Everyone is talking about the gas pains after the labband surgery - well I had a c-section 7 months ago and the gas pain is still very fresh in my mind. Also - the pain was so severe then that there was NO WAY IN HELL I could have flown from Mexico back to Florida a few days after the birth of my son, or even 2 weeks!

I know - cutting you wide open and extracting a human being from your gut is not quite the same as laproscopic surgery to implant a small band,. but I guess all I can see is myself writhing in pain on the flight back for hours and hours - what are your experiences???

I had two c-sections myself. The gas pain is different. It's not so much concentrated in the stomach area. With the c-sections I felt like there was still a kid in there the stomach was so active with gas. I did not get that with the lapband.

For me, the worst part was the iritation to the stomach that sends the pain up to the shoulder. Odd place but that's where it goes for a lot of people.

I wrapped a pillow around my tummy to protect it against the seatbelt and then spent 5 hours in a car to get home. I wasn't able to fill my pain killer prescription till after I got home and I did need it!

The trip home would have been a lot more tolerable with a little drugs :heh:

Thanks for the heads up - pain meds all the way!

Hey NoahsMom,

I had 3 c-sections and it is nothing like it. I was lucky and did not have gas pains with my lapband. My port area hurt for awhile longer than most people. I had a bad stitch the doc said but even at its worst still only 10% of the pain of a c-section. Pain meds for a couple of days....do not wait until you feel pain, take them every 4 hours to keep it at bay.

Good Luck and congrats on the new baby, my oldest is packing for college right now and I would give anything to turn the clock back and have him be a 7 month old. I know it sound like a cliche' but it does go by way to fast! Enjoy every minute because before you know it you will be in my shoes!

Hey NoahsMom,

I had 3 c-sections and it is nothing like it. I was lucky and did not have gas pains with my lapband. My port area hurt for awhile longer than most people. I had a bad stitch the doc said but even at its worst still only 10% of the pain of a c-section. Pain meds for a couple of days....do not wait until you feel pain, take them every 4 hours to keep it at bay.

Good Luck and congrats on the new baby, my oldest is packing for college right now and I would give anything to turn the clock back and have him be a 7 month old. I know it sound like a cliche' but it does go by way to fast! Enjoy every minute because before you know it you will be in my shoes!

METAL....noticed your post.......(kinda got sentimental reading it!!!!) at least you still have 2 at home.....empty nest is hard! But I'll say they doing EXACTING what I want them to! I mean what's the alternative!!!!!! Good luck to them at college!

I cannot imagine the empty nest!!! I am missing him already and he leaves tomorrow!

I had three kids......all natural childbirth. No drugs...nothing. And the lapband surgery was a piece of cake compared with. I didn't have gas pains and only took one pain pill........just in case I had trouble sleeping that first night out of the hospital. Then, flew back to Michigan two days later. Not a problem, except for fanny fatigue.

I had a friend of mine who also had a c-section ask me the very same question. The c-section was definitely worse. I didn't have gas pains after the c-section, so I can't compare the two in gas pain, but I had a lot of incision pain with the c-section and almost none with the band.

I remember not being able to stand up straight for a couple of days and it being pretty hard to move around. The actually slice through abdominal muscle during the section, the band was only 6 little holes.

I did have a really hard time at home the first night after the band. I spent one night in the hospital and getting out of bed to go to the bathroom was easy because I had the siderails of the bed to pull on. The next night at home, it was very hard to get down all the way on the bed and then to get back up since there was nothing to help pull on. With difficulty I would finally get on my side and push up from there.

However I'm single. If you have a significant other, wake their a** up to help you out of bed!!!

I had a friend of mine who also had a c-section ask me the very same question. The c-section was definitely worse. I didn't have gas pains after the c-section, so I can't compare the two in gas pain, but I had a lot of incision pain with the c-section and almost none with the band.

I remember not being able to stand up straight for a couple of days and it being pretty hard to move around. The actually slice through abdominal muscle during the section, the band was only 6 little holes.

