Finally Feeling Better

We're at day 5 after surgery, and things have taken a turn for the better. The pain is down significantly, and I no longer need the prescription medications. I have my first follow up with the ortho on Friday...hopefully he'll tell me to get rid of the sling, and that I can start doing some basic ROM exercises. We'll probably take some x-rays at that visit to see how everything is looking, so I'll post a picture of them if I can.

As an aside, there has been some news in the press recently about acetaminophen (tylenol). Evidently, it is the #1 cause of acute liver failure in the US with about 56,000 cases each year. Most of the cases seem to occur because people combine medications and don't realize that they are exceeding the recommended maximum daily dose of acetaminophen (4 grams). This was interesting because the medication I was taking for pain contained 325 mg of acetaminophen, and at recommended dosing I was getting 3900 mg of acetaminophen per day. If I had taken any extra tylenol, I would have exceeded the 4 gram per day limit.

All medications have warnings on them, the problem is that most people do not read them. In my post-surgery haze I might not have either...but my wife is an MD and she made note of this .

Anyway, remember that just because something is OTC doesn't mean that it can't be harmful if you exceed labeling recommendations.

posted by Seth at Tuesday, June 30, 2009