NEW HERE - ADVICE PLEASE

[cmb365]

Hi there,

I'm grateful I found this forum group. It's been difficult to find any real advice about pain management.

My mother recently underwent Laparoscopic Abdominoperineal Resection, and is in her second week of recovery. She is experiencing great pain in her lower back on the right side. Her pain is the strongestt during the mornings until she has a BM. We are following the recommended diet, and making sure she gets some movement every few hours but the pain isn't going away. She has been prescribed hydrocodone but it's also not very effective.

I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations for back pain management? Any stretches? I have tried a heating pad on a low setting that seems to help at times.

[NHMike]

I had considerable pain after surgery in my lower back. It might have been on the right side. I felt this in the recovery room and I was still under the effect of painkillers during surgery. It was odd because I had several holes in my body and they weren't causing any pain. So I asked for a folded towel and that they put it under the small of my back (because I couldn't really move) and that solved that problem. The operating room table was flat and I have an old back injury and being on a flat surface for a long period of time causes me pain.

That she has the pain on the right side has me wondering if she has an ileostomy. I sometimes get pain in that area but more to the front of the body and it's due scar tissue casing small bowel obstructions. But that wouldn't show up for six months after surgery. It sounds like there is some kind of obstruction or slowness in things going through with relief once something passes, either solid or gas.

I guess what I'm trying to say is to see if you can figure out the cause of the pain and see if there's a way to get around it. I tend to use painkillers as a last resort as they can mask problems. They are convenient to get around a short-term problem and sometimes it's just the body healing. As always, she should work with her surgeon on figuring this out.