Skyler Health Lookback: 5 Must-Reads for Post-Surgery Pain Management
Recovering from surgical procedures can look different for everyone and depends heavily on the surgery that you’re undergoing. Most post-surgical procedures require some mix of rest, care, pain management and follow-up with doctors and/or care teams.
Understanding what surgical recovery will entail can be beneficial in circumventing opioid and benzodiazepine (benzo) abuse. It’s important to be knowledgeable about what you and your body will need for a seamless recovery.
Take a look at these Skyler Health blog posts that can better inform and prepare you to navigate the surgical recovery process.
You may experience varying degrees of pain following a surgical procedure, and it’s important to know and understand your pain. “Pain Catastrophizing vs. Actual Pain: The Psychology of Pain” provides an overview of pain catastrophizing, how to treat it and the power of knowing your pain.
2 Caution on Overusing Pain Medications
Medications are commonly prescribed to manage acute pain immediately post-surgery. Unfortunately, medication dependency can arise if a patient isn’t given a proper plan for tapering their opioid or benzo use after undergoing surgical procedures. Read about five signs to watch out for if you may be taking too many pain medications and what to do if you’re concerned.
3 How to Recognize Drug Addiction
If you’ve never taken pain medications prior to undergoing surgery, you may be unaware of how frequently you should be taking meds during recovery. Over-prescribed pain meds from a doctor can lead to addiction. Learn the six signs that could indicate you may be developing an additive relationship to a substance.
4 Medication-Free Ways to Cope with Pain
If taking medications isn’t a viable or accessible option to manage pain that may linger after surgical procedures, there are alternative options available to coping with that pain. This blog post, “10 Medication-Free Ways to Cope with Chronic Pain,” lists pain management options that could be useful in your recovery process.
5 Coping with Delayed Elective Surgeries
Millions of elective surgeries have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and, as a result, many patients have been left to endure chronic pain and emotional distress. Peruse four ways to cope with the pain and mental anguish that could be exacerbated due to delayed elective surgeries.
Be sure to visit us at Skyler Health, where we empower people to prevent and stop anxiety, pain, or medication and substance abuse with professional, licensed, and vetted counselors that you can trust.
