Howdy all, I hope everyone is well. I am scheduled for gastric bypass on January 13th, 2022. To those that have walked this path before me, do you have any helpful tips to offer me? I am not so concerned about the surgery itself moreover the next few days before/after the surgery.

Thank you!

Edited January 11, 20224 yr by CowboyKurt

Random Thoughts/Advice

1. Once you are physically able to, walk as much as you can -- even in the hospital. It will help promote healing and work the gas out of your system.

2. Go to Walgreens tonight and buy a heavy duty cane. Mine helped me in two ways: (1) it was super helpful for pushing myself up out of chairs/off the toilet and (2) it gave me a sense of confidence in walking that I wouldn't fall (your stomach/gut will be so physically sensitive that even a mild fall would be excruciating and a more severe fall could burst stitches).

3. The night before the surgery was the most miserable part of the entire experience. You take so many laxatives that you are living on the toilet, you can only drink liquids, you want to sleep, but are continually pooping.

4. In the hospital, I found it much easier to sleep in a recliner than in my bed. Once the anesthesia wore off, I spent 99% of my time sitting in the recliner.

3 minutes ago, Splenda said:

Random Thoughts/Advice

1. Once you are physically able to, walk as much as you can -- even in the hospital. It will help promote healing and work the gas out of your system.

2. Go to Walgreens tonight and buy a heavy duty cane. Mine helped me in two ways: (1) it was super helpful for pushing myself up out of chairs/off the toilet and (2) it gave me a sense of confidence in walking that I wouldn't fall (your stomach/gut will be so physically sensitive that even a mild fall would be excruciating and a more severe fall could burst stitches).

3. The night before the surgery was the most miserable part of the entire experience. You take so many laxatives that you are living on the toilet, you can only drink liquids, you want to sleep, but are continually pooping.

4. In the hospital, I found it much easier to sleep in a recliner than in my bed. Once the anesthesia wore off, I spent 99% of my time sitting in the recliner.

Great, thank you. I will be coming home right after the surgery. No hospital stay due to COVID-19 increases. I didn't even think about the laxatives the night before...

21 minutes ago, CowboyKurt said:

Great, thank you. I will be coming home right after the surgery. No hospital stay due to COVID-19 increases. I didn't even think about the laxatives the night before...

Do you have someone who will be looking after you for the first few days? I had my surgery on Monday. Until late Tuesday afternoon, I needed to have a CNA help me out of the recliner so I could use the bathroom and was unable to wipe my own butt.

To me, walking was not the hard part (although, I had zero stamina -- it took everything for me to do one lap around the floor of a hospital). Getting up out of a chair/bed was insanely difficult for the first 24-36 hours and wasn't easy for the next week.

I wished I bought a recliner, I had to sleep sat up in bed for nearly 3 weeks. Every time I lay down I got reflux and that was nasty. I never had any pain or difficulty getting up and down. I was just in slow motion. Good luck and keep us informed of your progress

I was going to give you some hospital stay advice, then I saw your response that because of COVID you'll not be staying in the hospital. So my only other post-op advice is walk as much as possible. It'll get the gas out and you'll feel better and do better if you stay active. Stay hydrated and sip, sip, sip water all day long. If you get tired of water, have some sugar-free flavored popsicles, which count as water.

Today's the day! Good luck and congratulations!!!

Congratulations [emoji322] Healing prayers to you [emoji120] Don't forget to sip your water and walk around and rest.

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using BariatricPal mobile app

Hopefully you are on the other side of surgery healing well. Update as soon as you feel able. ?

I didn't have to take any laxatives lol.

My advice: walk and not just moving around the house. You need to spend a minute or two walking in a straight line. No idea why! But it takes that repetition to get the gas out. Doesn't have to be for long, 2 minutes, 5 times a day, something like that.

Good luck just dont buy loads of stuff you might not like