I did have a really hard time at home the first night after the band. I spent one night in the hospital and getting out of bed to go to the bathroom was easy because I had the siderails of the bed to pull on. The next night at home, it was very hard to get down all the way on the bed and then to get back up since there was nothing to help pull on. With difficulty I would finally get on my side and push up from there.

However I'm single. If you have a significant other, wake their a** up to help you out of bed!!!

I hope that when I get my band It's as easy on me as my c-section was LOL..

The c-section itself wasn't bad on me. It was the staph infection I caught afterwards/during that caused allot of pain in the incision area because when they pulled the outer staples half the incision just flopped back open. That began a 6 month long series of packing, debriding(sp?) and even one time of the surgeon opening the area back up once.

Then in 2000 I had my appendix out. 1- 3 inch long incision and 2 port holes and I had NO problems whatsoever. Very little pain and no gas. Healed up nicely. Which I hope is how my banding will go.

These are two different kinds of gas pain. A C-Section does not require CO2 like a lap band. Gas pains from a band are from the doc keeping gas in your gut to inflate it like a Buddha belly so he can see what he's doing. It can sometimes irritate a nerve from your diaphragm up to your shoulder. Some have that pain, some don't. I never had that pain and I had a hernia repair at the same time.

Gas pains from a C-Section are due to a totally different issue and hurt in a completely different place.

A C-Section is huge and major with a long recovery. Banding is quite simple and nothing in comparison.

My c-section was def worse but this did hurt like all hell because they had to cut through my previous tummy tuck in one spot to get the band in so there was some extra pain from that. By and large the gas was what sucked the most. But nothing oh nothing was as painful as my tummy tuck several years back.....omg! If I turn a certain way or bend over for more than several seconds it STILL feels like my insides will just fall out. lol

I had 3 c-sects...no comparison what-so-ever!!! Small incisions compare nothing to being cut from belly button to pelvic bone and having the uterus dissected also.

The gas is much different, too. It's higher with the lapband and passes much, much, much quicker!!!

I never really got gas pains from lap-band. No input on the c-section, but I did have horrible pains from my incisions (more than I expected). Post-op, I pulled a muscle from sitting funny and not taking my pain meds.

My c-section was def worse but this did hurt like all hell because they had to cut through my previous tummy tuck in one spot to get the band in so there was some extra pain from that. By and large the gas was what sucked the most. But nothing oh nothing was as painful as my tummy tuck several years back.....omg! If I turn a certain way or bend over for more than several seconds it STILL feels like my insides will just fall out. lol

Is post op pain from a TT typical this long out? Or are you extra super duper special? I'm hoping you are extra super duper special because I'm gearing up for a TT. I don't do pain well.

I wouldn't worry too much. While I was very pleased with the job my surgeon did I did actually have some nerve damage. I think it attributes to alot of the pain I have now from that TT.

I have spoke to other people who have had them and one woman told me that 3 yrs out she still feels pain if she has to bend for very long. Perhaps she had nerve damage as well.

There seem to be quite alot of people that never experience that and some have had no clue what I was referring to.

Keep in mind that I had my tt nearly 10 yrs ago and I wasn't exactly skinny when I had it. I've done nothing but piled on more and more weight onto that tuck and really tested it to no end...thus this LB.I def abused the system while you are going to be at a healthy weight having it and not going to balloon back up like I did. Big big diff for your future recovery there.

I wouldn't worry too much. While I was very pleased with the job my surgeon did I did actually have some nerve damage. I think it attributes to alot of the pain I have now from that TT.

I have spoke to other people who have had them and one woman told me that 3 yrs out she still feels pain if she has to bend for very long. Perhaps she had nerve damage as well.

There seem to be quite alot of people that never experience that and some have had no clue what I was referring to.

Keep in mind that I had my tt nearly 10 yrs ago and I wasn't exactly skinny when I had it. I've done nothing but piled on more and more weight onto that tuck and really tested it to no end...thus this LB.I def abused the system while you are going to be at a healthy weight having it and not going to balloon back up like I did. Big big diff for your future recovery there.

Question for you, since you had a TT once and regained, is another TT an option for you? I have never had a lot of experience with plastics so I don't know much about it.

Great response, btw. You sound like a nurse.