Hi! New to the group. I had my sleeve done on 12/28. The first week I had such trouble with the gas pains that I basically had to walk while getting liquid down, but the walking really helped. The gas pain was like I could feel my sip of liquid and the gas competing and rolling up and down until they equalized.
I remember reading that someone had shoulder pain. I did too! My first night in the hospital I had acute pain in my collarbone area. It's slowly going away, but my left should still occasionally hurts. Pre-op my doc said gas can get trapped in unexpected places and will eventually be absorbed. I'm wondering if the shoulder pain is due to gas that's trapped. Anyone else experience that? Oh, and my torso started itching like crazy this past week. It was so bad that I tried hydrocortosone cream everywhere except the incision sites, but that didn't stop the itching. I finally tried benadryl and that helped a lot. So far the itching has stopped the past couple of days, but I was worried that it was going to drive me crazy for a bit there.
Finally I've been able to sleep on my side, though if I'm at the wrong angle or too stretched, it's uncomfortable. The bad thing is that I've always started out on my side but find I then wake up having turned and slept on my stomach. Needless to say that after surgery this was impossible, but now that I'm starting to sleep on my side, I've found myself having rolled onto my stomach. Very uncomfortable! I think I'll try propping with pillows as some others suggested.
My doc had me on "clear liquids" only (sf clear drinks with electrolytes, sf popsicles, sf jello, salty broths) the first week which was fine with me as I could hardly tolerate anything. My 2nd and 3rd week are "full liquids" (protein shakes, sf pudding, creamy soups - but nothing pureed). I've been at this stage for 3 days and it's already getting old. I have no idea how I will I make it another 11 days. And truthfully it has been really hard getting in enough protein and liquids. Yesterday I did not get enough liquids in, and after getting out of a hot shower I got really lightheaded. I had to lie down immediately and luckily had some Smart Water next to the bed that I could sip on. I woke up fine today, but it took me all day to get 1 protein shake down. It's not the taste, it's more that I'm not that hungry and I have no excitement to drink it. It is nice to be able to have creamy soups. And luckily I was able to get a sufficient amount of liquids in today. I'm going to try sf pudding tomorrow. My first attempt with the sf jello in the first week had some uncomfortable moments, so I'm hesitant to try the pudding but I have to remind myself to just go slow.
I find that although I don't have a lot of real hunger pains, I am definitely having head hunger. And watching TV makes it worse! I swear more than 1/2 the commercials are pizza commercials. Very frustrating!
Has anyone had their follow up appointment? Mine is next week and the Nurse Practioner mentioned that they would do a barium swallow to check for leaks or other issues. Has anyone had to do this yet?
