Is it supposed to be like this?

[B Garcia 0]

I had my sleeve done last Friday 10/19. When I got out of the hospital it felt like my pain just keeps getting worse and worse. I found out that they did one of those stitches through my abdominal wall, and I can barely move around because of how much it hurts when pulled. Nobody ever told me I was getting one of those.

Whenever my stomach gurgles (kind of like hunger pangs) it lights my entire belly on fire for a few seconds. Meaning I can’t smell food cause I’ll get hungry and the pain will start.

Also, TMI, I have this pain from the bottom of my incisions, to the upper pubic area, kind of like my guts, that happens every few hours or so. Most of the time, it usually happens and then I need go to the bathroom (all I have is diarrhea now). It’s a horrible pain, I can’t breath for a few seconds.

I’m really regretting having the surgery. I guess I just didn’t realize how much immobilizing pain there’d be? I’ve seen and read about how easy recovery was for others and expected that. I can’t stand how hard this is, I can barely walk. My arm is sore from having to hold my stomach in from where the stitch is at. If I don’t press it in when moving it gives me sharp pains.

I’m going to call my doctor tomorrow to see if this is normal.


Did anyone else have it this bad?

[Matt Z 4,138]

1 hour ago, B Garcia said:

I had my sleeve done last Friday 10/19. When I got out of the hospital it felt like my pain just keeps getting worse and worse. I found out that they did one of those stitches through my abdominal wall, and I can barely move around because of how much it hurts when pulled. Nobody ever told me I was getting one of those.

Whenever my stomach gurgles (kind of like hunger pangs) it lights my entire belly on fire for a few seconds. Meaning I can’t smell food cause I’ll get hungry and the pain will start.

Also, TMI, I have this pain from the bottom of my incisions, to the upper pubic area, kind of like my guts, that happens every few hours or so. Most of the time, it usually happens and then I need go to the bathroom (all I have is diarrhea now). It’s a horrible pain, I can’t breath for a few seconds.

I’m really regretting having the surgery. I guess I just didn’t realize how much immobilizing pain there’d be? I’ve seen and read about how easy recovery was for others and expected that. I can’t stand how hard this is, I can barely walk. My arm is sore from having to hold my stomach in from where the stitch is at. If I don’t press it in when moving it gives me sharp pains.

I’m going to call my doctor tomorrow to see if this is normal.


Did anyone else have it this bad?

Clearly talk to your doctor... but *Everyone* gets stitches in their abdominal wall, they have to stitch closed all the holes they put in you... as far as getting up, check into using the "log roll" method of getting out of bed, it'll help out greatly. Sadly pain is subjective and pain tolerance is unique to each person, so no one really has the same level of pain or discomfort as someone else. Don't regret anything right now, you are still healing, you just had a major surgery, had 90% of your stomach removed, you've got stitches and titanium staples in there now, it's going to take time for your body to recover and heal. Did they give you pain meds?

[johnsons13 359]

I had pain but I moved around a lot to get the gas moving and out. I am assuming you are on liquids which means you will have diarrhea. liquid in, liquid out. This horrible, I hate the decision I made, this isn't what I signed up for will pass. It might pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass. I had pains in places I never imagined could hurt. I've had a lot of abdominal surgeries from pregnancies and other crap so I kinda knew what it would feel like but this was different because of all the many holes I had. Did the Dr prescribe you any pain meds? I came home with liquid Tylenol because I'm a recovering addict. But the Tylenol really helped. It didn't take the pain completely away, but made it manageable. I also had a drainage bulb attached to me for an extra week and I know some Dr's take them out before you leave the hospital.

[Matt Z 4,138]

@Frustr8 why the "sad" on my post? I'm confused by it.

[James Marusek 5,244]

Generally on your hospital discharge directions, there is a list of conditions that describe when to call your surgeon's office. On my list there is one that says "Uncontrolled or increased abdomen pain". So your idea about calling your surgeon's office tomorrow is a good idea. (Why not today?)

I used an abdominal binder for a few weeks right after surgery. This helped to minimize abdominal pain.

Most of the pain I experienced after surgery was gas pain. Walking helped to relieve this pain.

Also generally in a hospital one is administered antibiotics. This kills off not only the bad bacteria but also the good gut bacteria. These colonies of good gut bacteria need to be reestablished after the antibiotic treatment ceases. This is done by taking Probiotics. It will help your colon work properly.

