What to do...pain meds make me sick!

[KajunKween]

It will be a few months before I have surgery, but I wanted to ask this well ahead of time. Does anyone have trouble with pain meds? If so, how have you managed pain?

I get very sick on all narcotic pain meds...so much that after I had tympanoplasty/ear drum reconstruction, I could not hold anything down and dry heaved so much that after three days I had to be called out a prescription for nausea (the one they give chemo patients) and I stopped taking the pain pills.

I'm worried about what this means for this surgery. It can't be good to be vomiting and dry heaving after this procedure. Any advice?

[Joy48]

I just had my sleeve done on monday 7/28 and I had it done in mexico the pain meds I received were through my IV the ones I was sent home with are 10mg tramadol,here's the thing I have very little pain ,I did not have major gas pain just a little discomfort around my incisions as long as you follow your pre-op instructions you should have a successful surgery.Good Luck!

[KajunKween]

Thanks! Tramadol is what the ENT gave me after my ear surgery....everything, and I mean everything, narcotic makes me sick (even the "synthetic").

This is why I'm worried about it.

[Kindle]

...

[acnichols]

I am a surgical nurse currently. Over the last year or so there have been some improvements made in surgical pain management. They now have IV Tylenol and IV Advil. These two drugs work great at our hospital with our doctors. If narcotics really make you sick as your surgeon about these medicines. To be honest though I'm not real sure which cases they use them for but I bet in your case they may be a giant help. I would certainly ask. The patients who get these drugs at our hospital rarely need narcotics. Or if they do need some it's usually not very much. Wish you luck!

[SethP]

I used liquid Tylenol for pain medication after my surgery. Many people are on nausea medication for the first couple of months already. I would speak to your surgical team before your surgery so they can look at options.

[Ema]

Discuss it with your doc before hand. There are alternatives that may be better. Good luck!

[Truffles]

I have issues with some pain medication and I took my own medication down to Mexico with me because I was unsure how I would react to the medication they would give me (never had it before). Sure enough, I was vomiting/dry heaving all night long. First thing in the morning, they checked with the doctor to make sure I could take the medication I brought with me and after that I was golden (I brought Tylenol 3's with me and I had no issues swallowing them).

Consult your doctor and have a pain management plan in place.

[terrora]

It will be a few months before I have surgery, but I wanted to ask this well ahead of time. Does anyone have trouble with pain meds? If so, how have you managed pain?

I get very sick on all narcotic pain meds...so much that after I had tympanoplasty/ear drum reconstruction, I could not hold anything down and dry heaved so much that after three days I had to be called out a prescription for nausea (the one they give chemo patients) and I stopped taking the pain pills.

I'm worried about what this means for this surgery. It can't be good to be vomiting and dry heaving after this procedure. Any advice?

I always take anti nausea meds about 10-15 minutes before narcotics. I get drowsy but not sick. It is harder to get rid of the nausea after taking the meds than preventing it. In Canada I take over the counter gravol. Ask your pharmacist what a good over the counter antinausea med is. If you are throwing up and cannot take your meds,,,sorry,,but put the nausea meds up your butt,,OR get rectal anti nausea meds. I am a palliative nurse in home and this works like a charm

[sociologist]

I am allergic to all pain meds except demerol. Discussed with my dr before surgery but didnt need any after surgery:-)

[Ella-Ann35]

I too cannot take pain meds. In the hospital I was given anti nauseous meds before the IV pain meds and that seemed to work okay. At home I took only liguid Tylenol and that was enough.

[Rerun4u2]

I can't take any narcotics either, but, that didn't stop them from giving them to me. I broke out from head to toe in hives, was so sick with dry heaves & upset that they knew I could not tolerate them. It lasted for two days & they wanted to send me home with a narc! I used Tylenol, meditation & visualization techniques.

[GoddessofSnowandIce]

I too become very ill from opioid medications. Torodol (essentially beefed up Ibuprofen with no opioid compounds) was my go to drug of choice. A lot of docs are wary of prescribing it for bariatric patients because it does increase the acidity of your stomach. However, my doc said with the sleeve it's okay if it's well-tolerated. If I had a gastric bypass, his answer would have been no. I take ibuprofen like candy cuz I have Lupus, so the doc felt comfortable with my tolerance level to give me it. I was too sick to use the morphine pump they gave me.

[KajunKween]

Thanks everyone! I'm going to talk to the surgeon, but I wanted to be informed on what my options could be.

[Toopie2Seater]

KajunKween, you need to inform your pre-op nurse and anesthesiologist the morning of surgery about your reaction to narcotics. They can give you two IV meds (decadron and phenergan) before surgery, as well as placing a scopalamine patch behind your ear - all of which will prevent nausea. During the surgery they can give you IV neostigmine and zofran, which will help with nausea in a different way. What acnichols said is also correct. IV tylenol would be a great option for you. Gastric sleeve surgery requires general anesthesia and IV narcotics are given while you are asleep. The brain still senses pain under anesthesia and reacts to it with an increased heart rate, blood pressure, or even fidgety movements, so IV fentanyl is usually given to treat the pain. When patients awake from surgery and have nausea, the fentanyl that was given is the likely culprit. The scopalamine patch can be worn for 24 hrs and will really help prevent nausea, but will make your mouth super dry. As another poster suggested, I would request phenergan rectal suppositories for at home, just in case. Lastly, the tramadol really helped because of the type of surgery you had. ENT surgeries produce a special kind of unrelenting nausea that is different from classic nausea after surgery. It's just wierd that way. Best wishes to you for a nausea free experience!