Can't sleep due to belly pain?

Jul 17, 2014

TL;DR- If you find that you can't sleep more than a few hours at night before waking up in pain, ask your doctor for Flexeril, a muscle relaxer. Get your sleep back! 

I'm 3 weeks post-op tomorrow, and I'm still having pain in one stubborn muscle to the left of my belly button. Some days are better than others, and I do feel it healing slowly, but it's taking its sweet time getting there. Since surgery I've been sleeping for 4 hours at a time before waking up in pain, the only cure for which is standing up, even after sleeping at an incline. I asked my doctor about it last week and he assured me it was muscle pain and that it would probably take another 6 weeks to fully heal, so he prescribed me Flexeril to take at night to help me sleep. Well, I researched it, and found that it has a pretty long duration, (18 hours) and I hate being out of it during the day so I waited to try it until two nights ago, and I wish I'd started taking it sooner.

I took the Flexeril about midnight, because I wanted to wait for my Tramadol to wear off first. (Apparently mixing the two is a recipe for seizures.) In about 5 minutes I started to feel relaxed, and about 20 minutes later I climbed into bed, and had the best sleep I've had since before surgery. 8.5 hours later I woke up with zero pain, feeling so rested it was beautiful.  Went through the day being able to do many things I wouldn't normally, like bending over to pick something up off the floor. I was out of it all day though, and it finally wore off about 6:30, 18ish hours later. Last night all I took before bed was an oxycontin, and I woke up after 8 hours today in pain. 8 hours is still much better than before though, so I'm not complaining too loudly. I think I'll take another one tonight, probably earlier, so it wears off earlier tomorrow. 

Yesterday was a big encouragement, a light at the end of the tunnel, without pain. I can't wait to start to work out and really get this train rolling, but this muscle is preventing me from doing more than the most minor outings. If you're like me, just remember, you will heal, and don't be afraid to take your meds, they can help. 

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