God-Awful Pain, Intercostal Nerves, Surgery, Hardly Any Meds. Please Help Me.?
Question by Kurdt: God-awful pain, intercostal nerves, surgery, hardly any meds. Please help me.?
[rewrite]July 8th last year I had a Pectus Excavatum repair and they basically shattered my sternum since it wasn’t formed right and put it back together so the pieces would grow together in the right shape. 2 weeks of being released from the hospital, my left lung collapses. They put in a chest tube, stayed in the hospital a week, after 2 weeks it collapses again, this time they treat with a V.A.T.S. surgery (video assisted thoracotomy surgery, or something to that effect) Stayed a week, got out for two weeks and the lung collapsed a third time and I switched doctors and got another chest tube.
I live in the very conservative state of Alabama, where they don’t like to give pain medicine (for “moral reasons” and also to avoid the malpractice law suits). I went back over and over and over to the doctor I switched to saying “hey man, I’ve been doing my rehab exercises and taking the anti-inflammatory and vitamins and acetaminophen, but this pain is terrible.” At first he gave me Darvocett, which was taken off of the market due to it causing heart arrhythmias. The pain has persisted and hurts me almost always. I kept going back and he would say “Well, we’re gonna try you on this new thing” or “well give the medicine some time to get in your system” On my 7th or 8th visit he finally sent me to an orthopedic doctor who then recommended me to a physical therapists and I went there around 8 weeks and they gave me some cyclobenzaprine, a very weak muscle relaxer.
I went to the ER several days ago because I thought my lung was collapsing again, it turned out to just be pain. Everyone else found the answer “Oh it is only the nerve pain” to be a sufficient answer. I disagree, but I don’t even know what to do. I still have the nerve pain. It is excruciating and awful and the doctors everywhere I go just seem to think that since it is only pain, that is ok. I’m a pretty tough cookie, but the amount of pain I am having and the long time I have had it for are starting to take a very high psychological toll. I can’t even sleep in late for the pain hurting. I am constantly shifting and flipping over to try to relieve any amount of pain. I get angered easily because I am losing/have lost sleep over this pain, not to mention that the pain makes me irritable and angry at anything I come into contact with.
I am 17 year old male, no history of drug abuse or addiction. I have gotten maybe about 10 Lortab from my grandmother in the past (she has a prescription), but I don’t want to ask her for more, because she needs them as well. My mother is a R.N. and again, has no history of drug abuse or any misdemeanors or anything. I really need narcotics, however weak to handle this. The 7.5 Lortab do help the pain and do not make me act “zany” or anything like that. How can I get some pain medicine from this doctor and show him how badly it is hurting? Any advice/tips or just anything would be helpful at this point. Thank you for the time.
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Best answer:
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Answer by Husker41
Wow. Your RN mother should be able to find a doctor who can help you with the pain. Ask her again, and tell her you really, really need help. And when you see the doc, don’t try to tough out the pain. Let him see how much it hurts.
Meanwhile, three regular-strength (500 mg) Tylenol may give you enough relief to let you sleep. Try it! But don’t repeat the triple-tablet dose for eight hours. Good luck.
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