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How was your pain the day of the surgery and the couple of days after. I am going back to work 5 days after being banded and want to make sure I can function. My WLS said I should do just fine considering my pain tolerance. I have had swelling and bruising on my left ankle and they x-ray yesterday at pre-op cause they noticed it and it's broken! I mean it's like an achey sore feeling but I would have never guessed broken. So I'm curious how I will handle the post band pain!

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My port site was a little tender, but I never even took ANY pain meds, not even tylenol. Surgery on Tuesday, back to work on Friday. I consider myself to have a high tolerance for pain, but I really didn't feel anything other than the tenderness around the port area.

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Depends on you, your surgeon, your situation. If you think you'll be ready, you probably will be.

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depends on what you do. i know i got really lightheaded if i sat too long or if i was on my feet too long. you just might need to take it slow.

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I had my surgery on Thurs and went back to work on Tues. I took pain med's only on Thurs (surgery day) and at bedtime on Friday. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain. I had no problems at all when I went back to work and I was sleeping on my stomach in less than 1 week after surgery.

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I usually have a high tolerance for pain but I had to take pain meds, my surgery was on tuesday - woke up in pain and they gave me morphine (which I wished they hadn't but oh well) next day I had 4 endone over 4 hours (morphine based) and then when I came home I just had normal panadol, port side is definitely tender but it's up to how you feel, if you don't feel up to it just call in and tell them that, I'm sure they'll understand especially if they know you had surgery as usually any surgery you don't just get over the pain and stuff the next day

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I had my surgery on a monday afternoon and went to work on Friday. I'm a receptionist in a fairly busy office. The pain wasn't bad at all. I moved a little slower and certainly wasn't going to be employee of the week but was able to do everything I needed to. I did find it helpful to get up and walk around every hour or so. Feel good!!

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I had surgery on a Thursday. Friday and Saturday were pretty bad and I really needed the painkillers. By Sunday I was fine, then on Monday I had a problem due to some Fluid in my abdomen because of the surgery. But that is a one-off situation, I imagine without that I would have been good to go back to work by Monday (even though I took the next week off to recover just in case).

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I had surgery on Tues. May 12, 2009 and would not been one to go back to work the next day. The incision pain wasn't that bad but I used pain meds for 4 days. The GAS is awful! It was trapped in my shoulder and chest and excruciating! However it has been 4 days & It is finally getting out! My kids got a good kick out of all the uncontrollable burping though! Maybe this is a strange problem but the gas was worse than the incision sites!

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It must depend on the surgeon and how much poking around he or she has to do. I had a hiatal hernia repair at the same time I was banded and that was where the bulk of my pain was the first two days. The next two days' pain was from the terrible gas pains that my surgeon hadn't prepared me for. I suggest some liquid Gas X or something similar. I went from Tylenol #3 to regular Tylenol on day 3, with one dose of Tylenol #3 at bedtime. It was day 6 before I was done with regular Tylenol. Most of the pain after the gas pains passed was in my left lower abdomen. Not sure what it was from exactly. Felt like a stitch in my side. Personally, I took two weeks off, but I'm a nurse and I needed it. :scared2:

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I also had a hiatal hernia repaired so that may be why I was not one of these 1 day recovery ppl! :0) Today is day 5 and I am feeling much better. Still some shoulder gas pain, but much better. I heard a lot of ppl & the Doc talk about the gas pain but I had no idea it would be so awful! who would have thought that "gas" could be such a big deal! lol! I've just about used a whole box of gas x melty things...still gassy. lol. thanks for reply / sharing. I am new to this thing but the site seems very useful. So when were you banded?

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I used my vicodin for 3 or 4 days after my surgery. My port site was very painful. I took 2 weeks off of work. I'm a nurse so there's usually some lifting involved . But if I worked in an office I think I'd have been fine after a week.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

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        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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