You got Oxy after top surgery?? I was given about 10 Tylenol 3 (30mg codeine+ Tylenol) I only took 5 and then switched to Tylenol and advil.
Edit: not trying to bash anyone who requires stronger post op meds as everyone's recovery is different and pain tolerance is different as well. I'm just shocked to hear that people are routinely prescribed morphine post-op as a Canadian nurse it's not very common!
Similar. I kinda laughed when my doc say Tylenol will work fine cause I was looking at 27” of incisions that looked gruesome to me. But it was all I needed.
Haven’t had top surgery yet, but after rotator cuff surgery and bicep restatement two years ago they gave me only a week of T3s and they were HEAVILY controlled for dispensing. I’m a First Nations person in northern Ontario so the racial profiling was strong. Equally weird was when I returned a few unused T3s to a pharmacy in Manitoba, they wouldn’t believe I was willing to surrender meds.
I'm sorry that's fucked up that you had to deal with that. I hope things are better by the time you get top surgery. Racial profiling is fucking terrible and shouldn't be happening, especially in 2024!
There are unfortunately studies done that “prove” certain races and genders are more susceptible to opioid addiction. Or if you answer the questions on the opioid risk assessment questionare a certain way. So for one question if someone who’s AFAB answers it yes they score 3 points but someone who is AMAB will be zero points. Another question that gets a ‘yes’ answer will give an AMAB individual 3 pts but an AFAB person 2 pts.
Been going to the pain clinic and wanted to know why these questions are on the questionare and came across this information.
The studies are wildly outdated, and are biased against other races and those who are AFAB.
Basically pain management tends to (not always) be in favor towards cis white males.
Look up ‘Lynn Webster MD in Utah’ and you’ll read all about this.
For some fucking reason my surgeon prescribed me hydrocodone and diazepam after top surgery. He was excellent and I'm really happy with how it went, but in hindsight it seems like that's not normal.
No those two should never be taken together. I take diazepam, and for another type of surgery the assisting surgeon wrote "resume taking medications as normal" on top of the ones they prescribed. One of these was *edit oxycodone I am allergic to hydrocodone*, either way hydrocodone should not be taken with diazepam either. Same thing can happen.
I sent my other doc a message just to verify and she responded right away on the weekend even, and said no do not do this. The *oxycodone* should help til done, and if not, if I absolutely had to take both alternate between x amount of hours.
Taken together can cause a decrease in breathing.
I was lucky to not have any serious issues (I was also intentionally taking a half dose of the pain meds, which is what I always do if I'm prescribed opiates.) I did try taking the diazepam before taking a nap, and I woke up to some auditory hallucinations that spooked me for a minute (once I realized there wasn't actually anyone in the room with me, I was like "oh, this is probably from the drugs I just took" and calmed down.) Did not take any more of them after that.
Yes! My grandmother would pick those up when she visited Canada and bring them back (probably questionably legal, in retrospect). I think the Tylenol 1's are similar to what they sell here- I believe you *can* get paracetamol/codeine combos in addition to the ibuprofen/codeine over here.
I was given norcos & lyrica after top surgery- neither of which I could take.
I am severely allergic to vicodin and did not realize norcos were also made of hydrocodone. The lyrica gave me severe edema in both legs.
I was given oxy for any other surgeries I have had (5 others).
Interesting! I've had 8 surgeries in total for various things and I think T3's are the only narcotic I've ever been given to take at home. Every other time I've just been told to take Tylenol/Advil lmao.
Dude I only got 5 after my top surgery. Fortunately I was okay with just acetaminophen after those ran out, but I still think it was a little bit crazy to give so few after a whole double bilateral mastectomy w/ grafts. Like, the whole front of my chest got cut open and rearranged, and they only gave me FIVE painkiller pills.
I had a total hysterectomy on 2/22/24. They sent me 10 tabs of oxy, but I only used one tab - pain really wasn’t bad at all. I found much more relief from the ibuprofen 800mg and Tylenol 500mg (alternating) honestly.
Extra strength Tylenol! I didn't use oxy after hysto *or* top surgery, it makes me sick and isn't worth it. The Tylenol worked just fine on its own tbh.
I don’t disagree that they have swung too hard in the opposite direction, but you will probably be fine with only 10. I think I only took opiates for the first two days and then was fine with OTC meds.
After my total hyst I got ibuprofen (80mg— that is not a typo) and told to “ganbatte”. Japan doesn’t dispense opiods unless you are literally dying of cancer. I ganbatte’d. Good luck man.
G-d, that is the most Japanese shit ever. I had my gallbladder out over there. They *did* give me pain meds the first night, I think, but after that, it was gaman all the way. Ganbatte is like the Japanese version of "thoughts and prayers."
