Please share things that you wish someone had told you BEFORE you got your sleeve....

...how hard the mental/emotional/psychological part of it actually is... Best of luck to you.

...how hard the mental/emotional/psychological part of it actually is... Best of luck to you.

Thanks. Please elaborate.

I've never heard of a heating pad helping with gas pain. Please explain. I'm assuming you're applying it to your back.

I first laid the pad on my back for a few hours , then put on my tummy and moved allover chest. Hope that helps. I never had a drain.

Tell me about the drain. What purpose did it serve? How long did you have it? What did it drain into? Did you have to go back to the hospital to have it removed?

The drain was like any surgical drain -- it's a tube that is inside your abdominal cavity that drains into a bag (or sometimes a bulb) on the outside, to keep excess Fluid from building up and also to monitor for any internal bleeding. I had to keep mine in for about five days I think? I was still in hospital, so they removed it about a day before they released me (I didn't have any complications or anything, they just keep you in hospital here for nearly a week for just about anything LOL). It didn't bother me much to have it in and it didn't hurt to have it taken out, but it felt weird to have it pulled out (took like a second in total) and it was a relief when it was gone. Funky stuff...but no big whoop at all.