I had VSG four days ago and so far I haven't left the "buyer's remorse" phase I read so much about before my surgery. The pain has been absolutely unbearable. I'm pretty sure it's all gas pain. I can't pass gas nor can I poop, so all I do is cry, drink Protein shakes, and try to sleep. I've called my surgeon -- he says walk and drink Water. So I walk and drink water. Still, this pain is the most intense I've ever felt in my life. How long do I have to live with this?

Sleevey, it will get better soon, this is the worst part. Walking and water is the best. Before you know it the gas will pass and you'll be dropping! Hang in there, you got this!

I'm sorry you are hurting:-( It really does get better. VSG is major surgery and pain is to be expected. That gas is the worst. Walking especially helps to move the gas out of your body cavity and into your colon where it can be expelled. And when it is it feels so darn good. I never thought tooting would be that awesome:-) Gas-X just doesn't cut it until then.

Expect to be constipated for a while. Between anesthesia and protein it is expected. I went 7 days before I had to take action to get things moving. Others don't take that long. Just remember don't strain! It can hurt your incision points. Start drinking some smooth moves tea now and regularly until things get moving again.

I would say that at two weeks I started to feel less like I was in recovery and more like I was starting my new life journey. That was when I moved out of full liquid stage and into the puree stage of the recovery diet. Most people say that healing continues for 6 months before you can consider yourself and your tummy healed from this surgery. I am not that far out so I can't speak to that.

Remember...sip, sip, sip...

Take care

Sleevy,

I'm on day 5 now and I agree with you the gas pains are the worst. I'll tell you what I have done to help and I am much better today. I definitely walk every hour. I know this may be TMI but during my walk I go sit on the toilet also because at least for me it is mentally easier to pass gas's while there. I have used the gasx strips which have helped a little and the thing that I think helps the most is lying on my left side with my knees bent. Lots of pillows! I did that two nights ago and burped and farted ALL night. I am still having pains but they are not nearly as bad today. Oh, and a heating pad between my shoulder blades (where my gas pains are the worst) has helped immensely.

I also had hiatal hernia repair so I feel a little constricted around my chest but it's not so bad. One last thing. I'm allowed my liquid pain meds once every six hours but it was only lasting for three hours. I am now taking 1\2 a dose every three hours which has really really really helped

I feel for you right now and hope that some of this helps.

1 hour ago, SleevyNicks said:

I had VSG four days ago and so far I haven't left the "buyer's remorse" phase I read so much about before my surgery. The pain has been absolutely unbearable. I'm pretty sure it's all gas pain. I can't pass gas nor can I poop, so all I do is cry, drink Protein shakes, and try to sleep. I've called my surgeon -- he says walk and drink Water. So I walk and drink water. Still, this pain is the most intense I've ever felt in my life. How long do I have to live with this?

Ugh! That's terrible. I was so concerned about blood clots that I walked every couple of hours on my elliptical. 5-15 minutes. Each day it subsided and I felt better, but I was never as bad as you.

I do take benefiber every day it mixes clear and doesn't taste like anything. Also, I didn't take the narcotics much- a few times the first day home and before bed on day 2 and 3 post-op.

I take 3 servings if I can and for the first few days I took miralax.

Im definitely not normal in the BM department, but I think the fiver helps since I barely get any in my food.

I had my surgery on the 28th and initially I had so much pain, gas and just feeling ?. My surgeon suggested that I just stick with water and nothing else. So, for the past few days I had water and popsicles. Today, my gas is much better, I can handle more than water and my energy is improving. I think the best advice she gave me was "for the first week or so do not worry so much about protein. It is important, but being comfortable and without it for a week isn't going to cause harm". Also, I keep reminding myself that 85% of my stomach was removed....it is okay to take the time and focus on healing and hydration.

Sleevy, during my first 5 days post op recovery I dealt with two different waves of gas pain:

The first wave came immediately after waking in recovery. The problem with this pain is that the gas isn't within your digestive system (the gas is what is leftover from what was used to expand your admonimal cavity so your surgeon could move around in here) so passing gas, using gas-x strips, none of that will help. This pain presents as pain in/near the diaphragm (especially when taking deep breaths) and in the shoulders.

Three main things help: Walking, elevation and deep breaths. The walking will help to move the CO2 around and out from under your diaphragm. The gas will slowly be absorbed into your respiratory system and exhaled. This is where the deep breaths come in.