[Frustr8 7,886]

Go ahead and slap me but I had few if any of these problems. Evidently OSU extracts the CO2 gas, I had a bypass instead, and I had few of any incidents where I really had to "splint" my tummy.
Let me share what I got instead. I'm old, well older than most, because my age made me more than average a fall risk or for reasons only known to them or God, I was on what I call Room Arrest, I am sure there were other patients, never saw or talked to any, if my son hadn't stayed with me, except for when I rang to go to my bedside commode, I was basically alone. Had O2 and cardiac leads the whole time, so I'm sure they were monitoring my vitals. Stayed an extra day, thought I would be dismissed at 11 Am, arranged my transportation to be there, then at the last minute, before they dicontinued my IV they decided to hang an extra bag of sodium so I didn't leave until 2-3 o'clock. As I am pushed down the hall to elevator I THOUGHT I might have seen another patient, waved in case SHe saw ME. Had taken a notebook to get addresses do I could correspond or text people. Still blank. My first week home, was feeling pretty good, giving myself Lovenox shots 8AM 8 PM. THOUGHT OK pretty peachy Kool. Sunday ( my surgery had been Wednesday) I got up and my left side was purple, now isn't that odd? And I watched it progress across my abdomen. By Monday morning 3/4 to 7/8 of my tummy was purple and swollen. I looked like I had been impregnated by an alien and was carryn,g his child. I had expected a little bruising around my incisions but not THIS.
Anyway, saw my surgeon on Tuesday, he took one look, said. jokingly" What have You Done To You?" , looked him in the eye, said No No,Bradley J, it is" What have you done to Me?" And only thing he could come up with was one of the trocars had knicked a little skin blood vessel, when I got enough Lovenox blood thinner in me, it popped open and I had a mini- bleed btween my fat layer and the outside skin. Looked and felt worse than it really was. And I was swollen then as I should have been from the operative gas. Well as a reward? he told me I could advance to the next stage of diet, Level 3 , purees and some very soft, well that only lasted a couple days, and I started vomiting with almost every meal, spent an entire OSU football game, and I am a fan, urping,up. And post-surgery. your vomiting is a different quality, not so much projectile but an uncomfortable proceeding. So called the emergency contact # and was told to regress back to level 2 the one I had been on when rekeased, give it time. Maybe I was swollen inside, give it until October. I could try adding things back in, see how I would do, well I did not do well. Oh the weight was dropping off, I managed to retain my Vitamins, minerals, various meds by taking them one or 2. at a time with baby sips of Water. Gone were the days when I would take a small mouthful of water, toss them in all at once and swallow. By trial and error I have learned what Precious Pouch will allow, Protein Shakes , half skim milk, half Protein Shake, strained cream Soups although I had trouble with a new flavor last night,her 2 favorites are cream of mushroom and butternut squash, strained veggie soups, prefers a beef base to chicken/turkey, Flavored waters, likes some herbal/green Decaf ones , water as long as it isn't room temp, Bone Broth and Wal-Mart's organic vegetable broths. What does she not like? Cooked Cereal even super -runny, cottage cheese even pureed, Greek yogurt, even plain, softened saltine cracker , Peanut Butter, and anything I might think sustaining that would keep the thundering hunger monster away especially purees. Oh she is a brat, but I have let her have her way and I have been back to see my Bariatric people every other week. On the 9th they decided maybe I need an EGJ,can't be a EGD because you no longer can visualize a By-passers duodenum unless you would g9 in through a open incision, so you,look at the jejunem instead. I had suspected a stricture, okay I am a medical geek, when Dr Noria went,down on October 12th I was right, one of the times I wished I had been wrong. Now I went into surgery with 1 semi- dormant gastric ulcer named Hectorm He now lives in the disconnected portion of my stomach. But doggone if I did have the stricture I also had 5 evil stepbrothers of Hector, 2 in the pouch, 3 on the back wall of the jejunem. And if Hector was Gizmo from the Gremlins, quiet, causing only minimum trouble, these 5 new ones were like Stripe, not at all nice, thinking about breaking down and bleeding sWell Dr Noria(who really LIKES doing endoscopies) stretched as far as she thought she could without provoking bleeding, but it wasn't enough so she tries again on Friday. And I have been on this boring, largely tasteless diet for weeks, today is my 7 week surgiversity. I lost 15 pounds in my liver shrinking diet, all the month of August , and. over 44 pounds since surgery. Nice loss but not a funny way to do it. I exercise until I get dizzy, because my calorie count is so low, try my best but I yearns to progress toward foods again. Since I am meeting my Protein and Fluid requirements and takin a LL my meds they think I will end up okay.
But you are right, it is a brand new world we now live in.

[Lynnlovesthebeach 625]

If they didn’t give you an abdominal binder at the hospital, call your doctors office and see if they can get you one. It helps hold everything in place so you can move around and not have to hold everything yourself. It helps support everything to make getting out of a chair easier too. It will get better with time!

[Frustr8 7,886]

I think of it as sad, rueful, or that's the way it's got to be, just like the one next to it, confusing or I don't understand it, I guess I read odd things into the emoji. I changed it to a straight" like", which could also be simply "I Approve", the trophy "I couldn't have said it better, the perfect answer to this question. I give a fair,amount of the hug one cause everybody in their struggle needs a hug, but I have yet to use that other one, guess I thought it was saved to "I made My Goal, now I can go to maintainace" and most of the posters are just on their way or trying that I know. I have also given a LIKE for" I see nothing to argue with" in the past.

[beccaconaty87 52]

The pain from stitch last like 4 weeks. The pain sucks. However, a binder really helps and then walk with it on.

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