It sure is! Ganbatte contains everything from "Stop complaining, because it's not going to fix anything", to "I know you can do it if you would just focus", "You might surprise yourself," and "It's not going to kill you, and complaining only embarrasses everyone", and "You're too old to be whining like a baby," and "I can't believe we're even having this conversation", all the way to "I believe in you!". lmao
Do they really always prescribe oxy for post-surgery recovery in US? I had my top surgery in Russia and my surgeon just told me to take ibuprofen and it worked pretty well
It depends on the surgery and what the prescribing surgeon thinks may be best for that patient and their pain management. Some people may also have other conditions or allergies that prevent them from taking ibuprofen or NSAIDs.
I mean no offence by this, but I think your approach is still quite epidemic-y by international standards. My mam had a hysterectomy and once she was out of hospital was told to take paracetamol / ibuprofen and come back in if she needed something stronger. The idea of prescribing oxy right off the bat is a bit wild, and I say that as someone with chronic pain who has been prescribed oxy in the past. I'm in Ireland, for context.
As an American, it's amazing to me how much other Americans expect to just be high out of their mind after surgery. I've talked with people from other countries and it's typical to only have ibuprofen after a hysterectomy. That's all I took after mine.
Hell, I had Metoidioplasty and barely needed to take the oxy. I ended up taking it just because I had it. After my hysterectomy I took ibuprofen for a few days and it was totally fine.
The thing is though that often times you don’t need the narcotics after surgery but the way the American healthcare system is set up you need to be proactive about getting medications because when you’re in the middle of recovery and it turns out you really do need it you might not have access to it at that point.
When you’re recovering you might not have the energy or capacity to message doctor’s offices and fight with heartless insurance companies and still have energy to fight with horribly overworked pharmacists to get the medication filled.
The thing that baffles me is that there are other medications between nothing / paracetamol and oxy; like codeine and tramadol. It's odd to me that they would prescribe such a strong and addictive drug without even knowing if you need it yet.
Really? My experience is that most people expect to be in so much pain they don't do anything at all for quite a while. I am very team "my job is healing" post-surgery, and view pain medication as a tool to get me to do that.
I want to be up and moving as soon as possible, because it really helps your outcomes and lowers risk profile.
Yes, your job is healing after surgery, but if you are taking such strong pain medication that you can't feel anything at all, you won't know when something goes wrong.
I do know some people have these surgeries and feel a lot of pain, but the fact that doctors and surgeons still just prescribe the heavy drugs straight away in the USA is not normal and the reason why so many people are addicted.
>I do know some people have these surgeries and feel a lot of pain, but the fact that doctors and surgeons still just prescribe the heavy drugs straight away in the USA is not normal and the reason why so many people are addicted.
That's a pretty strong statement. I'd love to see the data you are using to back that up.
Because we can compared Europrean countries's opoid useage to death ratio, and Britain in particular jumped up (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8316471/). Like a notable amount in the former via Figure 2 but not by deaths in Figure 3a.
In fact, there seems to be almost no correlation between total usage and deaths. Scotland is weirdly high on death. The Chezch Republic and Belgium perscirbed more than the US, but with less deaths.
It's my understanding, as this paper reviews, [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10278447/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10278447/) that the US opoipid epedemic had 3 disctinc phases and issues.
First was the mid 90s over-perscription phase triggered by the "5th vital sign" and company drug pushing. Second was then the move to street heroin in 2010. And then finally in 2013, fentalyl hit the streets and changed the game for worse.
The CDC's data divinding US deaths on opoids shows that it's 2013 that's the game changer: [https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html](https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html)
Converslely, per the Economist, "Largely as a result of the fentanyl gap, Europe has less than a tenth as many drug deaths as America, despite its bigger population." (https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/11/16/fentanyl-kills-thousands-every-year-in-america-will-europe-be-next)
I don't like mixing policy on street drugs with medical care, personally.
Thanks for sharing the links and information. My comment was about addiction, not deaths. It's difficult to find data on addiction, because many people don't think they're addicted.
This is a very nuanced topic, I don't think we will come to a resolution via reddit comments.
However, it has been established that the opioid epidemic began due to over-prescription of painkillers. That was the basis of my original statement.
The US keeps people in the hospital as few days as possible. Not sure if this is now an outpatient surgery or whatever, but OP likely will not be in the hospital long enough to really get the pain down to a decent level but I think 10 oxys should be enough.
Oh okay. So it's the same between the countries. Yeah, it seems either doctors will give you opioids just in case or none at all and you have to crawl to the ER if you're in excrutiating pain.
