Finding Pain Relief After Surgery

For people who have an injury, sometimes the only way to help that injury heal is for the patient to have an operation. Sometimes things like bones can be broken so badly that casting it is not an option and surgery is the only way to get the bone to be repaired. When part of the body has to be opened up in order to be repaired surgically, skin, muscle, and tissue all have to be cut, and sometimes once the surgery is over, the pain can be terrible. Pain management doctors are special physicals that understand all about pain, and how to help people recover from surgery that may take weeks or even months to recover from.

The Various Ways Doctors Deal With Pain

After someone has to have surgery to repair an injury, the body is going to go through shock and sometimes the post-operative reactions can include pain and swelling of the area where the incision lies. When patients are sent home, they are given special instructions to help with pain and swelling, but sometimes what the doctors say to do does not always work. When typical post-operative instructions for pain do not work, patients are then sent to see pain management doctors for more specific treatments. There are various ways for these pain specialists to handle pain, and these are some of the things that they may do:

• Pain medication that is taken orally: When people are first out of surgery, and they come around from the anesthesia, their bodies will be numb for quite some time. Within a few hours, the anesthesia will wear off and they will begin to feel pain. Depending on the level of pain, which they will ask to rate on a scale from 1 to 10, will determine what kind of medicine they will get. Typically, moderate pain, which is anywhere from a 1 to a 5, will be oral medication.

• IV medication for pain relief: For people who have to have pretty major surgery, pain management may come in the form of an IV that is usually hooked up with a syringe that is filled with morphine. The patient is then given a trigger, and when they press it, a small amount of medication is pushed into the IV tube. No matter how many times the patient presses the button, only a small amount of medication is released to prevent overdosing on the powerful drug. However, once they patient goes home, then they do not have IV medication, but have to seek out pain management doctors if their pain is still bad.

• Pain blockers to control pain: Pain doctors may recommend that their patients have what is known as a pain blocker. A blocker is a special shot that is administered in the nerve to block the brain from receiving pain signals for up to 24 hours. Some people are given one before they get home, and after that, they will be evaluated by a physician to see what else can be done for pain relief.

People may need surgery for an injury, but sometimes the pain from surgery can be as bad as the injury itself. To stop the pain, people have many options for when they are in the hospital, but when they get home, they may need to seek out pain management doctors to see what options they have for long term pain relief.