So what exactly DOES happen if you vomit post-op?

My biggest fear....vomiting post-op and completely destroying the freshly stitched gut.

Anyone experience this immediately following surgery? How soon are/far out after the surgery? did it do damage?

It happens! They give you lots of antinausea meds, big guns like zofran in the hospital and after. I have vomitted several times in the past four weeks, I had unrelenting, constant nausea for about three weeks post surgery (utter hell!).

I was worried too, but nothing happened. It didn't even hurt that much, not even the dry heaves. I just supported my stomach a little bit with a pillow and it was fine. I hope you don't have to worry about that however and you don't have the N/V.

I never ralphed since my DS *knock wood* but I would imagine you would grab a pillow to brace your tummy as you heave... same thing for sneezing or coughing after abdominal surgery. It seems to help....but not sure how the hell you would hold a pillow with your head in the toilet.

I ganked a couple of the hospital's barf bags (they looked like blue bread bags with a platic ring around the rim) and used them at home the first couple of weeks. 

For some reason they gave me full sized hydrocodone pills, which made me nauseous even prior to surgery.  Up to the point of my surgery I'd heard that most people got a liquid painkiller to take home.  Re-learning to eat was a bit of a trial and error process at first, too.

Once I got back out in public I learned to travel at all times with sandwich baggies and napkins.  That way when we were out and I accidentally took just one bite too many, or drank something a snidge too quickly, or ate something that didn't quite agree with my new plumbing... I always had something handy in an emergency.

It sounds gross, but they're definitely life savers!


Keeping a firm throw pillow handy is your best bet.  It definitely helps when/if you get sick to your stomach.

When I wasn't up shuffling around, I spent my time in a huge recliner with my feet up. (My ankles and calves used to swell up really hugely unless I elevated them.)  I found that even keeping a fluffy bed pillow across my abdomen while in the recliner helped my tummy area feel better.

I never damaged anything from throwing up, though it wasn't the most comfortable experienc ever.

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I will say that my body's Primary Symptom for almost everything is to puke, so others may not require the emergency bags. :D

Gallbladder? Pain, nope! Puking, yes!
Thyroid failure? Vomit!
Stress? Hurl!
Migraine? Chunder!

I've only ever met one other person who presented all maladies like this, and she's an RN.  We're now Barf Buddies.

hmm...

ganked, snidge and chunder.

>>adding those three to my DS Vocabulary

I've always been a bit of a barfer... especially pre-op ... not on purpose of course.
I think I barfed in the hospital once because I was nauseous when they took me down to have the leak test.  I told my nurse but she wasn't listening.  I was hot and sweaty and kept breathing deep trying to will it away.  Everything feels alien so early out but with the drugs I don't think it was bad.  It wasn't the kind of wretching that would cramp your stomach.

I've barfed a few times the first year post-op, mainly for either eating too fast since I let myself get too hungry in between meals.  I never needed to put my finger down my throat or anything to help it along.  It was kind of just like, I bent over into the toilet and what was stuck in my chest came up.  

I've never felt anything different than that as a post-op.  

Yeah, these days when I get sick it's because I ignored that warning feeling and had just one more bite of something really delicious.

And even then, I tend to only barf up that last bite and not my whole meal.

It's pretty rare that happens these days. Usually only once every few months when I'm exhausted and forget to pay attention.

Ive only throwing up once in 3weeks and it was not really related to surgery. I became completely lactose intolerant after surgery and eating cream soups and low lactose protein shake (i was also drink too many shakes to soon) anyways i became very nauseous and after 30mins of trying to hold the inevitable back, i simply got up to the BR and lean over the sink and it all just flowed back out. No heaving and once i stopped all things with lactose (except cheese, thankfully!) ive been fine.

Side Note: one of the top reasons i picked the DS it is not like the RNY. You dont usually (i said usually, there are some that do) throw up for no reason and if you are you need to go see your dr. A friend of mine asked me the other day how i was doing and how was the throwing up going, i laughed and said hun, i have the DS i dont throw up:)

I rarely barf---I'd rather take a beating than barf, and over the years I've developed some strong jaws. (*grin*)

BUT---I've found that barfing post-DS is different than barfing pre-op was. Pre-op, it HURT. I'd gag and heave and feel like my stomach was turning inside out. Post-op, it's ...well, ever watched a dog barf? They just kinda drop their head, open their mouth, and out it comes---and that's the way it usually is for me now.

In nearly eight years, I've barfed on three seperate occassions. Twice I had food poisoning, once I had a bowel obstruction---and THAT time it DID hurt.

Yeah, that's a good way of describing it--like a dog does. If I urp really hard, it's more like a cat does. But NOTHING like it was preop, not even five years later.