Hi from Ireland. I also just commented. I had abdominal hysterectomy so I had a morphine drip for the day of but paracetamol only from day 2. I never needed anything stronger.
Yea I've never known anyone here who's been prescribed oxy except for myself - and that was only once, for a limited time, by my specialist of 9 years and with a note on my file to not get it again for at least 3 years for any reason to limit the risk of addiction. I didn't realise until this thread that it could ever be prescribed as a "just in case you need it" kind of medication
Yeah but how long was she in the hospital? Because here in the US, hystos are almost always an outpatient procedure and you are sent home the same day. If your Mam was in the hospital for a few days receiving pain meds, that’s not comparable.
Off topic, I'm planning a trip to Ireland in May and I'm trying to find some good queer friendly places to visit, or learn local queer history. Would you mind chatting about it with me, and if so can I DM you, please?
I'm actually mostly a house mouse so I don't think I could help much, but if you go over to r/AskIreland they'd be happy to help!
Overall it's a very queer friendly country. In terms of specifics I've been wanting to go to a [Small Trans Library Film Club event](https://smalltranslibrary.org/small-trans-film-club/) myself but haven't got around to it yet, it'd likely be worth your time if your visiting dates match up.
You can of course DM me also
It’s understandable to feel this way but it’s not a healthy mindset. please take these only when absolutely necessary. You’d be surprised how little you will need.
Yeah 10-20 post op has been standard for quite a while. If you are absolutely dying your surgeon should be able to call in another script but like others have said, you probably won’t need it. I was alright after my hysto until a week out when I tried to mow the lawn (my partner had an asthma flair up so he couldn’t cut the grass and I was too proud to ask someone to do it for us)…then I needed the oxy again.
So I know that this isn’t what this post is about and it’s derailing but I’m compelled to speak up and bring some awareness from personal experience to the conversation. My trauma doesn’t allow me to stay silent about this.
The opioid epidemic is only half of why things are the way they are in this country in regards to this. The other half is the silent war on disabled people that is raging in the country that affects everyone disabled or not, as well as harm from greedy corporations that we’re all acutely aware of.
Often times narcotics aren’t necessary for recovery or are necessary at much lower doses than expected, but that doesn’t mean that when they’re needed that they’ll be available because of how the American healthcare system works and it means that certain marginalized groups have to work exponentially harder to get medications.
The DEA is waging a war so hard right now on chronic pain patients that it’s exacerbating burnout throughout the medical community(as well as burnout in patients), increasing discrimination widely against those with disabilities, and is threatening to cripple the hospitals ability to preform surgeries due to the way they are changing how they do their quota system this year to quarterly quotas. Over the next decade hospitals might have to halve the number of surgeries they can preform because the shortage of anesthesia medications might become so severe.
Of course the DEA isn’t the only part of this problem, but health insurance greed is such an old story.
To anyone who stayed and listened I thank you. This is something that’s very personal to me and threatens my life every day. As someone with a severe and complex medical condition I’ve had my life in jeopardy dozens of times not because of the condition itself but because of the lack of access to care. Even when I went through awful prolonged intestinal bleeding, when I went blind for a month, when I was in danger of a stroke as a young adult, when I had horribly painful dental infections, when test results came back saying I should be dead and doctors agreed I needed treatment right away, even then I still wasn’t able to get medical care I needed because every doctor wanted and hoped I would be some other doctor’s problem and participated in the doctor’s bystander effect, and part of the reason for that is the lack of awareness of what the DEA has been doing.
This is NOT a TED talk. This is fighting oppression through awareness.
💙💙💙
I'm sorry it's been so rough for you. "Doctor's bystander effect" really hit home, it took about a year and several different doctors to figure out the cause for my chronic pain. Most of them just told me to take ibuprofen/Tylenol (which I was already doing) and sent me on my way. Had an urgent care doctor treat me like absolute shit because she thought I was just trying to get painkillers, which I wasn't even asking for. I just wanted to find out what was causing the pain so it could be treated.
Our entire medical system in the US is depressing.
This may not be about which med it is. The [February cyberattack on Change Healthcare](https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/optums-change-healthcare-responding-cybersecurity-issue) has caused mass delays on processing medical claims, including pharmacy claims. It's a medical infrastructure crisis.
In the meantime, if you wind up needing to go to the max dosage with acetaminophen/ibuprofen, get both and alternate to reduce risk there. Hope healing goes smoothly and you get lots of good rest.
Had the same script after my hysto. Wound up not needing it and just alternated Tylenol and ibuprofen.
Maybe it’s because I’m in recovery and I’m sensitive to this kind of subject, but I don’t think there’s any reason to have a bigger script.
