Managing Your Post Operative Pain
Effective pain management is an important part of modern surgical practice. We know that post operative pain management is key to the patient’s comfort and healing process. Pain is a personal, subjective experience that involves sensory, emotional and behavioral factors that are generally related to actual or potential tissue injury. Patient’s should expect that most surgical procedures come with some discomfort and pain. It is our goal to keep our patients as comfortable as possible. Our team of anesthesia providers meet with each patient and discuss the various options for anesthesia and pain management.
Assessing Your Pain
Members of the healthcare team will be assessing your level of pain from the time of admission until you receive our postoperative call at home. We will do our best to keep you informed and to prepare you for each step of the process. You will be asked often and repeatedly to rate your pain from a numerical scale. We use a standard scale so that each caregiver can assess your pain in the same way. The pain scale that you will provide will help us to adjust your therapy, as needed, for your comfort.
Treating Your Pain
Pain management is an important part of the healing process and providing you with excellent care. We often use a combination of different treatments to help make you comfortable. Nerve blocks are a treatment used prior to surgery to create a numbing effect for the surgical area. They are known to be very effective and last many hours after the actual procedure providing extended pain relief, well after you are home. We also use oral and intravenous medications to help treat your pain. Your anesthesiologist and surgeon will discuss the various options with you and ask for your input in establishing a pain treatment plan. We encourage you to freely ask questions and share any concerns or fears that you may have about your surgery or pain. Remember that information on pain management gives you the appropriate expectations and hence a smoother, more comfortable recovery.
