I know that pain is temporary, and that in the end this will all be worth it. I have faith in the surgery and in the plan. But, for those who have been through it, on a scale from 1 to 10 how bad does the surgery and recovery hurt? How long until you felt human again? I have never had any form of surgery besides the removal of my wisdom teeth and so this has me feeling a bit anxious. Thanks in advance for your responses!!!

I was fortunate. I wouldn't have really called anything I felt "pain" except for a bit in my shoulder due to the gas. I would describe it more as soreness, discomfort, fatigue.

@@pixystix0116 - I can only share my experience, everyone is the same in that we are all VERY different.

So with that said, let me tell you what I did to prep...I walked for at least an hour every day. I went to the gym 3x a week to lift. I was very faithful two weeks before surgery on the diet, got rid of alcohol, caffeine et. al.

Surgery day came, because I was in as good shape as I could get. Surgery took less than 30 minutes. I was up and walking within minutes. The first day was rough only because of the dang IV and the drain plug. After both were removed I didn't need any pain killers. Would walk all the time. I had the surgery on a Tuesday. Flew home Friday morning (added an extra day, because I always plan for the worst case). But Saturday I went to an University of Oklahoma football game and my son's fraternity "Dad's Day" celebration.

So pain on surgery day 1 - eh 5, after that 1-2. So much better than when my appendix burst. That took nearly six weeks to recover from.

I survived my knee reconstruction, which for 3 days postop hurt worse than unmedicated childbirth and hydrocodone barely touched it.

I've heard nothing from anyone here to indicate that this surgery is even remotely that bad. So I figure I'm good.

I had minimal pain from the sleeve surgery. I had an abdominal hernia repaired at same time and that was really the only source of pain.

I was up walking an hour or so after waking up in the recovery room.....and up every 3-4 hours throughout the first 48 hours.

I've had two knee surgeries, an ankle tendon repair, two prior hernia repairs, tonsils removed and some other minor stuff. I felt way more pain doing the back-to-back MRI scans (awkward/painful positions) on my ankle than I ever did with my sleeve surgery.

I would go through the sleeve surgery again without hesitation.

Thanks so much for all the responses! This makes me feel a bit better. Aug. 25th can't get here fast enough!

Hi! I was in the same place you were: the closest thing to surgery I ever experienced was wisdom teeth removal.

Waking up sucked. A lot. But it was manageable. I was able to walk a bit within a few hours, but it didn't feel good. The first evening was not very pleasant, and I was unable to sleep for some reason - even when they gave me a sedative shot. But once they gave me the shot, for whatever reason it eased my discomfort drastically, and from that point on any pain was pretty minimal. By the next morning my dad and sister were surprised at how much better I looked.

Some of the other ladies that had surgery the same weekend weren't quite as fortunate. My advice would be to make certain you stick to the pre-op diet (if you're given one) pretty religiously and really prep yourself in advance by cutting out all caffeine, carbonation and most sugar long before you go in for surgery. You don't want to be going through withdrawl at the same time you're recovering, and I honestly think that played a big role in why I've healed up so nicely.

Edited August 4, 201610 yr by Sparkles!!

Okay, if there is one thing I have learned from this surgery is that EVERY patient has a different story, so read all you want, but yours will not be the same. The pain of the surgery does not hurt much. I am 9 days post, and the only pain I feel is a little bit of my large incision tenderness. The gas pain however after surgery was awful for me. I was up and walking as often as I could, but it was pretty bad still. I was nauseous to the point of dry heaving for about 5 days after surgery (not typical). I feel great now, I just tire pretty easily and so am only working half days, so I can nap/rest. It is just getting used to how my new stomach feels and getting all my fluid in. Best of luck to you in your journey!

I agree that everyone is so different. I had the sleeve and a hiatal hernia repair. Day after surgery I felt sore in the sense that I had done a bunch of sit ups that I'm not used to but that quickly faded. The worse pain for me was at the drain site. For some reason, it really hurt me making it difficult to walk and breath. The minute it came out was instant relief.

I didn't really have any pain. The worst it ever got was a 1-2 on the pain scale when I got in and out of bed or up from sitting. More like a pulled muscle than anything especially painful.

I was same as @higher.

The first couple hours I was nauseous from the anesthesia. But no actual pain. Ever.

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On a scale of 1-10, a 4 the day of surgery, then a 3 for a couple of days. I didn't need pain meds (they gave them the first night once and that was it). I walked around within an hour of coming out of anasthesia and followed my surgeon's order to the letter. He specifically told me to do as much as I could when I had energy, rest when fatigued, and resume normal walking etc within 4 days.

I had two natural childbirths, a c-section, gallbladder removal, and ovarian surgery prior to this. I am no stranger to pain. I think that your own level of anxiety has a lot to do with pain threshold. I'm not fearful of pain but I was fearful of complications so I did all I could to minimize the risk of something happening.

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I had the worst experience. Once I woke up I was pushed to walk, totally normal, but I physically couldn't. The pain was way to great. I actually spent the whole time in the hospital going back and forth between pain meds and anti nausea meds. I walked maybe three times and then of course to the bathroom. It turns out my pain pump was actually leaking and doing me no service whatsoever, so that's part of it, part of it was I reacted badly to a particular pain medicine. I was sick over 25 times during the night. That was Thursday-Friday evening. Once I got home I felt a little better but was pretty stationary. I really struggled. Then on Sunday evening I really picked up, I mean not so much I was normal but so much I was going upstairs and just feeling less general pain. Honestly though it was okay. I made it through. I also think I was an outlier, a major outlier. My doctor was really surprised by my pain, everyone sort of was. Any way you look at it though now I'm almost perfectly fine and I feel a bit better each day. So it was rough for a number of days but I'm over it and still pleased! Don't be scared!

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I was pretty lucky as well. I don't think I would call anything I felt "pain" as much as I would call it discomfort. I was fortunate that my surgeon was doing a trial on a new type of "inflation" machine that works a bit differently than the typical machines.

Most of what I see people mention is the "gas pain". This is because the surgical team "inflates" your abdomen with a machine using (I believe) CO2. once your abdomen is inflated, typical machines continue the pressure to keep it inflated, and once the abdomen is full the gas begins to escape into your tissues and other parts of the body that can cause pains after surgery. This is one of the reasons it's so important to walk walk walk as soon as possible after surgery.

The machine used on me was a trial and it inflated the abdomen, and once inflated, it actually backed off the pressure until enough CO2 escaped that it needed to kick on again. I had no gas pains and really no pain to speak of at all.

Today is my first day home after my surgery and my only 'real' pain has been from the gas. There's some trapped under my left rib and in my shoulder. But I'm walking it off! My pain level in the hospital never went above a 3 or 4 on the pain scale. I only hit the morphine button once and that was right after surgery. I was in worse pain after my last baby was born and I had my tubes tied, honestly!

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I had complications after surgery that resulted in a 5 night stay and a blood transfusion. I was in real pain I'd say an 8 or 9 on a pain scale. I still have pain and I'm 2 weeks out but mainly at my drain site. I now have developed gas under my right shoulder and sweet baby Jesus I thought I was having a heart attack.