If you want to explore non opioid pain management options for your next medical procedure, you’ve come to the right place.
Our goal with this initiative is to reduce the number of opioids that are prescribed to patients during and after surgery. Below, you’ll find tools to empower you to have a conversation with your doctor about the roll you want opioids to play in your healthcare.
We know everyone won’t be a good fit for opioid-free surgery like the one we used in our research, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other alternatives for you and your healthcare team to explore.
It’s been well publicized that our country is in the middle of an opioid epidemic. However, what we don’t hear about are solutions to reduce the number of opioid pills patients take home.
One of our motivations behind this project was to explore alternative medications and solutions for patients. It’s our hope we can all rely on different types of medications that have less complications. Research shows reducing the number of opioid prescriptions that go home with patients ultimately means there is less chance of highly addictive pills circulating in our communities which leads to less addiction and reduced risk of overdose.
The CDC defines opioids as “natural or synthetic chemicals that bind to receptors in your brain or body to reduce the intensity of pain signals reaching the brain. Doctors sometimes prescribe opioid medications to manage and treat moderate-to-severe pain.”
Common prescription opioid drugs include:
Find more information from the CDC here.
Opioids have been around for a long time and physicians have relied on opioids to help keep patients comfortable after surgery. As we learn more about opioids and how highly addictive they can be, some of their benefits have been called into question. With our research, we wanted to find out how effective opioids were in some orthopedic surgeries in hopes of combatting the opioid epidemic in the United States.
When OrthoCarolina’s Dr. Nady Hamid walks patients through their pain management options for before during and after an upcoming surgery, he talks about common side effects as they relate to prescription opioids.
“It’s not only that opioid medications are highly addictive, because they are. They carry side effects that make patients feel crumby as they are taking them including:
All of these are things that patients, like you, now know about and can consider when you speak to their healthcare practitioner about options to reduce the use of opioids in your treatment plan.”
By now, you might not be terribly concerned about your chances of getting addicted to opioids after your surgery. Or maybe you are and you want to stay as far away from opioids and narcotics as possible. Either way, the above list of side effects doesn’t sound fun after surgery and maybe you’d like to explore other options. You’ve come to the right place.
Opioid-free or opioid-reduced surgery is exactly what it sounds like. The OrthoCarolina Research Institute’s team of researchers put together and tested a pain medicine “cocktail” or “protocol” combining a strategic list of medication that treated study patient’s pain just as effectively as an opioid would. The medications used in opioid-free surgery include anti-inflammatories, prescription strength Tylenol, and medication that addresses nerve pain.
Click here to view the full list of opioid-free medication options that might be available to you and your treatment team should you choose to choose an opioid-free or opioid reduced pain protocol.
The concept behind opioid minimizing surgery is that we are treating a patient’s pain from an inflammatory standpoint, a nerve standpoint, and from a pain standpoint all while avoiding the opioid containing medication before, during, and after surgery.
Click here to view the full list of opioid-free medication options that might be available to you and your treatment team should you choose to choose an opioid-free or opioid reduced pain protocol.
Here are a few things to consider as you decide if reducing opioids in your treatment plan is right for you. A “good” candidate could look like:
Having open dialogue with your physician about your treatment plan and what to expect during your healing process is vital when preparing for a successful recovery period.
Here are some questions to help empower you as a patient to discuss opioid free or opioid reducing pain protocols in your treatment plan.
Patients are often concerned about their comfort and pain levels post surgery. We encourage you to not only talk to your doctor about whether opioid alternatives are a good fit for you, but also talk about other ways to manage your pain that do not involve opioids during your recovery. It all comes down to finding the treatment that provides the greatest benefit relative to risks for you, the patient.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) compiled a list of therapies that may work better for some conditions and have fewer risks and side effects than opioids including:
Talk to your medical team about which options might be best for you as you heal and recover from surgery.
We’ve made it easy to ask them about your nonopioid therapy options by downloading this PDF that will also remind you when to use ice and/or heat during your recovery journey.
Pain after surgery is normal and can vary depending on the type of surgery and the individual. We also know that patients heal faster when their pain is controlled. A reasonable goal is to have pain that’s a 2–4 out of 10, with 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain imaginable.
You should speak with your surgeon before and after surgery about your pain concerns and provide details about your pain level. This will help your healthcare practitioner understand your needs and adjust your medication accordingly. You should also speak up if your pain is so severe that it’s affecting your ability to function, and call your doctor’s office for further guidance.
Our goal with this project is to empower patients to have conversations about opioid reduction options and to educate the public that there are indeed opioid alternatives. We understand opioid-free surgery might not be for everyone for a number of reasons. Ultimately, it is up to you and your medical team to make the best decision for you.
While you might not be tempted to take more opioid pills than you need, you never know who might be looking through your medicine cabinet for narcotics.
Our friends at More Powerful NC remind us that “most people who misuse prescription drugs get them from a friend or relative, and home medicine cabinets are often the first place they look.” They have a wealth of information about finding drug take back boxes and how to properly dispose of medication. Learn more by following this link.
There’s a good chance that someone may have found this website and information about our initiative because they are battling opioid addiction or have a loved one who is. If that is you, here is some information from our community partners that may be of use in finding the help you are looking for:
Unidentified breakthroughs in combatting the opioid epidemic are just waiting to be discovered, but we can’t do it without the support of generous people like you.