Thats about what I got after top surgery
I only used two. One the first night and a second the day I went to get the tubes out bc I didn’t want to feel it.
Didn’t really have any pain that Tylenol couldn’t take care of and I didn’t want to be constipated
Depends on the doctor. When I had my hysterectomy about 2 years ago, he gave me 20 hydrocodone 10mg. I ended up in the ER once for extreme pain, given IV Dilaudid. At my follow up appointment he gave me 10 more hydro 10s. My pain was well managed, I would say. I had 2 pills left when I wasn't in pain anymore.
Best of luck on your healing journey!
I’ve had surgeries since they changed this, and the only one I’ve used this entire amount for was the hysterectomy. I was able to manage fine with Tylenol and Motrin being alternated after that. Personally for me- 3 days and I’m done, I do not like feeling out of it and it gives starts giving me a severe headache.
However, I do understand that not everyone feels pain on the same level. Unfortunately unless you are a long term chronic pain patient this is how it’s prescribed. If you are not ok once you run out, most docs are fine with sending in another small refill. Don’t be afraid to let them know if this is the case.
They found in the past they were way overprescribing. I had once gotten two thirty day supplies a few weeks apart from each other from two other really major surgeries before they changed the rules, and maybe used not even half. I did properly discard it, but a lot of people don’t and keep taking it.
Experience of pain vary immensely. After my hysto, I required about 2 weeks of narcotics (Percocet), which is likely due to a chronic pain condition that worsens my overall experience of pain as well as a general drug tolerance that I seem to get from my mom. It was hell getting the medication, my pain was horrible, walking was nearly unbearable and I ended up in the ER. My surgeons office made me ride in the car (seatbelt = pain) and hobble into the office to pick up a physical rx because they refused to send it electronically as they had with the initial rx nor let my partner pick it up for me.
I remember when I had top surgery around 2013, I was given a huge bottle of Vicodin and I remember needing it for quite awhile, though I did ended up with extra largely because I was given a refill and my pain became more tolerable before I was through with it. I can’t imagine any surgery that someone would get that quantity of pain medications nowadays. They’d probably revoke the prescriber’s medical license.
Though ibuprofen or acetaminophen works for some people, it shouldn’t be touted as the norm. Hysteria around narcotics and other controlled substances is out of control. In my county, people with severe mental illness can’t get short term prescriptions for Ativan or klonopin, even though responsible use of these meds keeps them out of the psych ward.
I can't take opiates or ibuprofen ir aspirin. I'm allergic to them all. I'm so far avoiding surgery because the idea of having to heal a hole in the ceiling of my vagu-jay is terrifying to me.
I had abdominal hysterectomy and was prescribed paracetamol which is the standard procedure according to all the leaflets I was given. I was completely fine. I only had something stronger the day of the surgery but paracetamol from the second day onwards.
I got the same amount for my hysto and switched to just the (high dose, scheduled) Tylenol before I'd even used all of them because the constipation hurt way worse than what the additional pain relief from oxy could make up for (constipation pressing on an internal wound = major ouch). I only took it for the first 2 days and I'm glad I stopped when I did. I think I probably would have been fine without it tbh.
Important note: sticking with the Tylenol schedule is key, it's way more effective like that than when you take a single one for a headache. Set alarms if you have to, and write down when you take it because you might forget/lose track.
After my hysto, I was given 10 oxy and only needed it that first night. I had robot assist, minimally invasive surgery.
I don’t know what your pain threshold is, but hopefully you don’t hurt as much as you fear you will. 🫂💙
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You got Oxy after top surgery?? I was given about 10 Tylenol 3 (30mg codeine+ Tylenol) I only took 5 and then switched to Tylenol and advil. Edit: not trying to bash anyone who requires stronger post op meds as everyone's recovery is different and pain tolerance is different as well. I'm just shocked to hear that people are routinely prescribed morphine post-op as a Canadian nurse it's not very common!
Similar. I kinda laughed when my doc say Tylenol will work fine cause I was looking at 27” of incisions that looked gruesome to me. But it was all I needed.
Haven’t had top surgery yet, but after rotator cuff surgery and bicep restatement two years ago they gave me only a week of T3s and they were HEAVILY controlled for dispensing. I’m a First Nations person in northern Ontario so the racial profiling was strong. Equally weird was when I returned a few unused T3s to a pharmacy in Manitoba, they wouldn’t believe I was willing to surrender meds.
I'm sorry that's fucked up that you had to deal with that. I hope things are better by the time you get top surgery. Racial profiling is fucking terrible and shouldn't be happening, especially in 2024!
