Epidural Or Morphine Drip For After Surgery?

None would be my choice.
I was put on a morphine drip for a day and then had morphine on a pca pump which I chose not to use, and had no pain increase without the morphine proving what I said to my surgeon - don't give me morphine it doesn't help with pain and only serves to make me sick.
Evidently he didn't believe me and did things his own way thus making life worse for me - try throwing up after you have had your stomach muscles cut, pulled, stretched, stitched and stapled...............

Thankyou kia_breizzze

that has been my experience with morphine as well - nausea and vomiting. They are telling me that if they use an epidural for the first 3 days I will most likely experience no pain at all during that time and very unlikely any nausea as well. Sounds too good to be true - so I was wondering if anyone can confirm it - call me skeptical, but I can't help thinking there must be some trade-off or why don't they do it routinely.

I just got out of the hospital. I had morphine on request and requested it about 4 times, in the 2 days I was in the hospital...Usually in the evening. It helped tremendously. No side effects at all. I had a vaginal hysterectomy, keeping my ovaries and tubes. So far so good. No pain, just swelling. So, I have to recommend morphine, but of course, I didn't have a choice of epidural, but I probably wouldn't of taken that. Hope this helps.

I had a morphine pump and loved it! I could administer the morphine myself every 10 minutes if I needed it. I liked not having to ask for pain meds all the time. In the 3 days I was in the hospital I used the pump maybe 6-7 times, most of which was the first day. I had a partial hysterectomy.

Hey ~ just wanted to let you know that my mom had a total hyst last week and had the mini-spinal. Going into the surgery she wasn't going to do it, but once she found out more about it she did have it. She said it was the best thing she could've done. Her roommate had morphine and was very uncomfortable after while my mom was pain-free and relaxed. Good luck to you!!

Had my operation 6 weeks ago. I went for an epidural and would recommend it strongly. I came out of recovery quickly and was very clear headed - not nauseus at all. The Dr. Left the epidural in for 48 hours and it made a huge difference in my ability to get up and moving and in my clearheadedness....No drugs making me drowsy etc. So I could ask the questions I needed to ask and make informed decisions. The epi was set up just like the morphine drips are in that I could push it when I needed more. By the time the 48 hours was up I was okay on just ibuprofen...Compared to other patients there who had the general and then the morphine drip I was way ahead. With not nausea, I felt like drinking and eating which helped a lot too.

I am having one in September...has anyone had an epidural for their surgery without general...I had an allergic reaction last time with the anesthetic and surgery and don't want to go through that...I am having everything removed...?

I just had a vaginal hysterectomy. It was suggested to me to get an epiderial if they ended up having to cut me open. They did not have to do that. I had the morphine pump, hitting a button when I needed a dose. I guess I could have hit the button once every 6 min with no chance of OD. I only had to hit it twice in a one hour time frame. I had to have the IV disconnected that night for fear of sleep walking and did rather well with out anything. I was on oral pain meds the morning with the exception of two shots in the hip for back pain. If morphine makes you ill, I would suggest telling them up front and have them give you something else. My Dr asked me about the types of pain meds that work for me and make me sick. The last thing he wanted was me throwing up after surgery.
Best of luck
God Bless
Traene

My daughter is having a spinal op soon. I was told that the best time to use the morphine pump is when the pain relief is wearing off and that way the morphine will prevent the worst of the pain. My husband on the other hand told my daughter to use the morphine pump only when the pain is at its worst - what is the best advice in your opinions?

I had a TLH and was under general anesthesia for the surgery and placed on a pca pump - Morphine. I was in the hospital overnight and only used the Morphine drip as needed. I was very sedated already from the surgery but at times when the pain kicked in the pca was a blessing. However, they also place a monitor on you to record your oxygen level in your blood system because Morphine can cause shallow breathing. It beeps if you are breathing to shallow - especially when you are exhausted. but i was only in the hospital overnight - had vaginal assistant hyster kept ovaries - and also had a lymph node removed from my breast. Its been three weeks and i feel great. Minimal pain- walking daily. No side affects from the medicine (other than it made me sleepy) no vomiting or nausea. I would recommend it BUT you have to tell your anestheologist whether or not you have had sensitivity symptoms in prior surgerys or to medications in general. That way they can guage what to give you during your surgery. Hope this helps.

I had a total hysterectomy on sept first and it was
an abdominal hysterectomy because I had a cyst on my
ovary. My surgery went really good, but I was given
a morphine pump after my surgery and I was told that
I could not overdose on it because it would only work
every fifteen minutes. I only remember pushing the
pump twice, but I was still very groggy from the
surgery so I went to sleep and since I was not on a
regular surgical floor, I was not being monitored by
and machines. My mom and my son were in the room with me
and noticed that I was making gurgling sounds in my sleep, however it wasn't until my daughter arrived and
since she had seen her husband overdose on something,
she knew that I was in trouble. She immediately went
to get a nurse and they had to call a code to get
my breathing started again. So I would not recommend
a morphine pump unless you are being closely monitored
by the hospital staff.

I'm not sure if this will be helpful or not but I had a morphine pca for a total hysterectomy a number of years ago. I was happy that I would be using a pca as it is quite annoying having to ask the nurses for pain releif only to be forgotten... long story short, the pca had a knot in it which mean that I didn't recieve any pain relief after surgery and the nurses thought I was a complete wimp cos I kept pressing it. Of course when you press it records that you have had some. This meant that the morphine collected in the tube and if for some reason it had become untied I would have recieved a massive dose of morphine. So my biggest advice no matter what you have is to get someone to check that it has no knots in the line