diep flap surgery for chronic pain sufferer

LindaMH

In 2007, i had a bi-lat mastectomy, chemo and radiation. I want to have reconstruction surgery and have chosen the diep flap procedure. BUT.... I have huge fears on the pain after surgery. I have Fibromyalgia, Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis and chronic pain. I currently take oxycodone (15 mg 3x per day) and MS Contin (60 mg 2x per day) to help manage my pain. I still hurt all of the time. My fear is HOW will I be able to manage the additional pain of surgery? Can you tell me what a surgeon does in a case such as mine? If i try to taper or stop my pain management meds prior to surgery then i wont be able ro fiunction day by day. I NEED the diep flap surgery to feel whole again, but im scared of the added pain!

Thanks!

Moderators

BUMP for Linda -- can any members weigh in here??

Welcome Linda! We hope you have some good responses. You may also want to try posting your message on our Pain forum to see if someone there has some advice.

We hope this helps!

--The Mods

ChiSandy

You might want to take off some time before surgery, so “functioning day to day” won’t be as much of an issue. Perhaps during this time, under medical supervision, you might want to gradually reduce both your activity AND your pain-med dosage. Then post-op, you will awaken with lower blood levels of the opioids so that post-op pain control dosages will be more effective. There are also other non-opioid pain relievers such as Tramadol, Toradol (a very strong NSAID sometimes used for patients who must continue to retain as much of their critical faculties as possible post-op), and Lyrica or Neurontin (which were originally used as anti-seizure meds but were discovered off-label to block nerve pain and enhance the action of other pain relievers--which is now their most common use), as well as icing.