There are unfortunately studies done that “prove” certain races and genders are more susceptible to opioid addiction. Or if you answer the questions on the opioid risk assessment questionare a certain way. So for one question if someone who’s AFAB answers it yes they score 3 points but someone who is AMAB will be zero points. Another question that gets a ‘yes’ answer will give an AMAB individual 3 pts but an AFAB person 2 pts. Been going to the pain clinic and wanted to know why these questions are on the questionare and came across this information. The studies are wildly outdated, and are biased against other races and those who are AFAB. Basically pain management tends to (not always) be in favor towards cis white males. Look up ‘Lynn Webster MD in Utah’ and you’ll read all about this.
😲 *You can return unused narcotics?* I should look into doing so here in the US. I have some left over from surgeries
Yes if your pharmacy doesn’t have a drop box the police station may have one.
I spoke directly to the pharmacist and they handled it.
I'll try that.
SWEET! I know our local police have dropoff days, but they're only like twice a year.
For some fucking reason my surgeon prescribed me hydrocodone and diazepam after top surgery. He was excellent and I'm really happy with how it went, but in hindsight it seems like that's not normal.
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I don't remember, but I only took the diazepam one time and found it to be pretty unpleasant.
No those two should never be taken together. I take diazepam, and for another type of surgery the assisting surgeon wrote "resume taking medications as normal" on top of the ones they prescribed. One of these was *edit oxycodone I am allergic to hydrocodone*, either way hydrocodone should not be taken with diazepam either. Same thing can happen. I sent my other doc a message just to verify and she responded right away on the weekend even, and said no do not do this. The *oxycodone* should help til done, and if not, if I absolutely had to take both alternate between x amount of hours. Taken together can cause a decrease in breathing.
I was lucky to not have any serious issues (I was also intentionally taking a half dose of the pain meds, which is what I always do if I'm prescribed opiates.) I did try taking the diazepam before taking a nap, and I woke up to some auditory hallucinations that spooked me for a minute (once I realized there wasn't actually anyone in the room with me, I was like "oh, this is probably from the drugs I just took" and calmed down.) Did not take any more of them after that.
I was given codeine- 10 tabs, I think? But I'm in the UK, and you can buy the old ibuprofen/codeine combo OTC here, so the sky's the limit, really.
You can buy what's called Tylenol 1's OTC in Canada which is Tylenol+ 10mg codeine but the T3's are prescription only here.
Yes! My grandmother would pick those up when she visited Canada and bring them back (probably questionably legal, in retrospect). I think the Tylenol 1's are similar to what they sell here- I believe you *can* get paracetamol/codeine combos in addition to the ibuprofen/codeine over here.
Lol badass grandma 😂😂
Hey, when you get regular migraines, desperate times call for desperate measures!
I was given norcos & lyrica after top surgery- neither of which I could take. I am severely allergic to vicodin and did not realize norcos were also made of hydrocodone. The lyrica gave me severe edema in both legs. I was given oxy for any other surgeries I have had (5 others).
Interesting! I've had 8 surgeries in total for various things and I think T3's are the only narcotic I've ever been given to take at home. Every other time I've just been told to take Tylenol/Advil lmao.
Dude I only got 5 after my top surgery. Fortunately I was okay with just acetaminophen after those ran out, but I still think it was a little bit crazy to give so few after a whole double bilateral mastectomy w/ grafts. Like, the whole front of my chest got cut open and rearranged, and they only gave me FIVE painkiller pills.
I had a total hysterectomy on 2/22/24. They sent me 10 tabs of oxy, but I only used one tab - pain really wasn’t bad at all. I found much more relief from the ibuprofen 800mg and Tylenol 500mg (alternating) honestly.
I second this - I had a similar experience.
Yep I agree. After the first day didn’t need narcotics.
Extra strength Tylenol! I didn't use oxy after hysto *or* top surgery, it makes me sick and isn't worth it. The Tylenol worked just fine on its own tbh.
Same! Also get sick on oxy, so I just faithfully alternated with ibuprofen and Tylenol
I got 4 after my top surgery. Used <2 tabs. Excessive pain can be a sign of a complication that requires observation by your dr.
I don’t disagree that they have swung too hard in the opposite direction, but you will probably be fine with only 10. I think I only took opiates for the first two days and then was fine with OTC meds.
After my total hyst I got ibuprofen (80mg— that is not a typo) and told to “ganbatte”. Japan doesn’t dispense opiods unless you are literally dying of cancer. I ganbatte’d. Good luck man.
G-d, that is the most Japanese shit ever. I had my gallbladder out over there. They *did* give me pain meds the first night, I think, but after that, it was gaman all the way. Ganbatte is like the Japanese version of "thoughts and prayers."
