I got home from hospital this morning after having the Bypass Surgery on April 29th, 2015. I found the first few days in hospital after surgery relatively fine however I have had severe heartburn since day one. I haven't been able to take any pain medication without finding myself in pain trying to get it down. It feels as though I have something lodged in my chest and I feel like I need to drink Water to get it down, but that just makes it worse!

I've also had gas build up which has given me pain in my left side (almost like a stitch) as well as my left shoulder which my surgeon explained was likely to happen. This is relieved slightly by walking which I have been doing.

I have been sleeping fine which is a big bonus, however I do have more pain at night compared to mornings which makes getting to sleep a bit difficult. I have found sleeping on my right side works best!

Apart from the bruises all over my body from needles, and the horrible heartburn, I think I have been pretty lucky with my recovery. I am still finding it hard to drink enough liquids though. Apple juice went down ok at the hospital and I had a hot cup of tea tonight with my liquid panadol, which seemed to be better than anything else. Yay!

I would like to know what types of Vitamins others are taking at this stage (4 days post op) as I find it hard to take any medication but am worried about not getting enough nutrients!!!

Also, does anyone has any suggestions about the heartburn? Although walking is helping, I am still in a lot of pain. How long did anyone else have this for???

Congratulations on your surgery.

My surgeon had me on Omeprazole for GERD (severe heartburn) for the first year.

Walking does make the gas pain go away but it can take a couple weeks after surgery for the level to drop.

One of the problems I found with Vitamins was that after surgery, I could no longer swallow the large pills. I had to crush them or split them in two in order to take them. The worst was the Calcium supplement, Citracal. These were large horse pills. These I had to crush. They tasted very chalky. I had to mix them with a glass of Crystal Light to get them down. After the 2nd month I found that I could swallow again, and life became significantly easier at that point.

At night I found that if I place a pillow between my legs, it helped.

In the first few months, the most important things are meeting the Protein, vitamins and Fluid requirements. food is secondary. This is because your body is converting your stored fat into energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight.