After waking up from having my hips replaced, for the first time in my life I was put on prescription pain killers. I'm the type of person who almost never takes anything, even an aspirin. After my osteoarthritis had progressed to the final stages, I did try an ibuprofin or motrin now and then. It would usually work for 24 hours, and then the pain would return. I didn't understand why. Now I know that it's because my hips were bone on bone. Pain killers don't relieve that; the joint is diseased, and the cartilage is gone. Surgically removing the ball of the hip socket and the diseased arthritic tissue surrounding it gave me complete and total relief. A very wise friend had told me that it would. She described it as like having a cancer removed. She said that she felt an instant change when she woke up from the anesthesia after having her hip was replaced..
I was given percoset and tramadol after my surgery. I was really impressed with the percoset. It gave me immediate and complete relief. With the tramadol, I didn't really notice a difference. I took it anyway, in case they worked together. I was instructed to alternate the drugs and take them every two hours. Using ice packs was very healing, too. After a major surgery like this, your main focus is on icing the incision sites, taking your meds, and resting.
One day I decided to look up percoset on the Internet, since I was so impressed with its effects. "Percoset is a member of the heroine family," I read. "Oh my God!" I gasped. I couldn't believe it. I worried that I would become hooked, after reading all the stories and seeing celebrities overdosing on the news. The last thing I wanted was to become a drug addict. My mother had been addicted to prescription pills for my entire life. She could never quit, and she had an iron will. She was prescribed codeine and valium back in the days when many housewives took those pills for depression. They made her groggy and unpredictable. I remember before she died, watching her rearrange her bottles of prescription pills on a tray at her bedside. She acted like an old child, playing with her dolls. Her entire life seemed to revolve around taking her next dosage. She would get mixed up, and couldn't remember if she had taken what she was supposed to or not. I think she had 23 prescriptions at that time. It was unbelievable. They filled a small suitcase that was meant for cosmetics when she went to the hospital.
After about a month, I was able to completely get off both of the medications. I cut down the dosage after a couple of weeks, and just took a half a pill at night. It was stop and start for a while, but I was able to free myself from them pretty quickly. When I would phone him, my dad kept nervously asking me if I was still taking the pills. I could hear the relief in his voice when I told him how I was reducing the dosage. I'm sure he was worried that I would turn out like my mother. Thank God I didn't. I was afraid not to take them. This surgery is like a double amputation. They saw off the ball of the socket. Mine is replaced with a ceramic ball and a titanium stem. My surgeon asked me if I had watched his videotape. I told him that I couldn't watch it, but that I had listened to what he had said. I just couldn't stomach it.
As the saying goes, everything has its season. One of my friends was able to get through her recovery just taking tylenol, but I was afraid to try. I'd been advised to stay ahead of the pain, and had heard horror stories from people who had missed a dosage. I tried to skip the percoset one time on the second day after surgery, and boy was that a terrible mistake. I couldn't believe how my pain shot up so quickly. All's well that ends well, though. It's so nice to pain free. We don't have to inherit our parent's weaknesses. Not everyone will become addicted to opioids. I didn't, and I am thankful for what they did for me during a challenging and vulnerable time. They allowed me to sleep, heal, and do physical therapy. If only everyone could just use them temporarily.
No comments:
Post a Comment