More pain med questions

[harlan]

I'm 9 days post-op now, and pain has been controlled very well with oxycodone (Percocet). I started at one-half the max dosage prescribed, and am now down to one-third the max.

My question is about arm and leg jerking that often occurs when I sleep. It "startles" me awake, although I usually fall right back asleep. This started out as only an occasional bother, but last night happened several times in an hour. I read another thread about vivid dreams, which I also have had, this morning to the point of thrashing about and causing pain in my sternum.

I'm guessing this related to oxycodone, since the only other meds I'm taking are aspirin and lipitor. However one week before surgery I started amiodarone, until I was discharged from the hospital.

Any thoughts? I will be seeing my GP for a followup next week, so of course will ask him.

Harlan aka "The Jerk"

 

[Dina]

Hi ,I think I know what you are referring to and I believe that you are right ,
that it is the opiate. It seems to interfere with your sleep cycle or something.
If It is almost like waking up in a panic,but not have any cardiac symptoms then it seems like I had this happen to me before too.If your pain isnt too
bad maybe you could start to wean youself down a bit.
Wishing you an uneventful night's sleep,Dina

 

[Marguerite53]

We all get a truck load of drugs. Everyone is affected differently by them and to different degrees. It takes a year for your body to truly flush them all out of your system. That isn't to say that these sensations will haunt you for a year...it's just that you will be experiencing something from them for quite awhile.

Definitely consult your physician with any concerns.

I wasn't one to wean myself off of the pain meds that soon. I wasn't in that much pain, but I truly felt that staying out of pain was helping me heal faster. But I really stopped needing the full dose, so what I did (with my physician's permission) was to use arthritis strength Tylenol to help me wean myself off of the heavy duty stuff. I believe my pain killer had tylenol in it. So I figured out the milligrams and then somehow (sorry it's been 2 years) used like half a dose of the oxycodone and half a dose of tylenol. I don't know what it was about the oxycodone (if that's even what it was) but it really helped so much more than the tylenol plain. So I did that silly mixture for awhile and it worked nicely....the doctor thought I was silly, but it just really worked well for me. Did that make any sense?

Also, many of us sleep in recliner chairs for awhile and find that to be helpful. If you don't have a recliner, perhaps you can round up all the extra pillows in the house and somehow brace yourself with them so that if you do continue to "startle" at least you won't move very far to cause any pain. Under your knees, under your arms, around all sides of you. Of course, you may feel very spoiled and never want to give up all that comfort!!

Hang in there. Even though it is bothersome, isn't it amazing that it doesn't hurt a lot more??

Best wishes.

Marguerite

 

[Bina]

Harlan, the night time "jerks" are quite common. It used to drive me NUTS, but it will smooth out soon enough.
I had them and wasn't taking any pain meds. I believe my nervous system was just traumatized from OHS.