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 never had really bad pain. I never finished my small bottle of pain meds the surgeon prescribed me. I was back to work as a nurse within a week.

I have had many surgeries and this was one of the easier recoveries for me. I had bad gas pains in my shoulder for a few days, but once that dissipated I felt only discomfort. To me if a wisdom tooth was a 10, this was a 4.

What are these drains you all speak of? Why do they put drains in?

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I am so glad to hear everyones experience because I am scheduled for surgery this Monday, August 8 at 7:30am. I am a bit nervous...

JaY

Pain? Nope. Gas discomfort was walked off. I was the "lap queen", walking four hours along the halls 30 minutes after surgery. Soreness? Yes. Pain meds needed? Nope. I was nauseated as hell for a few days until meds were prescribed but actual pain? It was easy.

I woke up in the PACU with horrendous pain right at my sternum, was quickly given IV Dilaudid and it subsided. Once in my room on the ward, I had a morphine PCA pump so I was able to medicate myself when I felt it necessary. I never had severe pain after the PACU, some discomfort from the gas and some at the incision points but not much else. I walked and walked and walked and walked around the floor I was admitted on...I think that helped with the gas.
I'm a firm believer in medicating yourself to keep up with the pain, not waiting until you're in agony to use your meds. I came home on liquid tylenol and liquid codeine, I used them both faithfully for about a week after I came home and was virtually pain-free.
Good luck with your surgery!

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 in a lot of pain when I first woke up from surgery. I felt like I was having a hard time breathing, but I know it's because he repaired a hiatal hernia and the CO2 gas also played a part. The gas pain was the worst part of it all. It felt as if someone hit me in the back of my left shoulder with a hammer. My incisions barely hurt at all. They were tender, but very easy to deal with. It took me about 2 days to feel human again. My pain only got to a 7 on the pain scale. It never went higher than that. If you're in too much pain, tell your nurse you want Diluadid. It helped me relax and sleep while I was in the hospital. Now I'm 3 days post-OP and I am no longer in pain. It was definitely worth it.

Edited August 7, 201610 yr by Hiraeth

I have had a handful of other surgeries previous to my sleeve (spinal, gallbladder, a miserable hysterectomy recovery, etc), so I felt like the sleeve was a cinch. I only took 3 doses of the pain meds they prescribed (liquid nastiness!). Mostly, it was just incision pain that hurt for a minute when I got up from sitting the first day or two. Sitting and laying down was relatively pain free. I was driving and running small errands by day 3.

@@DaisyAmy, sounds like you didn't have morphine. I'm allergic to morphine so I had Tylenol 3 given to me the night of surgery. It was awful and I was more worried about not keeping it down than about the pain.

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@@pixystix0116,

Nobody knows! Everyone’s different!

I think, as the others have said, you can do some things to try to prepare. In general, the more weight you can lose before surgery, the better. Getting in shape as much as possible can help. If you can get used to walking before surgery, you can use walking as a way to manage pain after surgery.

Like with wisdom tooth removal, some patients have it easy, and some don’t. Good luck!

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!!!

My wisdom teeth surgery was worse than WLS. As others said the gas pain was the worst.

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@@Dub did you tell your surgeon About your abdominal hernia before surgery? I'm having groin pain and thinks it's a hernia

I hit the button every time I could, lol.

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Great answers, I didn't know what to expect of the gas pain. Once I was able to control the nausea after 2 days with Zolfran and a patch behind my ear, I was able to drink my Water and walk more often. I used my morphine as often as I needed to. It did make me super tired though and slowed down my will to walk. But day 3 as the gas pain lessened, I was walking more often. I went home on day 5. Originally I swore I'd never recommend the surgery, but I feel pretty good now, 13 days post op. Much easier than non laparoscopic appendix and gall bladder removal. Good luck!!

I had very little pain from my surgery itself. It was the complications etc that caused my pain. And anytime I tried to put more fluid in at a time than my sleeve wanted, that can really hurt.

I got dehydrated and that caused muscle pain in my legs and because I now have constant diarrhea, I have quite alot of pain in my inflamed bowels.

But surgery itself was not too bad, only the drain dragging around caused actual pain.

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