I’ve had an interesting relationship with drugs in my recovery. During my years of osteoarthritis I sampled a wide range of prescription pain killers and found them all wanting. The worst failed to control the pain and the best made the pain go away but made me feel lousy in other ways. To some extent my problem was I was being protected from potential opiate addiction by being given alternative and combination painkillers. When I finally got bad enough to be given pure opiates I was far enough down the path of psychological pain control that I did not need them for getting through life. See the pain page for how I took analgesics off the agenda for everyday use.
Post op pain is immense and I got to sample morphine – good for blocking pain but a rather muddy aftermath. After hospitalization my surgeon had a less fearful approach to pain management than the pre-op doctors so I was prescribed the wonderfully pure opium derivative oxycodone. In the absence of acetaminophen fillers, time release inhibition, and other impurities the true utility of this class of drugs emerged. After a couple of days I was comfortable unless I tried to move around so I didn’t need pain killers for everyday existence or to sleep. Instead I could be focused in their use and apply them as suggested by my surgeon as aides in getting through physical therapy.
Drugs and PT
Oxycodone became a vital supporting factor in the intensity of my physical therapy. It is spectacular stuff for driving through resistance but even more importantly it is excellent for integrating what would otherwise be painfully challenging hands-on sessions. Resistance, whether it is tightening muscles or sucking it up is not helpful in the healing process. Oxycodone allowed me to relax into the experience of deep manual PT and painful exercise without blocking the full extent of the input. Because the drug has side effects like it takes the edge off some kinds of mental processing and you become acclimated to whatever dose you are taking almost immediately, I did quite a few sessions without it. I’d pick and choose my days, going for the most intense hands-on sessions and challenging workouts. Opiates opened pathways of experience for me, laying down patterns of engagement that were highly beneficial. Another way of saying this is I could go full force into my painful PT without fear. They definitely can motivate – plus they have none of the nasty side effects of pain killers like beer such as weight gain or hangovers.
I know opiates have a bum rap because some people get lost consuming handfuls but used thoughtfully they are spectacular recovery aides. My personal take is that the high you get on opiates really can’t compare with the powerful natural flows your body can generate. I do understand that for some people those natural flows are elusive. If you are considering going down the fearless path of opiate consumption for recovery it makes sense to check in about your potential vulnerability.
I learned how to take opiates. I took them regularly for half a year which is a pretty long stint. My simple formula was to take the drug for sessions only, that is one part of the day (sometimes with multiple doses) and no more than three days in a row. I’d get blasted to the point where I could do all my intensely painful exercises and not notice, then chill out in the evening as my PT dose wore off and wake up the next morning feeling generally normal. If you need them to get to sleep then you’re dosing yourself for too wide of a range of time in the day and won’t get the clear out needed for the best effect the next day. Thing about the opiates is accommodation is immediate, If I took them two days in a row the second day required a higher dose and the third even more. I cut my pills in half to fine tune the dose. My inner compass generated resistance to downing them for three successive days and I’d have to push through resistance to do that dose. Even if I was not in the mood to take them I’d do so because I want to make the most of my physical therapy. They are positive in that regard, unambiguously. The big side effect for the careful user is constipation. No matter how fiber full my diet was I needed something else like stool softeners.
Supplements
Prescription drugs aren’t my only recovery aides – I have a shelf full of supplements. Taking pills you can’t feel in the hope they will subtly improve your life requires some level of faith. Less charitably it could be an act of superstition. Nonetheless I had to add it to the mix, just in case. Using my extensive industry experience as well as suggestions from my doctors (though not the surgeon) I designed a recovery supplementation program. In addition to some extra ABC’s and obvious ones like calcium and iron I added in some of the current hot supplements like fish based omega 3’s, Vitamin D3, Vitamin K-2, turmeric, holy basil and medicinal mushrooms. I also included some boutique items, DMAE and topical evening primrose for scar reduction, quercetin and picnogenol as nutritional antioxidants and useful highly bioavailable minerals like zinc picolinate and magnesium asporotate. I finished off my bottles of the osteo specific pills that failed to prevent my hip replacement such as glucosamine and chondronitin along with hyaluronic acid and the absurd animal cartilage products out of a sense of duty, never to purchase them again. Many of the supplements I consumed only post-surgery and now they are off the list. I’ll never know if they did any good but I’m happy with my recovery. Cheap insurance I’d say.
