3 Types of Pain Patients Go Through Post Operation

No one should go through severe pain after surgery nowadays. There are now many different ways to effectively relieve this kind of pain. It’s important to let nurses and doctors know about any pain you might have.

If you have pain after an operation, it needs to be treated. Pain in the area of the surgical wound isn’t only sometimes very unpleasant, it can also delay your recovery. It’s generally important to start getting back on your feet again as soon as possible after surgery in order to stop your muscles from getting weak. Pain can prevent you from getting up and walking around. Lack of movement can also increase the risk of blood clots in blood vessels (thrombosis) and affect your ability to take deep breaths or cough. This can lead to serious complications.

Here are 3 types of pain patients go through post operation:

1) Chronic pain

If you have a chronic pain condition, your body may be under additional stress because following surgery you’ll likely feel the pain you’ve been experiencing, as well as pain associated with the surgery.

In addition, people with chronic pain conditions often take medication to manage it. Long-term use of pain medication can lead to medication tolerance, meaning the drugs don’t work as well as they once did to block pain and that greater dosages are needed to get the same effect. This makes post-surgery discomfort much more difficult to manage.

Your doctor has the opportunity to coordinate with other care providers managing your chronic pain and to choose medications that will help to keep you comfortable.

2) Addictions

Due to the fear of being stigmatized, people with addiction issues will keep very quiet about it, leaving their doctor in the dark.

It is common for people recovering from addiction to refuse opioid treatment. Those being treated for addiction with methadone can also face more difficulty controlling their pain after surgery. If you don't inform your doctor, then they may end up scratching their heads in confusion wondering why their efforts to manage someone’s pain are not working.

Tell your surgeon about addiction issues ahead of time, so that they can work with the maintenance program treating your addiction to manage your pain while controlling the level of narcotics you’re being given.

3) Anxiety and Depression

Anxiety and depression can make pain worse and much more difficult to manage. Understandably, both are very common in people having surgery.

But there is hope. There are various therapies available to treat the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Managing anxiety and depression after surgery, whether with medication or social support often reduces the need for pain medication, and is extremely important for long-term recovery.