Asked to provide own painkillers!

I had spinal surgery and actually took my own paracetamol/ibuprofen after what I've read on here!! have been on here too long and read stuff about pain relief in hospital so made sure I had it with me
Wasn't given anything else, had a couple of my own paracetamol

This happened to me after an emergency section - DH kicked up a fuss otherwise I was somehow supposed to get an appointment at my GP, get there and ask for a prescription all whilst recovering and with a newborn. Bet it doesn’t happen to men after abdominal surgery.

I'm pretty shocked by this. Had DS almost two years ago (also in a large northern hospital) and was discharged with 10 days worth of dihydrocodeine after my EMCS. I definitely needed them for the first few days too, no way paracetamol or ibuprofen would have been enough.

In fact you should be up and about ASAP.

Definitely, but refusing pain relief is part of what stops people being up and about, so it doesn't even make sense from a safety point of view.

No problems OP - just you tube how to do an epidural . You will be fine. Go down to the local dodgy drug dealer and score yourself some morphine.
You will be fine looking after this new tiny human being and yourself.
Sorry to be fascicious but that is ridiculous!
💐

We provided the pain relief for my Dad's hip replacement last year. Good job as the ward rounds were constantly delayed. They prescribed anything needed on top of OTC medication.

It is shit to have to provide your own and ridiculous.

If it helps you, my experiences are one EMCS I was fine with only paracetamol and ibuprofen until I got an infection, I had to nag for a dose of oramorph but I did get it and felt fine after the actual infection was dealt with.
With my ELCS I was fine with only paracetamol and ibuprofen after surgery.

Maybe you'll have to provide the scalpel as well...?

When I gave birth, baby went to NICU and I missed all the drug rounds. They were horrified I’d been taking paracetamol but only offered codeine.

When I had a much more minor outpatient surgery recently I had fentanyl, oramorph, and was sent home with dihydrocodeine. I also had a proper check up post op, when my post birth checks were woeful and left me with an infected episiotomy (despite following every instruction to the letter).

Incidentally, it wasn't the doctors who refused pain relief, they were happy to prescribe it. It was the midwives who refused to actually let the patients have it. It was always 'we'll wait an hour and see if you still feel you need it'. Then in an hour 'we'll wait another hour'.

I think this is more to do with individual needs not necessarily tallying well with the drug round. My 5yo was taken back into hospital after a tonsillectomy a couple of years ago. The dr forgot to write up ibuprofen for him so he waited some ridiculous number of hours after the paracetamol started to wane to get some brufen. We are talking maybe 3-4 hours of a child crying in pain because it was night time and they couldn’t find a dr to prescribe. So I would actually always take paracetamol and ibuprofen with me, just so I’m not at the mercy of busy people.

I had another surgery just a few months after having a c section. It was a much smaller surgery and I was constantly offered pain relief, which I declined, as I really didn't need it. And I was discharged from hospital with a few heavy duty painkillers 'just in case'. After my cs I had to plead for pain relief, and was told I didn't need it and paracetamol should be sufficient. Couldn't even get ibuprofen.

If paracetamol is all you need, why do they offer stronger pain relief after other surgeries?

I can’t believe this is happening in nhs hospitals. We don’t send women home with paracetamol but we give it out with ibuprofen and morphine on the ward. Diclofenac is give after the c/s and one more the next day. I think it’s appalling to open up somebody’s abdomen and expect paracetamol to be enough! Plus they’re expected to look after a newborn! There’s no other operation where you’d be given a baby to look after immediately afterwards. I think you need to write to the chief executive and your MP about this.

@jessstan1
I had an elective c-section but had no choice as whether or not to have one. It just meant it was planned in advance unlike my first one which was an emergency section (turned out ending up needing to come out early, on the day I had an appointment when they were going to book it in as an elective 🙄) . I could not give birth naturally without risking both mine and the babies health.

As I take a lot of medication including pain relief everyday I was told to bring my usual meds in with me. My prescription was also on my file but I was told to ask for additional pain relief on top of this if I needed it. I did with my emergency section but not with the elective one which frankly was a breeze in comparison.
I have had the same request re meds and pain relief when I had a procedure on my hip.

Both my DH and I have had operations recently. We were told to get our own paracetamol or ibuprofen on discharge. We didn’t have any, apart from the general anaesthetic, in hospital. But we were both in as day patients. Maybe that was the difference.

I had a scheduled C section because my baby was breech. I could have opted to deliver her naturally but it would have been dangerous for us. Should I have put up with crap pain relief for that?

(actually that last bit is a rhetorical q as I was given only ibuprofen and paracetamol too, and was frequently in pain - got a bit of oromorph while in the hospital but I had to actually as for it and then it was hit and miss whether anybody ever brought it to me. Maybe I should have supplied my own, it would have been more efficient.)

They don’t tend to encourage stronger due to the potential to breastfeed so I imagine being your owns cost saving more than anything. I was provided pain relief on site (including dyhydracodine while ebf) but was told to pick up paracetamol on my way home as they wouldn’t be able to prescribe any, totally fine I got DP to pick up a few boxes.

That’s ridiculous. I recently had c section and was offered paracetamol and ibuprofen. I had to ask a number of times for the stronger stuff, declofen and morphine.

@Insertdeadcatsnamehere according to NICE guidance you should be offered pain relief in hospital. See attached. Definitely challenge this nonsense.

@SockQueen pretty much summed up what I was going to say.
I had an emergency c-section recently. I was given Paracetamol, Ibuprofen and Morphine on the post-natal ward. On discharge, I was given 7 x Dihydrocodeine tablets and asked to buy my own Paracetamol and Ibuprofen which was fine by me. I am quite surprised you need to provide it as an inpatient.

Incidentally, Dihydrocodeine is prescribed over Codeine if the patient is breastfeeding as Codeine is contra-indicated in lactation.
I did unfortunately have an issue with a 111 GP when I needed some more Dihydrocodeine. She proceeded to tell me that I shouldn't be using it even though I had been discharged on it by the obstetrics team and the anaesthetist. I am a clinical pharmacist so offered to email her links to specialist resources we use for drugs in lactation which backed up its use. She was not willing to accept the evidence I offered but then prescribed me 6 tablets. I can't fathom why she felt 6 tablets were ok considering her very strong 'feelings' towards them!
Thankfully I didn't need the full 6 tablets but pain from wind and constipation on top of the pain from the wound had been quite severe!

I had orthopaedic surgery with paracetamol and ibuprofen afterwards for the recovery. They told me they wouldn’t prescribe it after I left hospital because it was something ridiculous like £7 for them to buy a packet but 30p for me to buy it.

Are you sure it's for immediately afterwards? Our trust tells us to have paracetamol at home/with us for when in labour and for when discharged.

They gave me paracetamol after my vaginal birth last year (which was fine). From my experience they want you on as few painkillers as possible, especially if you breastfeed. I've also taken paracetamol + codeine in the past after another operation and it made me incredibly spaced out. I certainly wouldn't want to be looking after a newborn on them.

I'd see how you get on with paracetamol immediately after the birth before you ask for anything stronger, but by all means ask if you're struggling.

This is just another case of the Americanisation (aka. privatisation) of healthcare here in the UK. Probably standard practice in the States (either that or they charge you through the roof for painkillers). Absolutely abhorrent that they should ask you to use OTC painkillers for major surgery but just another step in the plan to privatise and monetise healthcare. Make no mistake, this will become much more commonplace once the trade deals and no-deal Brexit have gone through.