Hi everyone. My mom, 67, just had a gastric sleeve on Monday. She felt pretty good and was discharged on Tuesday. When we got home the gas pains became horrible for her.

I am two years and four months post op but I never had bad gas pain so I am looking for tips to help her. We are walking tons, and have tried gas x strips. She gets about an hour relief after taking pain meds but that's it. She is burping a lot. She is taking tiny sips of fluid and we have been experimenting with different temperatures to see what helps.

Any other suggestions?

The thing is, no medication for "gas" relief is going to help, because this gas is in the abdominal cavity...it isn't inside the organs. It has to pass into the intestinal tract before it can leave the body, and the only solution to that is lots of movement. Whether it's rolling from side to side while laying in bed, getting up and walking frequently (not just for long stretches, it's better to do it less duration but more frequency), etc... Sometimes the stuff is just stubborn, it always takes me about 3-4 days to get rid of it (I've had three abdominal surgeries). After 2-3 days, that's generally when I start passing meaningful amounts out the "other" end and the pains start to subside a lot. But the only answer is movement, that's the only thing that gets the gas out.

I've been told that sleeping as upright as possible helps as well as frequent walks

Walking is the best approach. The first week after you leave the hospital, the body needs to expel quite a bit of gas. After that it should ease up. On a side note, have her take a probiotic if she hasn't started taking some yet. In the hospital they routinely give you antibiotics. This is to prevent infection from the various germs floating around the hospital. The antibiotic kills not only the bad bacteria but also the good bacteria in the gut. These colonies of good bacteria need to be restored after surgery and a probiotic does this.