The course of a hip replacement never did run smooth.
Last night was less than the best night I’ve had. I’m not quite sure what was going on but I had more pain than I’ve had since those early nights in the hospital. I think that perhaps I’ve been doing a bit more than would normally be suggested and things just caught up to me.
How bad was it? In truth, it really wasn’t as bad as my opening statements might make one imagine. It was just unpleasant. I’ve had worse nights prior to surgery. Still it did make me want to get out of bed and take extra painkillers. I hadn’t had any since late afternoon so I was ‘allowed’ by the prescription to take more, but I didn’t.
I’m really trying to wean myself off them completely. Perhaps it’s foolish to think I can be done with them so quickly, but I’ve spent a lot of time in pain with nothing stronger than an NSAID or two so I’m not unused to pain. If the truth be told, I’m really rather afraid of addicting myself to the other part of the pill, that feeling of euphoria that comes along with opoids.
I’m on Ultram (Tramadol) and am currently allowed a full 100 mg every six hours. That would be a bit much. In fact other than the first day in the hospital i haven’t had that much. I never asked for morphine in the hospital which I was allowed and really haven’t needed all that much of the Ultram either.
On Tuesday last week, in the hospital, I think they actually only gave me three doses of 100mg each. I didn’t get any before bedtime and spent that night just fine. The next day, Wednesday, when i was to be released, I was given 100mg in the morning, but only 50mg in the afternoon before I was released. That evening I took one more 50mg for a total of 200mg.
The next day I started using only 50mg doses and, as I recall, only had three doses for a total of 150mg. On Friday and Saturday I did the same, but yesterday I only gave myself two doses of 50mg each for a total of 100mg.
That could explain the pain in the evening but frankly I haven’t been taking a bedtime dose for the entire week since surgery. They weren’t giving me one in the hospital so I followed their lead and figured that as long as I wasn’t moving I wasn’t in pain (true) so no medication was necessary. Last night I wasn’t moving and I was in pain. Go figure.
Ultimately I changed my position in bed, did a few stretches, tried to meditate and slept after an hour of unpleasantness.
What makes me think I’ve been overdoing it is that this morning I slept late and deeply. Normally I wake up around the time I’d normally start getting ready for work, 4:30 AM. Today I woke up around 8:30 AM.
I’m not in much pain today so it was transitory. I did a dose an hour or so before I went out today. I was told to do that, especially before PT so that I can do the exercises comfortably. Once I felt the effects (very mild) I did my daily PT and haven’t had any problems since. I haven’t been doing a lot of moving around though. Basically I’ve sat in a couple of places for an hour so each time. I’m soon headed back home and to bed before perhaps having dinner with a friend.
Pain is a warning that something is wrong, but it’s not all that helpful when the ‘wrong’ was inflicted on purpose to make something right. I’m going to get better, I know that. Sometimes it’s just frustrating that it doesn’t happen immediately. Still I know from what I’ve seen that my experience so far has been quick and better than expected. I’m grateful for that.
Aloha!