I had the pain pump, but my bowels are apparently very sensitive to narcotics. I think they gave me a post-op ileus--after both surgeries (you'd think I'd have learned after the first one). I stopped using them once I had the ileus and survived on Tylenol. I wish there was something stronger that didn't slow down our guts!

I have had 8 operations.  I always talk to my surgeon about pain management before the surgery.  I learned this the hard way after my first surgery and was put on the pain pump.  I would fall asleep and not push the button then I would wake up in the worst pain.  To this day, I refuse the pain pump!  After that surgery, I have always made sure to have a detailed talk with my surgeon and also talk to the nurses on the floor so we have an understanding.  I also communicate with my family regarding pain management so everyone is on the same page.

I had what would consider more than adequate pain
Meds right after surgery ,I had a morphine pump it was great but it was overkill the morphine would knock me out if I asked for it every time it was available and then out of nowhere they justtookitaway and put me on darvocet because my bowels were having trouble waking up ,big contrast

Its actually been 27 years ago right now.  I was in the hospital from Feb 3 to Mar 3 1988.  Lots have changed since that surgery.

I have suffered the same fate as you! my migraine/tension headaches started after my first hospitalization for a Crohns flare up in 1998 and have plagued me ever since. i do go through cyccles of a couple months where i don't have to go to the E.R. for relief. I have gone to numerous nuerologists at UCSF, Stanford and the Cleveland Clinic only to be told the only thing they can figure is that they are hereditary, ( my mom and dad both suffer from them but not to the degree i do). The two triggers I have been able to pin point over the years after trying food journals and numerous meds, botox injection, lidacaine injection, PT, etc is that stress and approaching storms bring on my headaches. I have finally found a pain specialist who had me try a new drug called Sumavel Dose Pro which is a needleless injection that i give myself and OMG let me tell you I have relief within 30 seconds!! The injection hurts like a MF but it's worth it if it keeps me out of the E.R.! I hope you can find some relief soon from your headaches!

wow, 23 years! that is amazing, congrats! i'm going on 13 1/2 years myself.

I had great pain management in 1991 at Rochester Methodist Hospital  after being evaluated at Mayo Clinic for total colectomy with one stage J Pouch.  Aftger coming home I took pain meds by mouth for a time and then that went to zero.  One word of caution, some narcotics have asprin or tylenol.   The asprin made me have an ulcer.  I like to avoid large dose asprin.

 

2-3 years seems a little long...did you mean weeks?

Had all 3 of my surgeries in 2008, and another one 3 months ago due to scar tissue attaching to my small intestines.  I have a 12 inch incision that they reopened every time.  For each surgery the pain lessened...maybe because the nerves get cut or your body tolerates the pain better.  You also get staples by default to close the incision.  For my last surgery I asked for stitches and glue and they said no problem, much smaller scar (1/8" wide line).  Standard procedure at the Cleveland Clinic now is a Dilaudid pump, then administered via IV when needed then Tylenol.   In 2008, it was Morphine pump, then via IV as needed and then oxycodone.  I found out I was allergic to morphone after the second surgery, switched to Dilaudid which worked great and I didn't have any negative side effects.  After my last surgery a nurse mentioned that if I ever need another surgery, ask for a Tylenol drip in your IV during surgery, you wake up pain free in recovery.  Something they studied in the past but stopped, but I guess it is making a comeback.

I am unable to take pain medication. I fought all my surgeries with Tylenol only! I do however insist on anesthesia but the recovery from it is horrible for me! I usually vomit non stop for 24 hours after waking up! I always say I can never do this again yet I always do! I've made it through all 3 surgeries to create my J pouch, as well as, a partial hysterectomy with Tylenol! It was difficult but makes me feel proud and as if I can overcome anything! 

With one exception, adequate pain management was not a problem after any of my surgeries. The exception was a supposedly-minor outpatient procedure to remove some poorly-healing scar tissue on my belly. (A leak had caused peritonitis three weeks after my first takedown, leading to emergency surgery, abscesses, and a temporary reversal of the j-pouch connection.) That operation left an open divot 10cm long, 3cm wide, >1cm deep near my belly button. Until the edges of it finally began to heal, I had to endure daily dressing changes during which I literally saw stars. I don't think any pain medication could have controlled that.

