Hi everybody! I'm new to this forum and I'm 3 weeks away from my surgery date. I'm not going to lie I'm pretty terrified... BUT I've found comfort in all of your stories. Thank you! I just have a couple of questions , I know everybody is different but on a scale of 1-10 how bad was the post op pain? (1 being none and 10 being unbearable) Also, how many days post op did you feel you could perform a sedentary job? I will only have 5 days to recover from vsg and small hernia repair, any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

You are right everyone is different. Pain was my biggest fear too. I am a true wimp. My pain while in the hospital was probably a 2/10 while sleeping or sitting. It went up to a 5-6/10 when walking. Each day gets better. I just took my pain meds. I took off four weeks, but I have an active job- I could have went back at three weeks but was enjoying the time off. Lots of luck to you. It will be fine

My pain while in the hospital was probably a 3, the next day I went home and did not used any pain meds at all, the pain was maybe a 1 when get up. I think I was very lucky because I had no trouble with anything after. Good Luck.

You are right everyone is different. Pain was my biggest fear too. I am a true wimp. My pain while in the hospital was probably a 2/10 while sleeping or sitting. It went up to a 5-6/10 when walking. Each day gets better. I just took my pain meds. I took off four weeks, but I have an active job- I could have went back at three weeks but was enjoying the time off. Lots of luck to you. It will be fine

Thank you, this really helps me put things into perspective. Any issues getting liquids down?

My pain while in the hospital was probably a 3, the next day I went home and did not used any pain meds at all, the pain was maybe a 1 when get up. I think I was very lucky because I had no trouble with anything after. Good Luck.

Glad to read this! I feel like I read more horror stories. How soon could you have gone back to work?

I am 15 months out from a sleeve. My pain was not bad at all. At the hospital I was on morphine for a day and hydrocodone the second day. I took hydrocodone for two days when I got home and did not need any more after that. I slept in my lift recliner for two nights so as to not pull inside stitches. Of the 12 surgeries I have had, this was absolutely the easiest recovery of all.

Many folks have issues with shoulder pain because the surgeons inflate our bellies with CO2 so that they can work better with their surgical tools. I was so concerned about his that I asked my surgeon if there was anything he could do to prevent it. He said he would extract as much of the gas as possible. As a result, I had no (as in zero zip nada) shoulder pain at all. It is surely worth asking about.

I was already retired when I got my sleeve, so I did not have to worry about work or childcare. There are many folks on here who can advise you about how to handle those challenges. I was nauseous until I got on soft foods, but I took my Omeprozole as prescribed and did not have any issue with vomiting. It took about six weeks to get noticeable energy back.

I could swallow Water ok, but only about an ounce at a time, about every ten minutes. The shakes took longer.

Surgery 4/13/15. Morphine evening of surgery as well as catheter. Morphine stopped next day (14th). Injectable hydrocodone rest of 14 th. hydrocodone stopped night of 14th. Dismissed noon 15th. Took pain prescription 15, 16, and stopped 17th. Haven't had pain pill since. No gas pain in shoulders as some describe, but I walked the halls from day of surgery on through hospitalization and walked a mile first day home. Now, 19th, have walked three miles last two days. My pain was worse lying down. I prop myself up with two pillows at night which helps. Now just sore and no real pain to speak of.

The whole process was MUCH easier than I thought it would be. Still hard getting puréed food down. Takes me 45 minutes to get 2 oz down. Water consumption is painful in morning but eases up during the day. Up to 48 oz of water a day six days after surgery. Came home from hospital 8 lbs heavier than when I went in but that disappeared in about three days after coming home.