What Can I Expect

[pittielover74 1]

Hi all....well I'm now officially less than a week away!!!!! I'm looking for honest, even the brutally honest answers for what can I truly expect after surgery! I've read so many different things and I just want everyone's input on how they felt day one and out. I know everyone's different and that's why I'm looking for all the responses I can get! Thank you!!!

[Healthy_life2 8,319]

@@pittielover74

Expect the pain to be temporary and your results will be amazing.

First few months the weight came off quickly I was not hungry had low energy. At 3 months..Honey moon was over I felt more hunger and the weight did not come off unless I pushed myself at the gym. Energy was fantastic with real food. You will have stalls they will break. at 9 months out I am dropping past my surgery goal and on to my personal goal.

[Thinkingthinner1109 485]

Well first off we were all different in some way. I don't remember much of my hospital stay. Thanks to the pain pump. I was able to sip in the hospital and I didn't real start to have issues until I got home. Then crushing my meds was all but impossible. I could taste them in anything I out them in. And I ended up with the most awful headache I have ever had. I think it was the liquid pain med I was sent home with. The compression garmet for around my waist helped tremendously, so if they will give you one of those it certainly made my life easier. Easier to sleep, get up out of bed, etc. to this day and I am nearly 7 months post op and at goal I have Constipation. I went back to work which is a desk job in two weeks. I Stick to my plan religiously. I get all my Protein and fluids in. In my own experience the first two weeks were the roughest for me. I was unable to tolerate the Protein Drinks that I drank before surgery immediately after surgery as they made me nauseous. Zophran helped with that. My surgical team was a God send. So there is my story. I found a new norm for me. I was lucky to not have vomited. I don't get slides or dumping. Exercising is really important too. Best of luck to. You will soon be here with us on the losers bench.

[Kindle 8,667]

Everyone is different, so there will be a huge range of experiences described. As for me, I was out shopping and sightseeing less than 24 hours after surgery. I had no nausea and no pain. I was sent home with sublingual NSAIDS for pain but didn't need them. My abdomen just felt fatigued...like I had done a ton of sit-ups. I travelled by plane and drove myself home 5 hours 3 days postop, resumed normal chores as soon as I got home....plowing the drive, feeding horses and dogs, laundry, shopping, etc. I just had to modify things a bit so I wasn't lifting over 20 pounds. I was back to work at an active job (other than the lifting restrictions) within 7 days. I was certainly tired, but barely knew I had surgery.

I don't know if the differences are due to individual pain responses, surgeon technique, perioperative meds or all of the above. I do know I was on pain Meds for over 4 weeks after my neck fusion and I although I went back to work at 2 weeks, I was limited to very light duties, so VSG was WAY easier.

[Elode 8,093]

My experience: I had pain directly after waking up. Day 3-5 where probably the hardest (at home) I had nausea only at the hospital when I stood up but subsided when I left so I never used my nausea prescription. I had a lot of stomach "demon"'noises going on. You can expect the barium swallow test to taste like HELL Water in a cup...gross but unfortunately necessary. You can expect to not be able to drink fluids real well for awhile and you can expect to forget all of this in a month or twos time.

[JamieLogical 8,684]

Day of surgery is kind of a blur. When I woke up, I remember moaning a lot. Like with every breath out I made this moaning sound. Not even sure why. But it was not a great feeling. I think I asked for some Water or ice chips right away. And I slept a lot. By late evening I was up and walking around a lot. Just up and down the hallway. Managed to use the bathroom on my own.

The next day I was discharged back to the hotel (I had surgery in Mexico). I just took everything slowly, didn't do much, tried to drink Water. I had two episodes of dry heaving. That is the only time post-op that I have experienced anything close to vomiting. I walked to a corner store and bought some Vitamin Water Zero. I drank tiny sips of it and maybe finished 1/3 of the bottle over the course of the evening? I also tried some chicken broth, which I got maybe 3-4 spoonfuls in.

Morning of the next day I had TERRIBLE cramps. Low down in my pelvis, like menstrual cramps. It was super painful. I went back to the clinic and they did my leak test and removed my drain. As soon as they removed the drain, my cramps stopped. It was like a miracle.

My main issue in the first couple of weeks was how uncomfortable it was to swallow. With every tiny sip, I went through this whole process of esophageal constriction/spasms, followed by bubbling in my chest, followed by burping. It was definitely a result of the swelling and once the swelling had gone down a couple weeks out, it was 100% better.

I also had a little pain in the area of one of my incisions, but nothing I couldn't handle. It was muscle pain from where they had to spread apart my ab muscle, not any kind of skin irritation or infection.

[Kindle 8,667]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the cramping from the drain! It was more uncomfortable than painful and went away as soon as they pulled the drain on the 3rd morning.

[Sunnybaby 95]

For me the day of and a couple of days after I was in an out of it. Slept a LOT. During my hospital stay (2 days) my stomach hurt pretty badly. Felt like I had done a 1,000 crunches. When I got home I slept a lot the first few days and stayed on pain meds but after those first few days the pain went away quickly and I was able to be up and about by the end of the first week. By the end of week two I was out looking for a job again. I never had a drain or a compression wrap or anything. My experience went smoother and was a lot better than I had built it up in my mind.

[pittielover74 1]

Thank you SO much everyone!!!!!! I'm so excited and nervous at the same time!!!!