After a traumatic build up of weeks and several last minute emergencies taking precedence over my operation I was finally taken through to theatre at 4.30pm on Tuesday - been waiting from 7.30 and postponed by a week too.
The op went well - almost no bleeding the locum surgeon explained - just
A very swollen mo
sorry in using iPhone and cannot get this to work for this site as ads keep blocking the window. Anyway I experienced what I consider up be normal and expected amounts of pain all day on Wednesday - escalated at night after eating a light meal and I thought it must be gastritis - which I do suffer from sometimes.
Today I woke a lot better - apart from a huge mouth ulcer under my top lip - which looks like someone's thumped me in the mouth- presumably where the overworked anaesthetist put a tube.
Since the op 2 days ago I'd been getting spasms of excruciating pain on and off - like cramp - just under my ribs. I'm terribly swollen and bloated and my pee is very slow despite drinking lots - however my four incisions are very neat with no sign of bleeding or infection.
After eating a light meal tonight the pain in my upper abdomen intensified to the point I could barely move without help. I'm in bed but can't get comfy and moving at all is like a kind of hell. I have rheumatoid arthritis so am used to pain and taking Tramadol slow release - they gave me Oramorph three times in hospital because I can't take NSAIDs which aggravate gastritis. I came home next morning and am not expected to go back - stiches are disolvable.
So what point should I go and see the GP or is this sharp and severe upper abdominal pain still quite normal in the 48 hours after surgery? Worried because it's Friday tomorrow and I really don't want to bother hospital staff as they will just think I'm being a hypochondriac.
Dear tumtum ,
i can't say if it's the same , but about 3 days post op I also got awful pain under right ribs . The pain got worse and worse . I had tramadol , codine , paracetomol and oromorph at home , but I couldn't control the pain . I hung on about 12 more hours as I had an appointment with my consultant to check on jaundice . So I went back to the hospital and as soon as they took my bp and heart rate they re admitted me for 3 days . I'm glad they did as it was only IV morphine that controlled the pain . Scans and X-rays showed little , but the consultant said it was either a post op " collection " or I was bleeding in to the muscles .
If the pain is really bad , then it's not what you should be getting just off surgery . To try and avoid a& e delays , I'd ring up the ward you were on and speak to them . Hope some of this helps . You have my sympathys , as I found this pain worse than biliary colic or even accute colongitus
Thanks so much for replies. I went to GP about the pains but also because I have the most enormous mouth ulcer just inside my upper lip - presumably from the anaesthetist being a bit careless when inserting tube to keep my throat clear. GP gave me hydrocortisone tablets to hold against it until it bursts - yiuck! He says tummy pain is probably constipation from the drugs I'm on and trauma to my body. So on sachets with water to help as he feels I don't have infection - not yet anyway as my temperature was only mildly raised. Thanks for all your help.
Just to update. The pain in navel worsened over the day and by evening I found a load of disgusting goo gushing everywhere. Went to A&E and luckily locum surgeon who performed the op was on call so he came and gave me the most excruciating clean up with no anaesthetic as he had to work quickly to stop it spreading further so no time for entinox. Said unfortunately it had spread into surrounding tissue so I'm on Flucoxicillin and see him again tomorrow morning to put new dressing and clean up more. The antibiotic does seem to have helped already and my huge mouth ulcer has burst and swollen face gone down but still very sore in tummy. He did say very large gallstone to blame but as they had two recent ultrasound scans of it I'm unsure whey they didn't anticipate this problem? He then blamed steroids and RA for this unusually severe tissue infection. It was a pretty traumatic and painful experience as he went right into my belly with scissors and long prong to evict all the goo. I felt it was a bit primitive!
Good grief. It wasn't constipation then. I don't like to wind people up but I do think you deserve an explanation. I hope the Flucoxicillin does the job. So sorry for your discomfort and worry.