How long did it take everyone to start feeling somewhat normal, ie no pain. Not talking about eating.

I went from feeling great after surgery to intense pain now that my muscles are starting to heal. They even increased my pain meds. Any advice on how to strength my core muscles, especially since they haven't been used in ages ha!

I just would like to be able to walk around, drive, not be on oxygen or pain killers. Kind of looking for a "after x number of weeks I started to feel better" kind of answer so I have a goal to look forward to. :-)

Day 23 was complete magic for me. I woke up and felt completely normal - no pain, regular energy levels. I thought about turning a cartwheel.

Cart wheels would be awesome - especially since doing that an a summersault is on my bucket list - was never able to do one as a kid cause of my weight. :-)

My surgery was four weeks ago yesterday, and I'm still having low energy days. I walk an hour on a treadmill most days, and sometimes go back in the evening for a second walk, but on really low days I only walk half an hour, and rest up. My upper abdomen (where all of my incisions are located) has been very sore the last few days...chalking it up to the healing process. I'm hoping another couple weeks will see me back in fighting form, as the saying goes.

I would say I felt good after 2-3 weeks and great at 8 weeks!

In terms of pain, I can honestly say I really never experienced any. Now, in terms of generally feeling blah, low energy, etc., it was about eight weeks for me. But a huge part of that was my own fault because I was not getting in enough fluids and ended up in the hospital severely dehydrated and on IV fluids three times, along with severe UTI's.

After 1 week I felt fine, was driving, no pain meds. Week 2 I felt fantastic, so I thought, and resumed working out. Week 3-4, I felt fine but had serious fatigue. I needed naps, hard time making it through my "easy" workouts. I think I felt healed on the outside, but still needed some healing time for the inside. Now at week 5, I feel great. Getting hard workouts in, not tired.

Never did take pain meds. Had on shot in the recovery room, felt like crud and had them take away the morphine. Didn't take pain meds at home. I have this huge bottle of Vicoden liquid. Felt tender for about a week. Went horseback riding at two weeks.

I was suffering from sleep apnea and it seemed to disappear post-op so I felt the exact opposite of fatigue.

Everybody is different.

Cart wheels would be awesome - especially since doing that an a summersault is on my bucket list - was never able to do one as a kid cause of my weight. :-)

Ooo! A somersault! Now I have something else to add to my list!

one week