[Boomer]

#1059985

Good evening all,

As a recovering addict I’m very concerned about pain medication following surgery should I go that route. If any of you good people who have had thyroid surgery could answer a few questons for me it would be a tremendous help.

My questions are as follows:

1. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain ever, how would you rate YOUR pain levels immediatelty after the operation? A week later? A month later?

2. Did you use opiate/opioid (aka narcotic) pain meds? If so please include name of medication, dosage, duration of use, and effectiveness if possible.

3. Did you have satisfactory results using over-the-counter pain meds such as Aceteminophen (Tylenol™, et al), Ibuprofin (Motrin™ et al), Aspirin, etc. instead of narcotic pain meds or in addition so the same?

4. Did you use any other pain managment techniques such as meditation, visualisation, etc., instead of or in addition to medication and did you have positive results?

I’m sorry if these personal questions are beyond the scope of this public forum. If your privacy is a concern I welcome private messages (to be deleted upon my reading) as well as posts here in the forum.

Thank you for reading and for your consideration.

Peace and health to all,

Boomer

[adenure]

#1179389

Hi Boomer,

Here are my answers:

1. Pain immediately after (like during the 3 hours they keep you in the 1st post op. area with the nurse)- probably a 7. I think they give you a narcotic intraveniously (sp?). I think I had one dose. Then I was moved to a different area of observation for another hour or so- no narcotics or IV or anything. Then, I went home! I didn’t stay 24 hours at the hospital. Pain a week later- none at all really. Little twinges at the incision but nothing really. A month later? Not even a thought.

2. No narcotics (except for that initial IV dose immediately post surgery). I was prescribed Vicadin, but I never took any. Just took Advil. 600 mg. every 6 hours for the 1st week then the 2nd week I tapered off.

3. Yes, only Advil used. Hardly any pain at all with just Advil.

4. No- didn’t need to.

[Boomer]

#1179390

Thanks Alexis!

I appreciate your having taken the time to repond in such great detail.

I’m also very glad you were relatively comfortable afterwards.

Remain awesome!

Boomer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyone else? Feel free to chime in

[amosmcd]

#1179391

Hi, Boomer! I’ve snuck my answers in after your questions:

Boomer wrote:

Good evening all,

As a recovering addict I’m very concerned about pain medication following surgery should I go that route. If any of you good people who have had thyroid surgery could answer a few questons for me it would be a tremendous help.

My questions are as follows:

1. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain ever, how would you rate YOUR pain levels immediatelty after the operation? A week later? A month later?

My immediate post-op pain was an 8/10. They had to give me something strong in my IV in the recovery room. Once in my hospital room (I stayed overnight–considered a 23-hour stay) I got Oxycodone. Not sure how often. I was allowed 2 pills at a time, but only wanted one. I may have taken a second pill once when the first pill didnt help. It’s kind of a blurry time. Went home with Oxycodone, but stopped taking it after 3-4 days. I was only taking one pill twice a day. Pain went way down after the first day. A week later just twinges when looking up or down. Sore throat from breathing tube went away in a few days. Sore neck within a week or so. Niw 3 weeks out just have tightness in my neck muscles when swallowing now and then.

2. Did you use opiate/opioid (aka narcotic) pain meds? If so please include name of medication, dosage, duration of use, and effectiveness if possible.

See above. I take Tramadol 50mg 2-3x/day for chronic back pain, which is probably why I have a lower pain tolerance. Once I quit the Oxycodone I went back to taking the Tramadol, which also took care of any residual surgical pain. I think plain Tylenol would have taken care of that.

3. Did you have satisfactory results using over-the-counter pain meds such as Aceteminophen (Tylenol™, et al), Ibuprofin (Motrin™ et al), Aspirin, etc. instead of narcotic pain meds or in addition so the same?

I was instructed to NOT take any NSAIDS like Aleve or ibuprofen for 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after surgery to reduce the risk of post-op bleeding.

4. Did you use any other pain managment techniques such as meditation, visualisation, etc., instead of or in addition to medication and did you have positive results?

Ice pack in the hospital, which was useless. Would have helped a lot if it got cold enough. Popsicles practically non-stop while in the hospital due to sore throat from breathing tube.

I’m sorry if these personal questions are beyond the scope of this public forum. If your privacy is a concern I welcome private messages (to be deleted upon my reading) as well as posts here in the forum.

I’m fine with publicly announcing I’m a weenie when it comes to pain. I am also very careful with pain med usage due to addiction and alcoholism that runs in my family. You are wise to take your own history into consideration.

Hope this helps!

