I did it!

48 hours removed from my Sleeve Gastrectomy surgery, and I honestly don't know how much more smoothly it could have gone.

I had nerves up until they wheeled me in, but when I became conscious again, I was shocked at how good I felt. Sore, for sure, in the stomach, but certainly manageable. The scars from the laproscopic surgery (There were five of them) were so small they were covered each by little bits of surgical tape. When my chest hair grows back, the scars wouldn't even be visible if they never healed!

I had two 60 second session of dry heaves, but no vomiting, no acid, no nothing. Started walking a couple hours after the surgery with NO problems (although the sore stomach made it a little slower getting up and down, the actual walking was no problem).

I tried to just sleep and walk as much as I could the first day.

Day two brought the gas pains, which actually were worse than any of the surgical pain. They came on hard and sharp, and lasted anywhere from 2-5 seconds. I understand this is normal, but thought that since my first day was so trouble-free that I might not have to deal with them. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. The gas pains came and went during the night last night, but while uncomfortable, it certainly wasn't awful.

Long story short: If I could guarantee my initial recovery story for anyone else getting the surgery, a LOT of people's worries would be put to rest.

I know that this is a life-long game, and I just came out of the chute, but I can tell you that my procedure and initial recovery experience has been VERY positive. We'll see where it goes from here!

congrats on a textbook procedure!

That is wonderful for you! They kept calling me a rockstar at the hospital as my post op has gone ideal, if I didn't have that coughing fit I would agree completely that it was too good to be true. I am trying to adjust to this new eating and drinking and I am doing pretty well. I wish I knew how to burp!

Bob we are in the same boat, I am 48 removed rom my sleeve surgery. I too had an uneventful procedure Event the IV went on first try ( I had a surgery where it took them 17 sticks to get one in)

Yes the gas pains are the most horrible by far. I have never been so happy to fart in my life lol. I was very impressed by the hospitals team, the nurses for bariatric patient's are limited in that they can have more then 3 patients total. Which means you get a lot of quality time in. Heck a few even let me take their picture for my blog.

I was also blown away by the bed I was in. Now in other hospitals they didn't seem to care that I was a fat guy and you fit into the little narrow bed etc. But this hospital just outside of boston mass, has nice big bariatric air beds. The best part they were transformers, I kid you not. At ne point I wanted to sit in a chair so they push a button or two and the whole bed turns itself into a chair??? I was stunned and it was awesome as well. What did suck was the sleep deprivation. By that I mean that they kept me on telemetry and an apnea monitor knowing I did have apnea. But I cannot use cpap, for various reasons, so every time I dozed off the o2 sat would drop a bit then my alarm would go off waking me right back up. The morphine pump was worse they all doctors and nurses kept telling me to use the pump, but I think I used it twice, once right after surgery just before they did a Tac Block, and once when I reached my floor, but that was it. The morphine made me very sleepy but I wasn't allowed to sleep. I will say they gave me scripts for nausea (Zofran) acid ( zantac/ranitidine) and pain, ,Vicodin. A lot of vicodin lol Keep me informed Bob id like to see how we do in this endeavor.

Mine was a week ago and a very similar experience to Steve and Bob. Today is day 8 and I feel unbelievable. I also agree that if more people knew how easy it "can" go they wouldn't be so worried up front.

By the way: congrats Steve & Bob! We are all in this together!

Glad to hear that everyone's surgery went so well. I too had a similar experience so much so that I asked my nurse whether the surgery had been aborted. Based on my excessive reading of the forums before surgery I fully expected to be hooked up to a morphine pump. I had absolutely no pain, required no pain medication and had absolutely no gas pains either. The only issue I had was from staying on my blood pressure medication longer than I should had. The benefits of the surgery kicked in immediately causing my BP to be abnormally low and a few days after I left the hospital I felt light headed whenever I stood up. My doctor took me off the medication and that solved the problem.

I know everyone is different but I do feel that people that have more pain tend to post more which creates a false impression of dread on those that are going to have the surgery. The techniques that they have today are incredible to promote speedy and realatively painless recovery. I did not post on the main board about my painless surgery for fear of beining insensitive to those that were experiencing pain. I feel that what most contributed to my painless recovery was the skills and techniques of my surgeon but also the fact that I stuck to the pre-surgery diet and lost over 40 lbs prior to surgery. The better shape you are in pre-surgery I belive translates into a more pain free recovery.

Congratulations again to everyone and I look forward to see everyone's progress as the days and weeks roll by.

Dallas

congrats!

That's wonderful to hear.

Awesome, everyone!

Nearly 3 years out here and still very glad I took the plunge.
Being a child of the 60's, I laid on the morphine pump as much as possible...

Half out, my wife asked me how I felt. "Miserable but happy!" i said. My family will not let me forget that.

That is great. on track for some serious weight loss now!!!