Pain Medication....

[Jkm7]

The question about receiving pain medication in the hospital on request came up in a different thread. I didn't want to 'hijack' it from the original topic which was whether care is lessened over weekends in hospitals.

At Mass General, the nurses told me they are now considering pain management to be a fifth 'vital sign'. They feel patients are delayed in healing if they are in too much pain. Of course they don't over medicate or dispense more than required, but I never heard a refusal to anyone requesting pain med....whichever one they were on.

There were times I told my nurse I thought I could wait a while and she suggested I should have the medication sooner rather than wait. Pain is more easily managed if it does not get out of hand.

Are the rest of you experiencing this in the various hospitals you are using?

 

[Susan BAV]

I've heard many times that it is better to stay ahead of the pain rather than to chase it. Is that you mean?

 

[hensylee]

if pain sets in, it is harder to control once it starts.

 

[marie]

I have not heard if referred to as the fifth vital however my pain was managed very well and whenever I asked I got it. In the middle of the night one night I has so much shoulder pain and they had given me morphine only a short time ago. The nurse left the room and then came back a short time later with a different type of pain medicine that she said helped more with muscle pain. I can not remember the name. When I mentioned it to my surgeon the next morning his reply was "there are no heros here" so be sure and tell the nurses when you're in pain.
Earline

 

[donnag131]

Yes. My AVR surgery was at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. They seem to have the same medication policy as Mass Gen. The only time I really remember being in great pain was when they removed those darn drainage tubes.

 

[briansmom]

My son's hospital definitely had that policy. Every day a "pain specialist" - I believe they were pharmacists, came by to see him and they adjusted his baseline pain meds accordingly. He had a button that allowed him to dose himself with the pain meds and if that wasn't enough the nurses could get him more. It was a bit hard for me to accept and I questioned the drugs. I got a very stern lecture about how important pain control was to healing.

 

[Jkm7]

My first OHS at Mass General, I suffered horrible pain when they removed the drainage tubes. This time I pleaded with them to pre-medicate me; to do something/anything different and they listened. It was WAY easier when they removed the first three. But I had a fourth which had to stay in longer. It was to come out the next day (probably) but in the ultimate irony after my expressing my dread at experiencing that same pain, that fourth tube literally fell out on its own with the stitch and all. The physician's assistant was in my room when it happened and he was not happy. All was well though and it caused me no problem.

 

[Susan BAV]

Well, speaking of drain tubes...

Well, speaking of drain tubes...

I had a big drain tube (judging from the scar) following my first heart surgery but really have no recollection of it being removed. Pre valve surgery, however, I had read here that removing the drains can be painful and we can request pain meds for it. So when the tech came in to pull my tubes, I asked him to administer pain medication first. It didn't hurt me at all.