Pain and Depression Post Surgery

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I think it affects everyone differently. Personally, I was happy to have my valve repaired and had no depression or trouble sleeping at all. No effects from the heart/lung machine either. There is some pain involved, but is easily controlled with drugs. Let the prospect of a repaired heart and a long life be your focus! Good Luck to you.

Steve
 
Its been said a few times, one more can't hurt, can it? :) Pain is different for everyone, but I thought I'd chime in and give you my $0.02.

Its been 1 year (almost to the day!) since my OHS - aortic valve replacement and ascending aorta replacement. I'm 35, 6'4 and always thought of myself as the king of pain tolerance. I've shot myself with a nail gun before, ripped the nail out with a pair of pliers, kept on working. Countless times cutting myself with various construction tools, never winced. Riding ATV's/motorcycles all my life, falling/flipping/crashing - bruised battered and torn, just laugh it off and keep on going. People will claim they did better because they have a "high tolerance" for pain. I have a generally exceptionally high tolerance for pain. This experience taught me lessons about what pain really is, let me tell you.

Pain was indescribable, and very poorly controlled while in the hospital. They were totally out of control with pain management, treating me as if I was a pain killer junkie. One of the poor English speaking doctors even came out and told me "Maybe you just think you have pain too bad so you can get more attention" HA! :confused: And given the fact they administer the same amount of pain medication for an 85 year old woman who weights 80 pounds, I'd say they need to do a little more research on how to properly administer pain medication. I had my family there with me at all times, and thank god for that! Without them, I don't know what I'd do. They were my constant advocate to get another drop of IV pain med or another Tylenol when my 4 hours were up. I had to fight to get Tylenol for heaven's sake!

The pain going home and for the first 2-3 weeks there after for me was much more than I was led to believe or could have ever imagined. Honestly, I don't say this to intimidate you or raise your anxiety level, but seriously, I had no idea, and no one just laid it out on the line for me. I'm much better prepared for next time, having gone through it.

Recovery for me was much longer than I had expected as well. It took my a good 3 months to get to the point where I could comfortably lay in bed to sleep or use my arms to push up without having chest/collar bone pain.

Being younger does not pose an advantage in this case in terms of pain and heeling based on my experience. My pain level was at a 10+ many times during the first days and even weeks. The breathing machine :eek:. I woke up and had to stay on that damn thing for an hour and a half longer, fully awake! The nurse couldn't believe how quickly I woke up and how alert and cognizant I was. It felt like trying to breathe through a soda straw after having run up 4 flights of stairs. I don't think even having been through that I am prepared for next time, but I will absolutely insist that they knock me out if I was to wake up again that quickly. No one - and I MEAN NO ONE should have to suffer through that, there's just no reason for it.

Have your family there with you, and make sure they know to speak up on your behalf. No matter the pain or experience you have, realize the alternative (i.e. not having surgery) is worse, and eventually the pain subsides and life does go back to normal. Again - I don't mean to introduce doom and gloom, but I really wish someone would have just told me how it was rather than sugar coat everything like what tends to happen here. Its not a pleasant experience, and its going to hurt, especially if you are younger.

I'm sure I'll get a razzing now for being the one to tell it like it is, but.. :rolleyes:
 
I have not taken sleeping pills for years. If I have a problem, I take a Benadryl, two if I find it really hard to sleep. Knocks me right out, and clears out my allergic nose at the same time.
 
When I was younger & had my surgery in 1977 (14yrs. old) I did experience pain. The thing that taught me that pain was all relative was when the nurse came at me with a needle. Now you must understand my phobia about needles when I tell you I told the nurse to shove the needle & I'll take the pain instead.
Several minutes before she tried to give me the pain shot I had given blood for my blood panels. I explained to her that blood panels are important after surgery but shots for pain med were not. Two hours later, after talking to the doctor, they brought me a pill & switched all my pain meds to pills.
 
I'm sorry your pain was so poorly controlled. You would think in this day and age those dinosaur attitudes would have passed. Pain inhibits healing, and most hospitals/doctors/nurses understand that! I doubt your pain had anything to do with your age, and more to do with poor medical management.

I had great pain control in ICU and out. Not that I didn't have pain. Yes, especially the drains. But man, the nurses came quickly with the morphine, asked how much I wanted (i'm a baby, and only need 1 or 2 cc to knock me out, though something like 7 cc was authorized at a time for me) and they always asked whether I wanted pain drug A or pain drug B once I was out of ICU and on pills.

I doubt you woke up while on the heart bypass machine! That comes out before they sew you up. I think you meant the breathing tube, yes? I sure hope you don't mean you woke up during surgery!

So I guess the lesson from this is to talk to your doctors about pain control prior to surgery.
 
I doubt you woke up while on the heart bypass machine! That comes out before they sew you up. I think you meant the breathing tube, yes?

;) Good catch!

No doubt my bad experience was due largely in part by the lack of pain management. This was part of my experience though, I have nothing better to compare it to. If I elect to go back to the same place to have my next surgery (which is doubtful based on my experience there), you better beleive we're going to have some ground rules set before I go under. The treatment I received was almost inhumane - not just by my account, but by everyone who watched me suffer.

My point here is not to whine about my experience, but rather share that there's good and bad - while encouragement for those facing the surgery is a good thing, they should also be clued in to what can and does happen in the not-so-rosey cases. Just IMHO.
 
;) Good catch!

No doubt my bad experience was due largely in part by the lack of pain management. This was part of my experience though, I have nothing better to compare it to. If I elect to go back to the same place to have my next surgery (which is doubtful based on my experience there), you better beleive we're going to have some ground rules set before I go under. The treatment I received was almost inhumane - not just by my account, but by everyone who watched me suffer.

My point here is not to whine about my experience, but rather share that there's good and bad - while encouragement for those facing the surgery is a good thing, they should also be clued in to what can and does happen in the not-so-rosey cases. Just IMHO.

I just can't believe we were in the same hospital. I had fantastic pain management. I was told that my surgeon insisted that his patients were not in pain, and when there was some, they took care of it right away.
 
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