 

One interesting issue was side-effects. I developed an allergy to Dilaudid, which led to severe itching in the hospital.

Immediately after jpouch construction, my morphine drip was great.  I eventually transitioned to percocets and remained on that (2 pills every 4-6 hours) for about 2-3 years.  I eventually cut myself off and have had no pain. My doctor is incredible in creating the jpouch--worth everything I paid.  He has been masterful .I would like to hear from others about leaking pouches.

Forgot to mention, my surgeries were not done via keyhole surgery.  So I think this

may make quite a big difference in the amount of pain you're in when you first wake up.   

They did an epidural for the first surgery which worked fine.  I had morphine for the next two which was also fine and helped me sleep better.  I loved the Vicodin and had no problems getting off it.  Since my surgery was laparoscopic my pain was not bad.  My only issue is that i started getting migraines after the first surgery and have 5-6 migraines a month since my surgery in 2010.  Not sure if the epidural caused this and my doctors have not figured it out.

I had pain pump after BCIR surgery.  They always checked to see if I needed additional pain medicine.  I didn't use the pump very often and was off of it a few days ahead of schedule.  It became very difficult to sleep with nurses having to do things every two hours round the clock.  They recognized I was becoming anxious and was given the lowest does of Ativan which incredibly took the edge off for the remaining week of my 3 week hospitalization.  That helped more than anything.  HOWEVER, one day I had a nagging headache that became excruciating as time went on.  I had asked the day shift nurse for Tylenol.  She said, "nope, we only have narcotics." and gave me some Demerol.  That didn't  help a thing and my headache was horrible.  FINALLY, the night shift nurse called the doctor who got me two stupid Tylenols for a headache.  I thought, "Great, I'm in a hospital and I can't even get a Tylenol!"  It was a completely unnecessary day of pain, and I voiced my displeasure with this particular nurse, who didn't take the extra effort to call the doctor, in spite of my pain.  She was one that NEVER went above and beyond, like all the other nurses did during my stay.  Thank God, there was only one.

I had a morphine pump, used too much and ended up with a postsurgical ileus.  I later learned that overusing pain meds will impact on return of peristalsis and subject one to a postsurgical ileus.  If I had known this, and that I would have a NG tube forcibly and savagely inserted to stop the vomiting up of my gastric fluids, I would have been a little more carefull with the pain med usage and would have taken only enough to take the edge off.

I handled any pain with the surgeries quite well. Had a morphine pump and the nurses would tease me because I didn't use it very much. 

However, I developed a bad habit of stooping over to compensate for the tightness in my abdomen. That caused some pretty bad back pain. Also had an abscess following the take down... now that hurt! Emergency surgery took care of it pretty quick. 

I had to have an emergency op, when I came up from theatre I was in agony.  They had to find a doctor to give me pain relief.  I remember he came up to the ward (Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel) still wearing a dinner suit.  After that, I was okay.  This was back in the 1990s when the lovely Professor Williams was there.  I'll always be grateful for them saving my life.

Pain is very subjective-we all have different tolerances and post surgical outcomes.  It was the most painful experience to date of anything I've experienced (the surgeries), but the medical staff were compassionate and it was obviously survivable. 

I had  a morphine pump after surgery while still in the hospital it worked fine with no after effects.

6 years ago I had my colectomy and take down.  The Senior Doctor understood pain management, the Interns did not.  The Interns were more interested in addition to the medication then curing for my pain.  I resolved the issue while in the hospital.  However, younger Doctors do not seem to be learning the difference between pain management and addition issues.  

I had my first surgery (laparoscopic) complete colectomy, ileostomy, and Jpouch creation in August 2011. I was in the hospital for 4 days with dilaudid for first couple days then Percocet. As long as I managed the healing pain by taking the Percocet every 4 hours I was fine but there was one evening I over slept (didn't take pain med for 8 plus hours) and I was in a lot of pain. Took me all day to get comfortable. I was weaning off the meds after 10 days or so, I did not like the way I felt after too long being on them.  My takedown was in October 2011, was just different regarding painfulness, I wasn't on pain meds for too long just the feeling of having "to go" or figuring out when I had "to go" to the bathroom was just different/ different feeling & a little painful at times but all that has changed now that time has passed...Gas x was great for digestive pain and I drink smoothies with plain Greek yogurt w/ banana & blueberries
& honey that makes formed stool for me.

