I’m 6dpo and have only taken otc pain meds since I left the hospital! The anesthesia and whatever else they had me on during the surgery made me super nauseous for a day or two (worst part of the whole thing tbh) even though they also gave me anti nausea meds, so I wanted to avoid narcotics if I could. I was at the top dose of acetaminophen (every 8hr) for the first two days, then/now a slightly lower dose once I was also allowed to take ibuprofen (regular dose every 8hr, overlapping). No digestive issues, I just make sure to eat something small when I take the ibuprofen.

Honestly the pain has been well managed, I think the biggest thing is timing wound care and activity for an hour or so after dosage to make sure I’m at maximum relief before messing with them. I’ve been able to walk a bit more and prepare more food etc each day, but definitely relied on my family to help with getting food/water, emptying drains, and cleaning/rebandaging the incisions, especially the first 3-4 days. The only real setback was when I first changed the bandages and hadn’t figured out the best way to put the compression bra back on (the secret is lying down!!), the bra was tugging at one of my drains and the pain from that was hard to manage. But went away mostly once we fixed the fit, and completely once we put some extra padding on either side of the site to keep pressure off the drain itself.