Hello all,

New here. I’m 3 days postop of my gastric sleeve and I keep getting this breathtaking pain on the top of my left shoulder. I know it’s normal to have gas pain there, but has anyone else experienced it taking your breath away?

It's from the gas that they had to open to you to do the surgery. And yes it does manifest as shoulder pain. It should diminish over the next few days.

Yeah, it could get pretty excruciating the first couple of days. Keep walking and getting as much of the gas out as possible and it should ease soon.

it's Gas...….Walk, Walk,Walk

Thank you all for the responses. I’ve been walking since day of surgery. Doing windmills to help with the shoulder pain. I just didn’t expect it to come on suddenly and take my breath away. Woke up to it this morning. Hopefully by Sunday it will be nonexistent!

@Storm90 I experienced the exact same thing!! It was terrible! I’m 10 days post-op today and it has gotten better each day but still experiencing left shoulder pain when I’m still or laying down. Day 5 or 6 post op it was so bad that night I dreamed I was having surgery on my shoulder.

I spoke with my surgeon and he agreed with others on this forum, it’s gas. I googled left shoulder pain and of course the worst pooped up—gastric sleeve leak. Oh heck naw! But I had no other symptoms of a leak and only those of gas. It gets better day by day and slowly it’s going from the top of my shoulder to the front of my shoulder, IDK. It’s so strange where gas wants to hang out.

@CammyC Thank you for your response. My fear was gastric leak!! I googled it too and kind of freaked myself out, but I knew gas in the shoulder was normal. I just couldn’t believe it takes my breath away. Today has been so much better. Only one spell of the pain.

Awesome! So glad to hear you’re feeling better. We’re good, lol no leaks! ❤️