My wife was readily prescribed pain medication.  She had the J-Pouch with a temp ileo in January, Kidney stones in March, and the reversal / takedown in April/May.  Throughout the entire process, she was given any pain meds she wanted, and it was usually Vicodin and percocet. 

 

She developed an addiction to the medications and we spent another several thousand dollars in June/July to go through a detox program at the Coleman Institute (which I recommend if anyone is struggling with the same thing) to get her off of the pain medications.  She still struggles from time to time with cravings for narcotics after a couple of years, but recognizes now that it was an addiction, and is well enough that she's able to resist.  We still keep a couple on hand because she suffers with Migraines as well, and she's even able to take one as needed without too much worry about relapse.

 

Moral of the story, BE CAREFUL with pain meds.  They're awesome, but sometimes too awesome.

It seems like it wouldn't help, but I loaded meditation and mindfulness CDs and relaxation music onto my iPod and listened constantly. It actually helped and I was able to use half the meds and eventually, no meds.

Had enough pain meds available, however,  narcotics made me feel worse. I noticed the more I got up and walked or sat up in a chair and dealt with the pain, the better I started feeling.

Epidural first surgery, along with so many pain meds that I got emotionally loopy and angry ... I asked them to wean me off because I didn't want to get addicted to them after hearing horror stories of people's problems with Lortabs later on.  After the surgery, I rationed my lortabs so they'd stretch out later because I really wasn't in much pain.  Same goes with the second surgery although that one didn't hurt as much.

I wasn't sure which surgery to go by...the first surgery I had wonderful pain management and felt really good afterwards. The second surgery was awful from the moment I woke up until 2 days later when they switched me to a different pain medication (after my begging).

My surgery was in 1987 in Boston.  The pain was managed based on protocol at the time and that meant morphine shots given based on time and not based on pain.  I was in a lot of pain prior to the scheduled time.  I know that pain is managed much better today than it was in 1987.

My perm ileo surgery was almost three weeks ago, same hospital and surgeon as my total colectomy, j-pouch creation and takedown four years ago. All surgeries were laparoscopic So I'm very fortunate that I didn't have to deal with incision pain. I was on a Dilaudid pump for about three days, then Percocet for the remainder of my hospital stay. My pain was very well managed with this routine and I had it for everything except the takedown.  Mt. Sinai Hospital in NYC makes pain management a priority so that I could get up and move around. I felt very cared for while there.

I felt like my insides were on fire.  The first 7 days were torture.

I am sober and at first was uneasy being in the hospital and being on morphine, dilaudid and the pain medication I was sent home with. After my colectomy I came out of that surgery and was screaming with pain. I took what they gave as prescribed and when I felt like the pain was starting to subside I stopped taking the meds.

In addition to the surgeries associated with the colectomy I have had a number of surgeries for knees, Achilles tendon, and others and have always been provided with the proper pain medications. Pain medications are to help with the healing process. Avoiding them because they are a narcotic is really not helping with the healing.

My surgeries were in '86, so protocols might well have been different 'then.'  Plus, when the ball went through Bill Buckner's legs, there was a run on demerol, I think, in the entire hospital (Lahey Clinic, Burlington MA).  That said, I still recall that my pain was managed appropriately ... carefully charted, adjusted as needed, and slowly but methodically  ramped down.

After the colectomy they first put me on an epidural but had to take me off when I got a DVT, being on anticoagulants is dangerous with an epidural. They put me on a morphine machine where I could control my own dosage with a button push, obviously it was programmed to not let me press it too many times in a certain interval.

I had complications with my colectomy however the pain meds were sufficient.  After my take down I was in severe pain and I do not believe I received enough pain meds.

I have had 15 sergerys from 2011 to presant I allways try to limit taking pain meds for fear of becoming depedant I also do not like the way they make me feel hoping this was my last sergery 

I had an (partial?) epidural before my surgery so that my incision area would be numb, but I could still get up and walk. It was awesome! 

I felt I definitely had sufficient pain meds after my colectomy surgery, but not as much as I would have liked for my reversal surgery. (though, I obviously survived :-)

I'm really adverse to taking narcotics, though they were readily available post both surgeries.  I took as little as possible and dealt with the pain as best I could.