Before having Achilles’ tendon surgery, I had spoken to a colleague who tore his and had the older, open surgery a few years back. He told me to do the following:
- Take stool softeners with my pain meds, he didn’t and regretted it (he said that pain was worse than the surgery!)
- Start taking pain meds before the nerve block wears off, otherwise you’ll be playing catch up.
- He also recommended some mobility and rehab stuff, but more on that later.
When I arrived home, I enjoyed a nice big meal and fired up my CZ. (Comfort zone: any sort of super comfortable, relaxing setting. Think tv, blankets, food/drink nearby, limited commitments) I went to sleep that evening with my soft cast for the first time, it wasn’t bad to sleep in, my leg was still numb and no pain at this point!
The following day (1 day post surgery) I enjoyed a whole lot more CZ time, and started taking my pain meds (and stool softeners!). They prescribed me Percocet for pain and a nausea medicine. I took the Percocet with food, and never needed the nausea meds. I was lucky, the Percocet pills didn’t have any real effect on me that was noticeable – I wasn’t sleepy or loopy.
Finally after 36 hours, the nerve block wore off. What a way to start day 2! It was 4am, I scarfed down some crackers and took a pain pill – it helped after about 30 min and I fell back asleep.
The rest of day 2 was moderately painful, but the pain pills helped a lot and their ability to reduce pain was the only effect I could notice – no side effects for me. Took one last pain pill at 10pm and went to bed, day 2 over.
I woke up with much less pain on day 3, which was a Sunday. Didn’t feel the need for a pain pill, it still hurt, but I could tell it was getting better. At this point I was done with the pain pills and the pain! Not too bad. Just a lot of laying around, CZ’ing…
Here’s the timeline:
Thurs – surgery, home by 7pm
Fri – nerve block still working, started pain meds but no pain
Sat – pain all day, but manageable with pain meds
Sun – minimal pain, didn’t need pain meds
Mon onward – no more surgical pain!
adamv1984 