surgical gas post surgery lap-band and severe upper chest pain

 hi, had lap-band 3-23-11 1 day later, severe boughts of upper chest sudden heartburn symptom with pain, subsides the later in the day short one again, now 2 days of surgery still sudden short pain, doctor says this is from the surgical gas and will stop after a couple days.
Even though it is brief it hurts so much, also having boughts of diarrhea.
Anyone else with this and what helps other than walking, I m doing walks?

this sounds VERY familiar!! I had my surgery 03-07-11, and I had difficulties breathing because of the chest pains and heartburns etc. You should force yourself approx. once every 15 minutes to sigh. Breathe in deeply (that is painful), and sigh it out. The anaesthetics at the hospital gave me that tip. Just hang in there, the pain will pass!

Keep eating those pain pills if you need them and going on your walks to keep the gas on the move. Thats essential. The gas x won't touch this gas. It's not in the actual stomach, but in your chest cavity around the stomach. It sucks! I know... laying with a heating pad between your shoulder blades will feel like heaven. Give it a try.

The diarrhea is pretty standard. I presume you had some sort of pre-op liquids and you were on liquids after.  They say  Liquids in = Liquids out.  But the nice thing is that you are dropping some LBS during this phase. So let it play out. It's all normal and part of the process.

Welcome to the club.

Hi, Had my surgery on 3-8-11, started to feel the pains you are taking about, but took the advice of many long time banders and walked as much as possible. The more you move the quicker the gas will absorb and dissipate from your system. Mine lasted about 2 hours and now I'm 3 weeks post op and never needed the pain pills. Walking will do you wonders. I also used the speedometer for 4 days after surgery to keep my lungs clear. I did not have the diarrhea, that could be from your pre and post op diet or from the pain meds. Hope you feel better soon and know that in the end it will all be worth the little discomfort you are feeling now. 3 weeks post and I'm down 28 pounds. :)

I also was banded on March 8, and I walked and walked, but the pain in my left shoulder was killing me daily, a heating pad works, but only temporarily.. Finally this week, the pain is only minimal and I am getting back to normal-YAY for me.. I do have a bit of pain if I try sleeping on my left side...

I was wondering did anyone else have this problem..?? when am I able to sleep on my left side? It feels painful when I do....

Good luck with the pain.. I promise it will go away, just takes time!!

-country

My post could read word for word like yours. Today is the first day I've actually felt like myself.

I had the band on 3/23 too.  I too am having issues with the gas.  Man I never thought it would be so hard with the pain afterwards..  I haven't had the diarrhea issue though.  I just today went to the bathroom for the first time, not fun.  I have been walking/swaying, even went grocery shopping today.  I'm finally able to lay down in bed and sleep, I still have problems with breathing every once in a while.  I have to be honest, I'm not sure this surgery was worth it.  If I had to do it over again, not sure i would!!!  but then again this coming from someone only 2 days out of surgery!  Maybe next week at this time it will be different! 

Best of luck to you and we need to keep each other updated since we were banded on the same day!!!

Good luck buddy!

 thanks everyone, i hope all our pain leaves fast.

For the gas pain, a heating pad will help it to dissipate faster. Just put it on the area that hurts at the moment. Alternating heat and ice on your incisions will also increase circulation and speed healing. Just don't put it directly on the skin and do heat first for 10 min, followed by ice for 10 min, once every couple of hours.

Edited to add: Use your spirometer (thing they told you to blow into a couple of times per hour), it helps get past the painful breathing you might have, especially if you had a hiatal hernia repair.

Walk, Walk, Walk...
Sip, Sip, Sip...
Take pain meds as needed per directions
Eat what your post op instructions told you, in the amounts suggested, in the frequency directed.
You will feel much better very soon!

Stay away from the scale for a couple of weeks...they load you up on IV fluids in the hospital and it takes a while for all that and the swelling (= fluid) around your belly to go down...

Welcome to the "losers' bench"!