I was sleeved on the 30th and I have severe stabbing left shoulder pain. I have had a leak test and CT--all are fine.

There was a tremendous amount of drama with my surgery--scheduled on the 23 first time--heart stopped on table--chest compressions for a minute--surgery rescheduled after cardiologist oked me--difficulty keeping heart rate up during second surgery so they gave me extremely high doses of meds to speed up my heart rate---caused nausea--lots of post-op pain, etc.

Anyone else have severe pain a week out and, if so, what did you do. I am worn out with this.

perhaps I didn't explain very well what I was talking about. This was my particular outcome from vsg surgery.......everyone varies. But I did have sharp pains in my back and left shoulder. Which is a sign.

My doc explained to me that when they do the final cuts on the stomach near the splene, that a portion of your splene actually dies off ( about 1/3) and you can actually have phantom pains from your splene in your shoulder. It can also be trapped gas. Walking actually did more for me than anything else to get rid of the gas! Hope this might help!

Perhaps I was quick to respond to this topic. This was just what happened to me personally. I responded because the severe left shoulder pain is a sign of the spleen issue. Just trying to help..........I will not respond to this issue anymore.

I had a big long explanatory reply typed up to this, and then lost it. Which is probably for the best, because I think at a fundamental level it's a basic miscommunication that's easily explained. See excerpts below (you don't have to respond, I just don't want you feeling "belittled" or whatever):

My doc explained to me that when they do the final cuts on the stomach near the splene, that a portion of your splene actually dies off ( about 1/3)

When I read this, what I took away from it was that when the cuts are made (every time they are made) about 1/3 of your spleen will die off. As in - cut *bam* 1/3 spleen is a goner. You didn't mention frequency, or expediancy, etc. So it sounded like an automatic guaranteed given, and it's just something we should expect. It DID NOT sound like an atypical complication. You've since posted more info (I've highlighted the applicable part below in red), and this doesn't seem to be what you intended to communicate (though it was how it came across).

Look up splenic infarction........and "rootman" you actually commented on a post from March 2011 on vsgtalk that was this very topic. It is not very common that you would ever know this happens, but it does happen to a select few of us. Depending on how and where your spleen is in conjunction to your stomach. And yes I am "offended" by the remarks that I may be naive or believe everything I hear.....which by definition is someone who is simple minded showing lack of judgement or information. I in fact read up on everything. I am very intelligent and do not appreciate the sarcasm from Wheetsin.

Look, I'm a sarcastic person. Anyone here familiar with me would agree with that statement. If it's not your cup of tea you probably won't appreciate very many of my posts because it's almost always in there somewhere, somehow (like that hyperbole). And that's perfectly OK - we all have our preferences, dislikes, etc. But as I explained how your message read above, I did not want you sitting around thinking that this "just happens all the time, no biggie" - and perhaps more relevant - I would not want someone pre-op thinking that.

If you spend a little more time here, you'll see how "knee jerk" some of the people can be, and how frightened they can become by otherwise innocuous messages.

Rootman and I are both coming from a place of trying to be helpful. I'd like to think we've successfully helped many, many people here. Like I said above - probably just a miscommuication, because your subsequent posts were saying something quite different from your intial post.

Cheers!

Ok WOW--this post took an unexpected turn. Thanks to everyone for trying to help.

I went back for my post-op appointment 9 days after surgery. My surgeon leaves the drain in for 9 days. When they took the drain out I had sharp, shooting pains from my toes to my neck, got dizzy and nauseated and passed out. When I came around shortly after, the pain was gone. I am still sore--as I would expect--but the sharp, shooting, unbearable pain is no more. Surgeon said that it is rare (if I had a dollar for every time I have heard that....) but occasionally the drain will irritate nerves so much that it causes severe/shooting pains. I felt better when I left the office and much better by bedtime.

I love this forum...Every question I have had, I have been able to find ans answer here. I started having shoulder pain yesterday and first thought I may have slept wrong. After lingering for a while, I knew it had to be more so I got on the forum and this is exactly what I am experiencing. I am going to go for a walk here in a bit to hopefully help relieved the trapped gas and get some overall relief from the pain. Because otherwise my surgery has been textbook...no pain (other than day of traveling)...only a tad bit of nausea the day of surgery when I would get up and walk and then just basic gas that I was able to pass...