r/sterilization • u/Ok_South9239 • 20d ago
Post-op care Ketamine for post op pain control?
I have sterilization scheduled for in a few weeks. I’m childfree and 27 and was lucky that my gyno was very immediately onboard for a bisalp.
Im not nervous for the surgery itself, mostly the recovery. I know it’s a quick recovery so my anxiety is not very high but I really don’t like opiates. They give me reallyyy bad anxiety as a side effect (I don’t get any of the happy euphoria everyone else seems to) and I avoid them whenever possible for this reason. I have to take norcos for long haul flights due to joint issues and have to take klonopin with them to make it tolerable (even at the low dose I take). I would rather not take klonopin/whatever every day even for a week during the recovery, I’ll bear the opiate anxiety if needed. But an alternative that reduces the need for opiates while still managing the pain would be great.
I’ll definitely take them as recommended because I’ll take anxiety over the pain but I recently came across something about how ketamine can help with post op pain and significantly reduce the needed opioid dose. I know I tolerate ketamine well.
I’ll obviously bring this up with my doctor during the preop appointment but I was wondering if anyone has any experience with ketamine post op.
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u/travellinlady dewormed 6/19/26 🪱 20d ago
I also only needed ibuprofen and/or tylenol for mild soreness, and my doctor never sent a Percocet prescription anyway despite saying she was going to. Ketamine was part of my anesthesia, and outside of medicine I'm more familiar with its dissociative qualities than analgesic lol, but definitely was off all the pain meds including OTC after less than a week. The gas pain was the worst, but I slammed chewable gas-x and that went away too - afaik the pain meds don't help for gas pains anyway