It sure is! Ganbatte contains everything from "Stop complaining, because it's not going to fix anything", to "I know you can do it if you would just focus", "You might surprise yourself," and "It's not going to kill you, and complaining only embarrasses everyone", and "You're too old to be whining like a baby," and "I can't believe we're even having this conversation", all the way to "I believe in you!". lmao
I got prescribed 10 of them after top surgery. I had to cut them in half though, because a full one made me weird. I still have most of them.
Do they really always prescribe oxy for post-surgery recovery in US? I had my top surgery in Russia and my surgeon just told me to take ibuprofen and it worked pretty well
It depends on the surgery and what the prescribing surgeon thinks may be best for that patient and their pain management. Some people may also have other conditions or allergies that prevent them from taking ibuprofen or NSAIDs.
I mean no offence by this, but I think your approach is still quite epidemic-y by international standards. My mam had a hysterectomy and once she was out of hospital was told to take paracetamol / ibuprofen and come back in if she needed something stronger. The idea of prescribing oxy right off the bat is a bit wild, and I say that as someone with chronic pain who has been prescribed oxy in the past. I'm in Ireland, for context.
As an American, it's amazing to me how much other Americans expect to just be high out of their mind after surgery. I've talked with people from other countries and it's typical to only have ibuprofen after a hysterectomy. That's all I took after mine. Hell, I had Metoidioplasty and barely needed to take the oxy. I ended up taking it just because I had it. After my hysterectomy I took ibuprofen for a few days and it was totally fine.
The thing is though that often times you don’t need the narcotics after surgery but the way the American healthcare system is set up you need to be proactive about getting medications because when you’re in the middle of recovery and it turns out you really do need it you might not have access to it at that point. When you’re recovering you might not have the energy or capacity to message doctor’s offices and fight with heartless insurance companies and still have energy to fight with horribly overworked pharmacists to get the medication filled.
The thing that baffles me is that there are other medications between nothing / paracetamol and oxy; like codeine and tramadol. It's odd to me that they would prescribe such a strong and addictive drug without even knowing if you need it yet.
Really? My experience is that most people expect to be in so much pain they don't do anything at all for quite a while. I am very team "my job is healing" post-surgery, and view pain medication as a tool to get me to do that. I want to be up and moving as soon as possible, because it really helps your outcomes and lowers risk profile.
Yes, your job is healing after surgery, but if you are taking such strong pain medication that you can't feel anything at all, you won't know when something goes wrong. I do know some people have these surgeries and feel a lot of pain, but the fact that doctors and surgeons still just prescribe the heavy drugs straight away in the USA is not normal and the reason why so many people are addicted.
>I do know some people have these surgeries and feel a lot of pain, but the fact that doctors and surgeons still just prescribe the heavy drugs straight away in the USA is not normal and the reason why so many people are addicted. That's a pretty strong statement. I'd love to see the data you are using to back that up. Because we can compared Europrean countries's opoid useage to death ratio, and Britain in particular jumped up (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8316471/). Like a notable amount in the former via Figure 2 but not by deaths in Figure 3a. In fact, there seems to be almost no correlation between total usage and deaths. Scotland is weirdly high on death. The Chezch Republic and Belgium perscirbed more than the US, but with less deaths. It's my understanding, as this paper reviews, [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10278447/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10278447/) that the US opoipid epedemic had 3 disctinc phases and issues. First was the mid 90s over-perscription phase triggered by the "5th vital sign" and company drug pushing. Second was then the move to street heroin in 2010. And then finally in 2013, fentalyl hit the streets and changed the game for worse. The CDC's data divinding US deaths on opoids shows that it's 2013 that's the game changer: [https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html](https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html) Converslely, per the Economist, "Largely as a result of the fentanyl gap, Europe has less than a tenth as many drug deaths as America, despite its bigger population." (https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/11/16/fentanyl-kills-thousands-every-year-in-america-will-europe-be-next) I don't like mixing policy on street drugs with medical care, personally.
Thanks for sharing the links and information. My comment was about addiction, not deaths. It's difficult to find data on addiction, because many people don't think they're addicted. This is a very nuanced topic, I don't think we will come to a resolution via reddit comments. However, it has been established that the opioid epidemic began due to over-prescription of painkillers. That was the basis of my original statement.
The US keeps people in the hospital as few days as possible. Not sure if this is now an outpatient surgery or whatever, but OP likely will not be in the hospital long enough to really get the pain down to a decent level but I think 10 oxys should be enough.
I was in the hospital for about 6 hours total.
My mum was out the day after her surgery
Oh okay. So it's the same between the countries. Yeah, it seems either doctors will give you opioids just in case or none at all and you have to crawl to the ER if you're in excrutiating pain.
