Relieving mastectomy pain without opioids
Because of the opioid epidemic in this country the medical community has vigorously worked to find other treatments and medications to give patients, so they do not have pain after surgery. As we work tirelessly to eliminate opioids we discovered treatments to eliminate discomfort after major surgery. This was done with a combination of medications and drugs that are not opioids to be given during surgery and post operatively. These medications can be used today to help decrease or eliminate the pain following a mastectomy surgery.
Same-Day Mastectomy Surgery
Do you realize that in this day and age I can do a Modified Radical Mastectomy for advanced breast cancer and the patient will go home totally pain free for two or three days due to the medications I give during surgery, and even at day two or three when some discomfort does occur, when the medications wear off, its well-handled with Tylenol. We have developed long acting Novocain which a breast surgeon can inject at the time of surgery so that there is no pain post operatively for many days.
Case in point the other day after a very advanced mastectomy for a very large cancer the patient went home about 1.5 hours after surgery with no pain and called the office the next morning, she certainly wasn’t a believer, and asked my nurse why she didn’t have any pain at all. She didn’t even have to take any Tylenol after surgery. Her girlfriend’s relatives told her she will be in incredible pain after this major operation, but she was astonished that she had no pain whatsoever. My nurse reassured her and told her that with these long acting Novocain’s she will be pain free for the next two or three days and sure enough after the third day after the Novocain wore off she was in some discomfort which was well handled with Tylenol.
Not only do these advances allow the patient not to have any pain post operatively but also allows to the patient to go home immediately after surgery and not be in the hospital for a number of days. In addition to the long acting Novocain’s we have developed in the medical community medications to take if there is by chance any discomfort that are not opioids and you don’t get sick afterwards. With all of these medical advances in pain free major surgery, not only in breast surgery, but in other surgeries it would be good to have a discussion with your surgeon prior to any surgery to ensure that he/she will use these modern pain free methods to ensure more rapid recovery and eliminate or make a much shorter hospital stay. This is such an exciting field of medicine that has developed that its certainly worth the time of the surgeons and patients to learn about these advances.