Pain Issues Post-op

[Jonathan L]

I had DI on June 29th and I'm still having a lot of pain (tomorrow will be three weeks post-op). I went through the original pain meds (norco) the surgeon gave me in about a week and was still in so much pain they put me on a different pain med (tramadol) and now I'm out of those too. He thinks the pain might be nerve pain from the way I described it (a burning pain with sometimes sharp pains like being poked with a needle) so he prescribed gabapentin, but that doesn't seem to be doing anything. The surgeon said that he doesn't want to prescribe any more opioids because they're habit forming so he's sent me over to my primary doc and I'm waiting to see if she has any ideas. At the moment I'm just taking the gabapentin and ibuprofen and still pretty miserable.

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has had the same experience with pain this long after recovery. So many guys I talked to said they didn't have much pain so I wasn't expecting this to be such an issue. And also wondering in terms of nerve pain if that's something others have experienced and how long that lasted? I noticed that even just wearing a really loose shirt makes the pain worse because anything touching my skin is painful, which is pretty inconvenient for leaving the house, lol.

[Dani]

Jonathan,

Sharp shooting pain is typical of some sort of nerve involvement and Gabapentin is the most common medication for that condition. The trick is to increase the dose to a level where you get some relief from the pain. Your doctor should have you on an increasing dose schedule. Do not make any changes by yourself. Talk to your doctor about an increase in your dose if you are still not getting any relief.

Also, Gabapentin does not work like the opoids, where you feel pain, take a tablet and the pain goes away. You have to build up your blood levels to a point where the Gabapentin will prevent the pain by blocking nerve impulses to the brain. Once the your blood levels are built up you must continue to take Gabapentin to maintain those levels.

Hopefully, after you more completely heal from your surgery the nerve involvement causing the pain will eventually resolve itself.