First time sitting up

[suzyjay]

I will be having surgery Jan 22 and fused to L4. I am concerned about the first time sitting up. Is it very painful? I am also worried if the pain medicine makes me sick and throw up can I pop my sitches?

Sue

[LindaRacine]

Hi...

Sitting up the first time was fairly painful for me.

Yes, if you throw up, I assume that you could pop a stitch. But, you may not have any external stitches anyway. If you've had nausea from pain medications in the past, be sure that your surgeon and the anesthesiologist know about it. They can give you alternative pain drugs, or anti-nausea medication to help.

Regards,
Linda

[JoAnn5]

I have trouble with anesthesia making me sick too... even the gas the dentist uses has me bent over in his parking lot...lol.... So before i had surgery i mentioned it to the anesthesiologist and he suggested a neat little patch.. can't remember what they call it... they put right behind your ear... and no nausea!!! had one for each of the 3 surgeries. If someone touches it with their bare hands, tho, it can cause them to have terrible migraine.. so make sure u tell your nurse u have it afterwards.

[CurvySAT05]

The patch that I have heard of works for motion sickness and also for post anesthesia nausea/vomiting. You put it on the night before surgery. It is called Transderm-Scop. At the doctors office that I work at, the patients say that it works really well.

[HGD24]

Sitting up for me wasn't really painful, but more uncomfortable, but I think that the morphine and epidural helped keep pain at a minimum. I was kept in bed for 4 days before I sat up. I had two nurses logroll me to my left side then they sat me up...I didn't do any of the work, they did it all. From there, they stood me up and then walked me around my bed and into a chair. After that, I was getting out of bed 2-3 times a day, sometimes with just the help of my husband.

I vomitted a couple of times immediately following surgery and just recall the nurse grabbing the little plastic bowl and having me turn my head to the side. The pain meds did not make me sick, but if you have experienced that in the past, be sure to let your doctors know.

[sweetness514]

I had three surgeries and vomitted after only one, but that was partly b/c I ate pretty late the night before. Also, if you do get nautious easily you can tell the staff before and after, and they can give you meds like Gravol(after surgery) to control that.

I had a lot of pain sitting up the first time, but they help you and having had an epidural cathetar this last surgery I did notice the difference in having a lot less pain than without one for my first surgery.

[suzyjay]

I had an epidural when I had a c-section for my daughter. After the delivery for about 1/2 hour I had terrible tremors that shook my whole body. The nurse told me that was normal after epidurals. If this happens again it will be very painful with such a big incision and all that shaking. Has anyone experience this?

[sweetness514]

The epidural cathetar was somewhat a scary experience for me as well, b/c being the first time I had it, I didn't know that my whole body being numb and tingling sensations were normal, for at least 3-4 days post op. When I woke up I was shaking uncontrollably b/c I was freezing, and that was also the first time it happened and not fun to go through either. I still prefer going through those side effects instead of the excruciating pain I went though with my first surgery, when I didn't have the epidural.

[dawney]

I had a lot of trouble sitting up after surgery. I still do. I was fused to the sacrum, not sure if that is a difference. I was most comfortable laying on my side.