On the day of your shoulder surgery, you may be offered regional anesthesia, also known as an interscalene block, to help with post-op pain control. The block will be administered prior to your operation, and while it can help with pain control after the procedure, it does carry a small risk of complications, which will be discussed by your care team prior to making a decision on whether or not to proceed with the block.
After the Procedure
After your surgery is complete, you’ll be taken to a recovery room where your care team will walk you through the basics of your recovery, including on how to manage pain. Since no two people or surgeries are exactly the same, there’s no perfect playbook for managing pain, but you want to start to learn the signs that it’s time to make your pain medications. You want to take your medication before pain intensifies, but you don’t want to be taking medications all the time in an effort to completely drown out pain. Pain medications become less effective when you do this, and there is a greater risk of dependency and overdose.
You want your pain to be manageable, and you want to get used to at least a mild level of discomfort. This will fade as time goes on and healing takes place, but you also need to eventually wean yourself off of painkillers, and if you are constantly trying to completely drown out your pain, you’ll be in for a rude awakening when your prescription runs out. Get used to a little discomfort, manage it appropriately, and start to taper off your medications as your prescription starts to reach its end.
Contact Dr. Holloway
It’s not always easy to manage pain after an operation, but we want to do everything we can to ensure your journey to recovery is as comfortable and non-habit forming as possible. If you have questions or concerns at any point in the process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team. For more information, reach out to Dr. Holloway’s team today.
