Ok so I’ll start with a little bit of info about me. I’m 21 years old and currently weigh 225 lbs. My highest weight was 250 lbs. I am in nursing school and currently have my surgery scheduled for July 3rd. I will be having the gastric bypass. I.AM.FREAKING.OUT! I have NEVER had surgery before and I’m scared to death of how it’s going to be after surgery. I’ve even almost called to cancel my surgery altogether a couple of times because I was having a panic attack about it. The issue is I’m worried about pain and how this will affect my health as I age with me only being 21. I’ve went through hundreds of YouTube videos of people talking about their process and it has me worried. I also recently found out my surgeon now has his patients keep their drain tube in for TWO WEEKS! What the actual heck and why!? I feel like that is just asking for an infection to happen. I live in a small town and only know people who have had the sleeve and I’m just really needing insight on bypass surgery experiences. Anything at this point would be helpful information. I know the doctors prepared me for the surgery and they’ve answered my questions in the 7 months I’ve been doing my pre-op stuff but I need first hand experience. Thank you all in advance and I can’t wait to see what you have to say!

It’s totally normal to freak out now. I am 10 days post op of my bypass. Yes there will be pain but it’s pain you can handle. And the meds should work just fine.

I must admit, you have age on your side. You’re educated in health, you know this. You may heal faster than most.

Dont cancel your surgery, you got this. And you know how to care for yourself, you’re in nursing school. I too am a health professional and trust me, it helps to know about health and healing; you’ll be more aware of your healing process and will be equipped to prevent such things as infection.

The only pain I have today is from 1 incision site & that site is the biggest from where the surgeon did most of his work from; its expected. 6 days post op I was going out to stores and driving. I stopped my pain meds at 3 days post op. I can’t relate to the drain because I didn’t have one but I am sure you will adapt and be fine. We all adapt.

You got this! Hang in there

Hey

Freaking out is normal! Just ride it out. My surgeon has hundreds of patients he has been following for years and years. His feedback - younger is WAY easier. Better skin bounce back, start your adult life with decent eating habits (cos this surgery is really just a tool to force us to change how we eat.

So wish I had done this at 21!

Hang in there. Yell if you need any reassurance. Most of us went through an “I want to cancel” stage!! Xxxxx

Thank you both so much! I think it’s mostly fear of the unknown. I also am pretty worried about getting a staph infection after surgery due to me being a carrier and constantly getting it when I was younger and occasionally even now. In my schooling right now we are actually covering care of the surgical patient (ironic) lol and I feel like it’s helped me some to see they wrote an entire 30 page chapter about how I feel and that it’s normal. I only know two girls from my home town that had bariatric surgery and they both had the sleeve. One has a lot of excess skin the other has none at all. My mom and dad both have had the sleeve. Originally that’s what I wanted but my Dr. said I would do much better with the bypass. Hopefully everything goes smoothly because I only will have 4 1/2 weeks to recover before I start school again and get into my busy clinical rotation. I’m excited but also a complete nervous wreck!

Just be careful with the clinical rotation. I am not sure if the stages of nursing rotations but with my therapy rotations the first one was just observing; but I am going back to work after 3 weeks and the doctor urged I be put on light duty, only ambulatory patients if possible. I will also have a technician assisting me, so just let your C.I. Know that you just had major surgery if they ask you to do anything too strenuous.

But then again, you’re young and may feel like the hulk in 4 weeks lol

Lol thank you for that advice! The clinicals I’m starting will mostly be observation ones due to them being ER and ICU rotations. I don’t think they’ll be anything too strenuous and I think if I tell them I had the surgery they will work with me because they have worked with girls who were 7-8 months pregnant during this rotation period. It’d be nice if I felt like the hulk after lol but I’m not sure if that’ll be the case.

16 minutes ago, mckenzie said:

Lol thank you for that advice! The clinicals I’m starting will mostly be observation ones due to them being ER and ICU rotations. I don’t think they’ll be anything too strenuous and I think if I tell them I had the surgery they will work with me because they have worked with girls who were 7-8 months pregnant during this rotation period. It’d be nice if I felt like the hulk after lol but I’m not sure if that’ll be the case.

lol excellent!