Your recovery is our priority. Here are the stages of monitoring you can expect and our advice for getting back to normal.
Close monitoring until you are fully awake
Continued monitoring and first steps out of bed
The essentials for going home on the same day
Pain measured on a scale from 0 to 10
Several complementary approaches combined
A system that lets you safely give yourself pain relief
Limiting pain after surgery is one of our priorities. We have medicines and techniques to relieve it. You may be offered a role both in measuring that pain and in controlling it yourself, using a device you operate with a button (patient-controlled analgesia).
Pain is common in the days following surgery. Controlling it is given particular attention throughout your care. Assessing and preventing post-operative pain, treating it, and picking up pain that persists are the key parts of managing it.
Assessing pain after surgery is simple and you can do it yourself. You just give your pain level a score between "0", no pain, and "10", the worst pain imaginable. Depending on the score, you can adjust your painkillers in line with what has been prescribed.
To prevent post-operative pain from setting in, painkillers are started very early around the time of surgery. To be effective, they must be continued regularly at home, as prescribed. Taking them routinely in the first days after surgery avoids episodes of severe pain. The type and quantity offered will depend on the procedure and on your pain level afterwards. Some people need more pain relief than others.
Despite treatment, episodes of severe pain can still occur. To deal with them, strong painkillers (morphine or equivalent) may have been prescribed for you. It is important to take them if pain persists despite the standard medicines. They are very effective. They can cause side effects such as nausea and constipation; specific treatments can be offered to prevent these.
Even with well-managed treatment, pain can persist for several weeks or months (chronic pain). To prevent it becoming long-term, spotting and treating very severe post-operative pain, or pain that persists in the first weeks, as early as possible is essential.
If this is the case, please get back in touch with the centre that treated you.
Anti-sickness medicines, rehydration
Multimodal pain relief, doses adjusted
Antihistamines, steroids, adrenaline if required