Shoreline

Hi Mike, Why is it that you think 25% won't be enough. Surgical pain is so much more responsive to opiates than neuropathic pain that 25% sounds like a very generous increase. You also have to consider that your having the least invasive method possible to repair your miniscus that has the fastest recovery time, why think things wil be different for you? At the very most you might be uncomfy or even miserable for a couple days but that's kind of par fo the course for anyone having any surgical procedure.

Meds are used to make pain tolerable, not to eliminate it completely. Why wouldn't 25% be enough. Heck, I had 2 roots extracted, an abscess drained scraped and irrigated 2 days before thanksgiving and was given 4 vicodin a day for pain. Compared to the meds in my pump, that's about a .05% increase in overall pain meds but i was greatful to have that. Anything greater than a 25% increase over night probably wouldn't be safe and more than likely your doc is going to be safe given the minimally invasive surgery. There is no reason to think your surgical experience is going to be that different than anyone else that has a minimally invasive surgery.

Regardless of what I take for my spine, Tylenol still works for headaches, motrin stil works for most dental pain, I think there is a misconception that if you require large doses of opiates to control one type of pain you will require large doses to manaage any pain that might arise. That's simply not true nor will any harm come to you should they only be able to take the edge of your pain the first few days after surgery. That was my experience with every surgery I have ever had, from wisdonm teeth at 16 to a 6 level fusion revsision at 38, I have never been given anything stronger than 5mg percs for post op pain and I'm certainly not unusual as far as having survived post op pain where only the sligtest relief to make breathing tolerable was given.

Don't overthink the situation and trust your doc is going to manage your pain, we all have to. A promise of a 50% increase for 20 days doesn't gaurentee any greater pain relief, it's just a bigger number. My sugestion would be to wait untill you experience the pain before questioning your docs plan. You trust him enough to prescribe doses that would likely be toxic to an opiate naive person, so why not trust him to manage something as common as post op pain that has no risk involved outside of some discomfort.

Good luck, Dave