) reduces post-op pain quite a bit - and reduces intra-op anesthesia requirements if they do it before they cut as opposed to after - but it will likely wear off within a day or less. However, by preventing the pain pathways from getting in an uproar, your pain may well never get to the point that it would for someone who didn’t get pre-emptive analgesia.
As a side note, if it hurts, take your [bleeping] drugs. It is much harder to get your pain neurons to shut up once they get going, which can lead to needing stronger/more drugs than if you had taken your drugs on schedule. I’m not saying you have to use up all of the Vicodin as fast as possible, but don’t try to tough it out.
My experience was being circumsized when I was 5 without being given painkillers afterward. It was not a fun time.
The less you use your thumb within the first few days after surgery, the less it’s going to hurt. Remember that it’s not because using it now doesn’t hurt that it won’t hurt in the future.
I’ve had surgery twice and it seems to me like both times the pain wasn’t all that bad afterwards - like, not as bad as you’d think it would be for getting yourself cut open. I dunno; maybe I just haven’t had serious enough surgery.
Moving it isn’t a possibility right now since it’s immobilized in a cast for the next week or two. After that comes off my thumb has to be in a permanent splint for a couple months, and I won’t use my hand for much during that time (shouldn’t, but also can’t since I won’t be able to grasp).
I actually do not plan on taking the Vicodin unless it hurts so bad I can’t sleep. I dislike being high and drowsy, and I’m oversensitive to every medication I’ve taken of which drowsiness is a possible side effect. But I will fill the prescription tomorrow morning just in case.
Do get your meds filled - and do take one when it starts to progress beyond “uncomfortable”. As mentioned above byhorsetech, it is easier to stop pain from getting out of control than it is to control it once it is bad.
Submitted as an example: my husband was a nurse at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawai’i. TAMC serves all the military on the island. A Marine came in who was rather badly injured, but was going to be a MARINE and tough out his pain. After a day or two or no pain meds and not making very good progress with healing, the doctors called in his C.O. who ordered him to take his pain meds on the schedule set by the doctors.
Before you start using your thumb again, ask your doctor if you are at risk for adhesions. I had one in my wrist and when the damned thing popped loose I though I had split my incision again; it hurt worse than the original cut.
I recently underwent a pretty big surgery (ACL reconstruction) after which the Dr. and others who have had the same procedure told me to expect very serious pain. I was given percocet and told to take it regularly whether I actually experienced the pain or not. I did that. And the serious pain I was promised never came. My entire leg was numb from whatever anesthesia they used for a day afterwords. But very mild discomfort was about as bad as it got. Granted, I didn’t participate in any activity that would have caused pain.
Hey all, it’s an eensy bit sore now (and swollen) but I’ve had menstrual cramps 10x worse. I’m glad to hear it’s normal enough not to have a lot of pain right after. Hopefully I’ll stay this lucky through the healing process.
Adhesions are a major problem with my injury. It’s likely they will recommend another surgery to remove excess scar tissue or take care of adhesions. And I will be lucky if my thumb ever regains a full range of motion.
Figuring all that out is a while away, though. From the cast I go into a permanent splint and from there, to dr. evaluations and then physical therapy before I’m even allowed to bend my thumb on my own once.
veteran of no less than ***three ***hand surgeries, here.
rhubarbarin, please take the drugs as prescribed. trust me on this.
eat something for sure, but take the drugs and let yourself get a little high and drowsy for a few days. totally understand not wanting to be in that conditon, but you won’t be like that forever.
and, it’s not like you’re off to climb mount everest or run the boston marathon the day after surgery. you’re gonna be hanging out at home pretty much either flat on your back in bed or propped up in front of the tube.
**horsetech **and snakescatlady are absolutely correct in that you benefit in two ways by controlling pain. A: you’ll heal faster if you’re in less of it, and B: hand surgeries can and do hurt like a muther-effer and getting pain back under control being far more difficult than staying ahead of it in the first place.
everyone handles pain differently, of course, but because of all the nerves we have in our hands, by the third day post-surgery, i’d be amazed if you aren’t in major discomfort.
Pain can, oddly, often be worse the day AFTER a procedure (it sure was that way after my c-section). I would expect that this syndrome, plus the likelihood of local numbing during the procedure, contributed to relatively little pain last night.
As another poster said, keep up with the pain meds the first couple of days. First off, it’s harder to STOP pain that has begun, than to PREVENT pain from getting that bad.
Second, I’m a firm believer that ADEQUATE pain relief can help healing because you’re not tense, stressed, and taking your body’s resources to fuel the tension instead of healing. Not sure there’s any scientific basis for that, but in recent personal experience a friend and I had our gallbladders out the same week. I got better drugs than she did… and I was back on my feet and functional several days earlier than she was.
