Pain medication
after surgery

Pain after surgery may require strong pain relief medication (analgesia).

The problem is that in general the stronger the pain killer the more side effects you may experience.

You will receive a prescription for pain killers on discharge from the hospital. These do not all have to be taken. No pain means no medication needed.

If you know that you are either allergic or more commonly intolerant of a specific medication do not take it.

Typically we will prescribe an anti-inflammatory medication and paracetamol as a baseline. To this you add either a lower dose codeine based drug or in the initial period a strong opiate based drug.

The prescription should be based on individual tolerance of side effects. This means that although the prescription medications may work for one person they may not work for you.

For example codeine may make you drowsy, nauseated and constipated. Stronger drugs such as OxyContin will more frequently cause these symptoms and they may be more severe.

Anti nausea and ant constipation medications can be taken if needed. Sometimes the side-effects outweigh any benefit and you are better off stopping strong analgesia and using ice and rest to avoid discomfort.

For example

Celebrex 200mg twice daily – May cause gastric upset
Paracetamol 1 gram four times daily – Well tolerated but daily dose must be less than 4 grams.
Tylex 2 tablets 3 times daily (if taking this medication you will not take paracetamol as this contains paracetamol and codeine) – Codeine can cause commonly cause side effects such nausea, vomiting and constipation, skin itching or a rash.
Oxycontin /Targin /Palexia – Very commonly cause tiredness, constipation, nausea, vomiting and itchiness.

A good web resource is www.medicines.ie
Type in the name of your medicine in the search bar and it will show all the information on a drug including a table of side effects.