I’ve had quite a few surgeries to date. Generally, when I go home, I go off all pain medications straight away. I did the same with the total knee replacement (TKR) I had in January. But turns out, that’s not the way they do it! Shortly after being free and clear of the pain medication, I was told by the physical therapists that I needed to stay on the medication for the therapy to work. I was like, “Huh? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
I got with the program and went back on my medication as suggested. I then went off it a few more times just to be told it was premature and that I needed to go back on the medication. They had put me on oxycodone and hydrocodone and that stuff is just not to be played with! It’s highly addictive and just the type of opioid medication that has lead many to become addicts, even though that clearly was not their intention, at the outset. I was leery! But I got through it! I wish someone had explained this part of the process to me, in advance.
Clearly my modus operandi, of getting off pain medications ASAP, did not work in this arena. I too had to learn to be more patient. I had to go against what I thought was the best practice. In essence, I had to learn a new trick, and learn I did.
I hope you too are not too rigid to learn new things, when life necessitates it. I hope I remember this lesson, when I face total knee replacement 2 head on!
All my best!
Lisa J Lafave, PhD, MBA, ACC, BCC
CEO & Founder of Coaching Rocks, LLC
The Wellness Coach form Building Better Bodies Rocks
A Single Mom By Choice Raising Surrogacy Twin Boys
Written in My Little Brick in University Heights, Ohio
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