While in the hospital I was given a device called an incentive spirometer which resembles a reverse breathalyzer. The point of the device is to take the longest deepest slow inhale that you can. You can replicate the resistance that the device creates by pursing your lips together like you are going to whistle, and then inhaling with some force, but slowly and as deeply as you can. Hold the breathe for a few seconds and then exhale as slowly. This will increase the amount of oxygen that your body receives, allowing it to expel more of the absorbed CO2, which in turn will notify your body to absorb more of the trapped CO2 and the cycle can repeat (with more walking of course). When I first started using it I could barely take 1/3 of a full breath without a crazy amount of pain, but within a couple of days (sooner I'm sure if I had not slept so much) I worked my way up to a point where I could get to a nice slow deep breath with only minor irritation

The elevation that will help you with the gas pain is keeping your body in a reclined position, even when sleeping at least for the first week give or take a day. I found that laying on my back made the pain much worse and it slowed my elimination of the gas.

The other thing that can and did help me during this initial round of this Intraperitoneal gas pain were pain medications. Because this pain is outside of your intestines the use of pain killers won't make it worse.

The second wave of gas pain (called intestinal gas pain) is exactly how it sounds. This pain is due to the actual buildup of gas within your intestines. This pain is usually felt much lower in the abdomen. Abdominal massage helps a lot with this. Just be sure to do it in the right direction. If you look down at your belly button your colon forms almost a large square around it. The right side of your abdomen is the ascending colon, it goes up from the bottom of your belly to right below your rib cage. Then the transverse colon moves from the right across the belly to the left side, and then the decending colon goes downward on the left side. So if you massage that area from the bottom right, upwards, then across to the left, and back down the left side it will help to move the air through. If you've ever seen a kitten kneading with its tiny paws you have an idea of how the massaging should be. Small kneading movements along that line.

For intestinal pain, Gas-X strips would probably help, but when I asked for some once I knew the gas pain was intestinal the nurse gave me a sad look and said "I'm sorry, but we can't give you that. We NEED you to pass gas to show us that your digestive system is in working order"

So I continued my regimine of walking, breathing, water, and massage. The upside was that once the majority of the non-intestinal gas pain was gone, getting in and out of bed became much easier. After about a day or so I felt the gas moving to its exit portal and i don't think I've ever had a more relieving passing of gas in my life. A bit loud but I didn't care. LOL #sorrynotsorry. I was more embarrassed when the nurses cheered when they walked in and I told them it finally happened. From that point on i felt better with each passing moment.

As for your lack of a bowel movement I didn't have one until about 5 days after surgery, and the last one before that was I believe 3-4 days before my surgery. Being on that liquid diet will do that.

Hopefully, you didn't fall asleep too many times reading this novel of a post and that some of the information will help you at least understand the pain and know that it DOES get better but only YOU can make it happen.

I'm five days out today, and I can confirm water and walking do wonders.

Ive also found the pain is less if I remind myself to relax through any kind of hiccup or belch (swallowing too). I've nicely banned my family from bringing any stress to me until I'm healed a bit more, too.

When im just feeling sore and uncomfortable around the incisions, I've found relaxing with a heating pad over my stomach really helps. (I used ice the first few days).

Itll get a lot better once we're more healed up.

Stay strong! Sorry you have a rough start, "but this too shall pass". This experience is making you stronger! I hope it passes quickly.

Walk, walk, walk!

Best of luck

Maybe

Insentive spirometers are used to encourage deep breathing and coughing to try and avoid post anesthesia pneumonia - has nothing to do with CO2.

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses to my post. It feels really good knowing there's an online community having the same experiences as me. Now if I could just eat and/or get some sleep...

I feel compelled to come by this thread and say the gas pain is gone. Day 6! I have some abdominal swelling and a small amount of pain around my incisions, but I feel a thousand times better than I did before.

I feel compelled to come by this thread and say the gas pain is gone. Day 6! I have some abdominal swelling and a small amount of pain around my incisions, but I feel a thousand times better than I did before.

Good for you!

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23 hours ago, SleevyNicks said:

I had VSG four days ago and so far I haven't left the "buyer's remorse" phase I read so much about before my surgery. The pain has been absolutely unbearable. I'm pretty sure it's all gas pain. I can't pass gas nor can I poop, so all I do is cry, drink Protein shakes, and try to sleep. I've called my surgeon -- he says walk and drink Water. So I walk and drink water. Still, this pain is the most intense I've ever felt in my life. How long do I have to live with this?

Try laying on your stomach very carefully rolling over. That pressure really helped me a lot.

I have a high pain tolerance, so I was never miserable like how a lot of people on forums claim to be. I stopped taking the pain meds when I got home because I wanted to drive. So I was only on pain meds the 26 hours I was in the hospital.

59 minutes ago, OutsideMatchInside said:

Try laying on your stomach very carefully rolling over. That pressure really helped me a lot.

I have a high pain tolerance, so I was never miserable like how a lot of people on forums claim to be. I stopped taking the pain meds when I got home because I wanted to drive. So I was only on pain meds the 26 hours I was in the hospital.

Wow -- I was completely out of pain meds by day 4. Glad you fared so well!