I had surgery 6 weeks ago on my right hand, little finger and ring finger. The surgery went well and I am continuing with PT. I wanted to know how long to expect to take the pain medication, Hydrocodone. I do still have pain usually later in the evening after use of the hand throughout the day. Will I need to continue with stronger pain meds for long term pain management or will Tylonol do the job? I know it will be up to my own pain threshold, which according to my wife, is not very high... Just wanted to know others experiences with ongoing pain and management.

Hi. I've had numerous surgeries including skin grafts and never needed to have medication for pain.We are all different.I would also suggest cutting the doses down to get off the medication over a week or so. Have you tried soaking your hand in warmish to hot water and flexing a couple of times a day. Apply creme containing Urea and use a Vitamin E creme to help with the healing .Regards

Needing a narcotic six weeks after surgery isn't typical. Do your doctor and PT know you are doing this? The first hand surgery I had was for a trigger finger and I had some pretty intense pain afterwards. From what the hand therapist told me later, I was most likely on the verge of developing some pretty nasty neurological pain; it wasn't from the surgical wound as much as from the surrounding nerves overreacting. The therapists did me a lot of good. The fasciectomy I had a few months later caused far less pain. If your doc and therapist don't know how much pain you are in, tell them.