My mother recently had two tumors removed from her abdomen (Stage 2 ovarian cancer), which also involved a colon resection as the tumors were around part of her large intestine and part of her small intestine. She has a vertical incision from about her sternum to her pubic bone, which I'm guessing is pretty standard. She is two weeks post surgery and has begun experiencing tremendous abdominal pain -- on a scale from 1 to 10, she said it's a 20. The pain literally brought her to her knees this afternoon (and she has a high pain tolerance). Fortunately, she was at the surgeon's office for a follow up visit when it occurred. He examined her and said everything looked ok -- what she was experiencing was normal for the type of major surgery she had. He also reminded her that she needs to take her pain pills to stay ahead of the pain, which she had not been doing. (But, my mom claims she didn't need the pain pills for the last week -- this mega pain just hit her with no warning.)
This extreme pain has been coming in waves for most of the day and continuing now into the night. She is literally in tears trying to cope and counting the minutes until her next pain pill (Dilaudid).
Is this type of crippling pain normal? If so, how long can she expect to experience it?