Hibernation Mode (Advice for newbies)

Since we have a bunch of newbies, I thought this would be a good time to revisit this post I put up some time ago.

Not much is mentioned about this, so I thought I would toss it out here for all the recent post-ops. 

You've made it out of surgery and you're starting to feel better. You've found a bit of energy that you didn't have just the week before, but then around weeks 3 to 6, just when you think you are feeling better and you have more energy you suddenly find that you need to rest more. Napping may be something that you HAVE to do to get through the day. You may even become depressed.  At this point you've been on either a liquid diet for a while and you have been eating many fewer calories than you were pre-op. You've been pretty inactive after surgery more than likely too. Depression can be exacerbated by inactivity.  

Suddenly, just when you start feeling better and your energy levels are rising you feel that all you want to do is sleep. You may have crying spells, you might even start thinking that the surgery was a mistake. It's not uncommon to think "what the hell have I done to myself?" 

Have no fear. What you are experiencing is not abnormal and to a certain extent it can be expected. Your body is spending a lot of energy healing from the surgery. Even if your surgery was lap and not open, a lot was done to your insides and your body is working on healing the tissues. Your body is cleansing itself from the drugs that were used during and after surgery. The effects from the anesthesia can take several weeks to completely dissapate. Add to this the low number of calories you are eating produces a phenomenon called "hibernation syndrome" 

During the weeks immediately following surgery, our body is expending a lot of energy when suddenly it starts to take notice that we are not taking in enough calories and certainly not as many calories that we were taking in preoperatively. Our body is missing food and thinks "FAMINE, STARVATION!!!"     It's missing food/calories and thinks famine and then it struggles to conserve our engery.  As a result we don't have the motivation to do anything and anything we do do makes you tired. You find that you want to nap and instead of an hour nap you may find that you have to sleep 4 or 5 hours in order to make it through the day. In this way our body conserves calories and remains alive. It's NOT ABNORMAL for this to happen.

So how long does this last? Well, it can last for several weeks. Remember, your body is recovering from major surgery, you are adopting new eating habits, not to mention that you are having to deal with a liquid or soft diet. You are having to relearn a new way of life and all this adds up to stress. At this point I'll bet you're asking me "what the heck do I do to get out of this stage?" Well, there really is no way to "get out of it".  Your body will eventually realize that this famine is lasting too long and will realize that if it keeps conserving its energy with inactivity, it will starve to death. So it will start to use the last of it's energy stores to start hunting up some food.   At this point your body will switch from getting energy from food to getting energy from your fat and from your muscles too if you don't eat enough protein. This is why we need to make sure that we eat enough protein, so that your body starts pulling energy reserves from your fat and not your muscles.

The hiberation period can be a difficult transistion period, but tell yourself that you are right on track and that what you are experiencing is TOTALLY NORMAL and to be expected. Tell yourself that in a few weeks this will pass and soon you will feel completely like a new person. You will turn the corner shortly enough. You just need to realize that suddenly feeling tired and maybe even a bit melancoly is to be expected. Your mood will lighten and your weight loss will start to add up and you will start to feel more positive and your outlook on life will be better. Just keep telling yourself that you will NOT always feel this way. Soon enough you will be feeling BETTER than your old self. So give it time!

Maddie



 

I love this... boy I wish I had this to read after I had my surgery. You hit the nail on the head.

Great post and reminder.

Thanks so much for sharing this great post! 

Maddie...
Thank you so much for posting this... I know for myself being 10 weeks out and a newborn... I appreciate this...I know for me the WTF did I do did happen early on... I knew it was coming and I was prepared for it... I also was kinda prepared for the 'hibernation phase' but you really can not understand until it happens to you....
Thanks again!!

Oh thank you! yesterday was five weeks out for me and I have been wondering what The heck is wrong with me and where was all the extra energy I was supposed to be finding. my period is a week overdue so I'm feeling bloated and gross on top of the no energy. When bedtime rolls around I am grateful to get under the covers. I have to get up at 6:30 to get my son to school but as soon as I get home I go back to bed (lol today I just woke up and it's lunchtime!)

I'm so glad to hear I'm not a freak and it normal to be this tired. I had wondered about the famine mode since my weight loss has slowed down to next to nothing after losing roughly 38 lbs.

I really needed to read this Thanks again!

Yup, sounds exactly what is going on. I remember around week 7 or so that suddenly I needed to sleep all the time. I had just gotten to the point of actually feeling like I had some energy when next thing I knew I always felt tired. I had to nap several times a day. Eventually if did wear off. For me it took about 5 more weeks following that, but my energy did come back.

Thank you Maddie!
I am 8 weeks out and LOVE this post. I go for my check-up tomorrow and feel like I have been at a stall for over a week. You explained exactly what is going on! Plus, I've been telling people that "I'm depressed, well really it's not a grey mood, it's just not motivated to do anything". Now, I'm happy to realize that it's just hibernation!  Yay!
My recovery has been so great that I was starting to think my DS wasn't going to work! Haha!
I am so relieved. 

Maddie, thank you so much for this post and great reminder. I'm 7 weeks out as of yesterday, and I've been having more energy than the past 7 weeks of course, but I've noticed also that I can't fall asleep now until almost 2 a.m. I wake up get the girls on the bus and fall back to sleep until around 10ish. Still haven't been back to work, not sure if I can handle a whole 12 hour shift without being extremely fatigued. Thanks for letting me know that what I'm going through is "normal."

Nika

Ya'all are welcome!!!!!