Whenever I think about my surgery and recovery,

I always imagine a stellar scenario, like I'm up and walking the same day, minimal discomfort, and back to work within my allotted PTO time, but then at the back of my mind are doubts that this would actually happen for me. I have very poor coping mechanisms when I can't control something, which is most of life, but I make good work of the things I can control. I never worried about recovery with my last two surgeries, but this is blowing my mind. I think it has a lot to do with me as a person and the fact that I just have to worry about something. The anticipation of how my surgery and recovery will go is going to put me into an early grave, before I even have the surgery.

I think it depends on a few things: age, mood and overall attitude.

I am young and recovered very quickly - doc said it was because I wasn't too overweight and young people tend to bounce back more quickly.

I wanted to be all lazy and lay in bed but the nurses and my aunt had me up and walking three hours after surgery, I felt so much better.

Lastly, instead of staying in my hotel room to recover I actually went around Mexico and went on a four hour drive to Ensenada and had a ton of fun. I felt great!

I drove myself 8 hours fourish days after surgery. I went back to school a week after and work two weeks after. Mind you, I work in a very physically demanding job.

So I think if you approach it in a positive mood and make yourself get up and walk walk walk, you will have an easier time.

I also wasn't taking any pain meds after the first ***ht.

Oooooh I hope I get to have an experience like yours! I'm going in with an attitude that I will, and hope I bounce back quickly like I did from two of my knee surgeries (not even gonna talk about how horrible recovery from the third was! lol) Just wondering, how old are you and how much did you weigh going in if you don't mind me asking? I'm 25 and am right around 245, so I'm hoping that will work in my favor.

Just wanted to add I was sick on the second day they kept bringing me water and saying drink it then tea then water drink it drink it drink it!

I was sipping and trying and grabbed the puke bowl and blughhhhhh boy was it loud and like dramatic lol

Even when I was done empty I kept retching badly lol

I had the blood guy and the other 3 people on my ward section all asking are you ok do you need a nurse? Between puking water and retching I was shaking my head or saying no I am fine then blughhhhhhhh lol

Also never had a pain pump they would give me iv liquid paracetamol (that’s like tylenol ) twice a day one around 10am and the other around 8/9pm they did say to me if you feel pain just tell us but I really didn’t feel the need to keep getting pain meds dealt with a lot worse than this felt.

I’ve made it a point to never take morphine if offered it (gall bladder op I was asked if I wanted it in recovery) because it backs you up to put it politely lol and I know you can’t leave hospital without going loo, so if I can deal with the pain on a lower pain med I don’t take it plus it makes you spacey and sleepy which to me would make you seem more tired and sick than you really are.

But that’s my personal preference if I really needed that high a pain med I would take it.

I am 20 and I started out at 260 the day of surgery. I also didn't have any scar tissue, no previous surgeries, so he said there was less stretching and poking and prodding around things which aided on me not being so sore. My level of pain was around a 3 or 4 -- kind of felt like someone had punched me in the stomach and I was just sore. This only really happened when I tried to sit up or lay down.

Oooooh I hope I get to have an experience like yours! I'm going in with an attitude that I will, and hope I bounce back quickly like I did from two of my knee surgeries (not even gonna talk about how horrible recovery from the third was! lol) Just wondering, how old are you and how much did you weigh going in if you don't mind me asking? I'm 25 and am right around 245, so I'm hoping that will work in my favor.

I drove myself 8 hours fourish days after surgery. I went back to school a week after and work two weeks after. Mind you, I work in a very physically demanding job.

I also wanted to ask and forgot earlier...what kind of work do you do? I work in a fairly physical job and was concerned about going back.

I work at a catering and dining common for UCSB. So we do a lot of lifting tables, big 5 gallon beverage containers, trash cans. When I went back to work they had me do minimal lifting but I was still on my feet for 6-8 hours at a time. I stuck with dish and pot duty for a week or so and then went back to small lifting - like trays of food that weighed up to 15 pounds and in two - three weeks after that (maybe a month out) I was back to normal.

My doc ok'd this for me, he said I shouldn't be too sore and since I had no scar tissue he was able to stitch me up nice and tightly with no problem. I never felt anything "pop" as some people have when they lift things too early out. I did get sore after my first day back doing trash, but not pain.

I also wanted to ask and forgot earlier...what kind of work do you do? I work in a fairly physical job and was concerned about going back.

Oh ok. I work as a CNA on a med surg floor and some of our patients can be pretty heavy on the care aspect. I'll just have to be careful moving people up in bed and probably will have to get coworkers to take some of the heavy assist patients to the bathroom for me. Luckily with school I'm only working 4 hour shifts, but my clinicals for nursing school are 12 hours at a time, and a lot of being on your feet.

Everyone is different. The first day of surgery was miserable , but I walked 2 miles on the bariatric floor. I was cleared for liquids and was on lorcet on day 2 - not as spacey as the morphine made me feel. I took no narcotics after I went home the next day. I went back to work at 2 weeks, at a reduced schedule and easied back into full speed by 4 weeks. I lost weight quickly at first but am losing 1-2 pounds a week currently. It will take a long time for me to get to goal but I feel so much better I rate it a success. This is not as good as some , but I am not ketotic and miserable. I hope this helps.

Lol, too funny. I'm the original poster and I'm an OR nurse too. My question is actually about recovery, since I will be starting my very first NP/RNFA job 19 days after I get sleeved. I would love to believe that I'll be one of those people that will bounce back within a week, but that's not the reality for everyone. Thanks for all the suggestions and optimism.