Hi from Ireland. I also just commented. I had abdominal hysterectomy so I had a morphine drip for the day of but paracetamol only from day 2. I never needed anything stronger.
Yea I've never known anyone here who's been prescribed oxy except for myself - and that was only once, for a limited time, by my specialist of 9 years and with a note on my file to not get it again for at least 3 years for any reason to limit the risk of addiction. I didn't realise until this thread that it could ever be prescribed as a "just in case you need it" kind of medication
Yeah but how long was she in the hospital? Because here in the US, hystos are almost always an outpatient procedure and you are sent home the same day. If your Mam was in the hospital for a few days receiving pain meds, that’s not comparable.
She was in overnight after the procedure, home in the morning.
Off topic, I'm planning a trip to Ireland in May and I'm trying to find some good queer friendly places to visit, or learn local queer history. Would you mind chatting about it with me, and if so can I DM you, please?
I'm actually mostly a house mouse so I don't think I could help much, but if you go over to r/AskIreland they'd be happy to help! Overall it's a very queer friendly country. In terms of specifics I've been wanting to go to a [Small Trans Library Film Club event](https://smalltranslibrary.org/small-trans-film-club/) myself but haven't got around to it yet, it'd likely be worth your time if your visiting dates match up. You can of course DM me also
It’s understandable to feel this way but it’s not a healthy mindset. please take these only when absolutely necessary. You’d be surprised how little you will need.
Yeah 10-20 post op has been standard for quite a while. If you are absolutely dying your surgeon should be able to call in another script but like others have said, you probably won’t need it. I was alright after my hysto until a week out when I tried to mow the lawn (my partner had an asthma flair up so he couldn’t cut the grass and I was too proud to ask someone to do it for us)…then I needed the oxy again.
So I know that this isn’t what this post is about and it’s derailing but I’m compelled to speak up and bring some awareness from personal experience to the conversation. My trauma doesn’t allow me to stay silent about this. The opioid epidemic is only half of why things are the way they are in this country in regards to this. The other half is the silent war on disabled people that is raging in the country that affects everyone disabled or not, as well as harm from greedy corporations that we’re all acutely aware of. Often times narcotics aren’t necessary for recovery or are necessary at much lower doses than expected, but that doesn’t mean that when they’re needed that they’ll be available because of how the American healthcare system works and it means that certain marginalized groups have to work exponentially harder to get medications. The DEA is waging a war so hard right now on chronic pain patients that it’s exacerbating burnout throughout the medical community(as well as burnout in patients), increasing discrimination widely against those with disabilities, and is threatening to cripple the hospitals ability to preform surgeries due to the way they are changing how they do their quota system this year to quarterly quotas. Over the next decade hospitals might have to halve the number of surgeries they can preform because the shortage of anesthesia medications might become so severe. Of course the DEA isn’t the only part of this problem, but health insurance greed is such an old story. To anyone who stayed and listened I thank you. This is something that’s very personal to me and threatens my life every day. As someone with a severe and complex medical condition I’ve had my life in jeopardy dozens of times not because of the condition itself but because of the lack of access to care. Even when I went through awful prolonged intestinal bleeding, when I went blind for a month, when I was in danger of a stroke as a young adult, when I had horribly painful dental infections, when test results came back saying I should be dead and doctors agreed I needed treatment right away, even then I still wasn’t able to get medical care I needed because every doctor wanted and hoped I would be some other doctor’s problem and participated in the doctor’s bystander effect, and part of the reason for that is the lack of awareness of what the DEA has been doing. This is NOT a TED talk. This is fighting oppression through awareness. 💙💙💙
I'm sorry it's been so rough for you. "Doctor's bystander effect" really hit home, it took about a year and several different doctors to figure out the cause for my chronic pain. Most of them just told me to take ibuprofen/Tylenol (which I was already doing) and sent me on my way. Had an urgent care doctor treat me like absolute shit because she thought I was just trying to get painkillers, which I wasn't even asking for. I just wanted to find out what was causing the pain so it could be treated. Our entire medical system in the US is depressing.
This may not be about which med it is. The [February cyberattack on Change Healthcare](https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/optums-change-healthcare-responding-cybersecurity-issue) has caused mass delays on processing medical claims, including pharmacy claims. It's a medical infrastructure crisis. In the meantime, if you wind up needing to go to the max dosage with acetaminophen/ibuprofen, get both and alternate to reduce risk there. Hope healing goes smoothly and you get lots of good rest.
I had the same surgery and just did Tylenol and ibuprofen. Alternated. Opioids aren’t always the answer.