Amy

Peace and health to all,

Boomer

[Boomer]

#1179392

Thanks SO much Amy

Stay well,

Boomer

[karenz516]

#1179393

Hi Boomer, I was diagnosed with Graves Disease on 12/6/12. Quick background, the few months prior to the diagnosis, I had lost 30 lbs., weighed about 120 lbs. (not complaining, was happy to buy a size 4 pair of jeans!!!!) I am 57 years old, I would fall asleep as soon as I got home from work, I was exhausted, had muscle loss and tremors in hands and legs I shook all the time. When my family dragged me to the docs and I had blood work done my thyroid meds were “out of whack”, when I went to see the referred endo (who I actually like) my heart rate was 180 bpm. He immediately hospitalized me because of my heart rate, spent two weeks in the hospital, blood draws every day, ugh, then on 12/14/12 received a low dose of RAI, endo kept me in hospital because of the thyroid dump that would occur, he wanted to monitor along with my cardiologist. Probably the first 3 months still had elevated heart rate bit not over 130. I was on Lopressor and Digoxcin and the blood thinner Pradaxa. I just went hypo about a month ago, put on 75 mg of Synthroid to start. Happy to say that my heart rate now is between 50-70, still on Pradaxa, endo thinks that the a-fib was due to the thyroid and that it will get better with time and I will not need to be on the blood thinner.

Anyway, was wondering how severe your symptoms are, I see that your on anti-thyroid and a beta blocker, I couldn;t take the anti-thyroid meds because of slightly elevated liver enzymes (probably from cholesterol meds), it was horrible being hyper and scary I might add. Now that I am “hypo”, put about 12 lbs. back on (not happy about that) but I do feel achy in hands/ankles/ any my joints, family history of arthritis and rheumotoid arthritis. Are you considering TT? Its still early and I know it will take awhile for me to feel better but I feel better than I did being hyper. Just wondering what your day to day issues are.

[Boomer]

#1179394

karenz516 wrote:

Hi Boomer,

Anyway, was wondering how severe your symptoms are, I see that your on anti-thyroid and a beta blocker,

Just wondering what your day to day issues are.

Thanks so much for sharing your story with me. I’d like to keep ths thread foscused on my pain medication questions as per the title but I’ll briefly answer your great questions here.

(I posted a thread that tells my story located here: Diagnosed @ 49 y/o)

My case is deemed severe and parallels yours in many ways including racing heart which brought me to th ER, massive weight loss (Stubborn- should have sought help MUCH sooner). Tremors in hands, legs, and core, and basically my entirel metabolic system out of whack.

I’m in a “holding pattern” until next Thursday when I meet with my Endo and choose a course of treatment be it RAI or TT.

Thanks again or chiming in and I look forward to seeing you around the forum.

Love to you and yours,

Boomer

[snelsen]

#1179395

Hi Boomer, here ya go. This is a great place to get this info and others’ experiences
1. Discomfort (not pain) was from the intubation (breathing tube) and the hyperextended position of my head/neck during surgery.
I did not have anything for pain in the hospital, did not want it. Just wanted extra pillows so I could get my head in a more comfortable position. Mostly, I wanted OUT OF THERE!

2. At home, I felt the same way. Had pain meds, codeine, i think, i did not want to take them. Was also breast feeding-that’s most likely not a major consideration for you, Boomer! So, again no meds. Hurt to swallow, chew food that needed a lot of chewing. Mostly muscle hurting, like when you go for a big long hike when you are out of shape.

3. On day 3, seemed i was more uncomfortable, fed up with everything. Took tylenol. As Alexis said, ibuprofen and aspirin should be avoided for around 2 weeks. They are anticoagulants.

I found popsicles and cold wash clothes in a plastic bag very comforting for my throat and neck. I did not put the popsicles on my neck! They went in my mouth!

I would not say that I am a stoic, really, but narcotics and opioids I just don’t like much, and I am one of those people who do not notice any difference at all in pain relief when I take them. Only terrible constipation. I had them for another procedure,and threw away a boat load of narcs-Put them in a plastic bag in the rubbish, rather than flushing them in the water supply.

In summary, uncomfortable big time cause of sore muscles in weird positions, and some discomfort swallowing for a few days, same reason. But very tolerable, and no worries about nausea. Everyone different. But you have some compelling reason to think about all of this.

4. nope. too young and too busy to meditate or visualize. maybe others have had good experiences with this.
Shirley

[Boomer]

#1179396

Thanks SO much, Shirley, for taking the time to answer in such detail! You’re the best

Well so far it sounds like 2-0 with the 2 being no narcotics. I note, however, both are women and lets face it- when it comes to pain you’re the toughies and us guys? WAAAAAH!

Very encouraging thus far- anyone else wanna chime in?

Love and health to all,

Boomer

[Author]

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