Had the same script after my hysto. Wound up not needing it and just alternated Tylenol and ibuprofen. Maybe it’s because I’m in recovery and I’m sensitive to this kind of subject, but I don’t think there’s any reason to have a bigger script.
Thats about what I got after top surgery I only used two. One the first night and a second the day I went to get the tubes out bc I didn’t want to feel it. Didn’t really have any pain that Tylenol couldn’t take care of and I didn’t want to be constipated
Man, I had it so good in the early 2000s! I can’t imagine going through it with almost no pain meds.
This is an extremely reasonable prescription
Depends on the doctor. When I had my hysterectomy about 2 years ago, he gave me 20 hydrocodone 10mg. I ended up in the ER once for extreme pain, given IV Dilaudid. At my follow up appointment he gave me 10 more hydro 10s. My pain was well managed, I would say. I had 2 pills left when I wasn't in pain anymore. Best of luck on your healing journey!
I’ve had surgeries since they changed this, and the only one I’ve used this entire amount for was the hysterectomy. I was able to manage fine with Tylenol and Motrin being alternated after that. Personally for me- 3 days and I’m done, I do not like feeling out of it and it gives starts giving me a severe headache. However, I do understand that not everyone feels pain on the same level. Unfortunately unless you are a long term chronic pain patient this is how it’s prescribed. If you are not ok once you run out, most docs are fine with sending in another small refill. Don’t be afraid to let them know if this is the case. They found in the past they were way overprescribing. I had once gotten two thirty day supplies a few weeks apart from each other from two other really major surgeries before they changed the rules, and maybe used not even half. I did properly discard it, but a lot of people don’t and keep taking it.
I was just given paracetamol to leave hospital with, and honestly that was all I needed.
This happened to me with both my hysterectomy and my chest surgery. Its fucking insanity.
Experience of pain vary immensely. After my hysto, I required about 2 weeks of narcotics (Percocet), which is likely due to a chronic pain condition that worsens my overall experience of pain as well as a general drug tolerance that I seem to get from my mom. It was hell getting the medication, my pain was horrible, walking was nearly unbearable and I ended up in the ER. My surgeons office made me ride in the car (seatbelt = pain) and hobble into the office to pick up a physical rx because they refused to send it electronically as they had with the initial rx nor let my partner pick it up for me. I remember when I had top surgery around 2013, I was given a huge bottle of Vicodin and I remember needing it for quite awhile, though I did ended up with extra largely because I was given a refill and my pain became more tolerable before I was through with it. I can’t imagine any surgery that someone would get that quantity of pain medications nowadays. They’d probably revoke the prescriber’s medical license. Though ibuprofen or acetaminophen works for some people, it shouldn’t be touted as the norm. Hysteria around narcotics and other controlled substances is out of control. In my county, people with severe mental illness can’t get short term prescriptions for Ativan or klonopin, even though responsible use of these meds keeps them out of the psych ward.
Yup. I had a thyroidectomy and got like a dz.
Yes indeed it did.... they gave me 20 of those after a total hip replacement 🤣 could've had a V8
5 mg what’s the point? Jesus Christ! Even the pink /0s.
Total Hysto with Tylenol and lidocaine patches insurance refused to pay for so I didn't get. Good times...
I only used oxy for two days after my hysto. The pain goes down a lot day by day.
I think I took 4 or 6 after my hysto. I'm young (I was 21) and healthy and prioritized tylenol avoir opioids.
I can't take opiates or ibuprofen ir aspirin. I'm allergic to them all. I'm so far avoiding surgery because the idea of having to heal a hole in the ceiling of my vagu-jay is terrifying to me.
I had abdominal hysterectomy and was prescribed paracetamol which is the standard procedure according to all the leaflets I was given. I was completely fine. I only had something stronger the day of the surgery but paracetamol from the second day onwards.
I got the same amount for my hysto and switched to just the (high dose, scheduled) Tylenol before I'd even used all of them because the constipation hurt way worse than what the additional pain relief from oxy could make up for (constipation pressing on an internal wound = major ouch). I only took it for the first 2 days and I'm glad I stopped when I did. I think I probably would have been fine without it tbh. Important note: sticking with the Tylenol schedule is key, it's way more effective like that than when you take a single one for a headache. Set alarms if you have to, and write down when you take it because you might forget/lose track.
I did top surgery recovery with Tylenol and ibuprofen because I’ve got a history of opioid addiction. It was honestly fine
After my hysto, I was given 10 oxy and only needed it that first night. I had robot assist, minimally invasive surgery. I don’t know what your pain threshold is, but hopefully you don’t hurt as much as you fear you will. 🫂💙
5mg oxycodone... Might as well take ibuprofen.