What to expect after surgery ???

I am also hoping for a revision from the band. Did you have any problems getting nsurance approval?

I felt ready to go home after one day but my insurance required a two day stay. 

They took me down shortly after I woke up for a leak test.. took 10 mins at the most, they had me stand in front of a machine while I drank a barium concoction which tasted vile to see if any ribbons of the fluid were leaking out. 

I started using the incentive spirometer as soon as I could..I didn't really have gas or pain, but I seemed saturated in the odor of anesthesia which made me feel nauseated and the breathing doohickey helped with that.

I'm not sure what big pill you mean.. any medication I received in the hospital was liquid or injected into the i.v.

Your team should give you paperwork when you are released detailing what to take and when.. but fwiw

I didn't take my blood pressure pills until I got back home again, I was also scripted two stomach pills, liquid pain medication and anti nausea meds. I was able to swallow my pills whole. 

I didn't take any vitamins for the first week while I was on clear liquids, just my bp and ppi

I started the multivitamin after my first followup (8 days after surgery) and I was cleared for full liquids. I use orange chewables from celebrate

I started my calcium when I started semi soft foods .. I use a liquid calcium/magnesium/D3 

I don't need any b12 or iron at this time.

Hair may or may not fall out, there's nothing you can do to prevent it.. I've seen some posters get a sassy shorter do and they look great. 

 

Good Luck!

My experience was similar to those who have already posted. I had my surgery on 11/23/15. The hospital staff was wonderful and attentive. I awoke very groggy, but with no discomfort. I was hooked up to an IV morphine pump. During that first day, I clicked that button as often as I could! I stayed in the hospital one night, being awakened every two hours for one thing or another: breathing treatments, checking temperature, changing the IV drip, the alarm on the leg circulation boots going off, etc. The next day, I used the morphine pump only in the early morning, then stopped completely by noon. Then I was up walking around every hour or so. I was given anti-nausea medication to keep me from throwing up during the swallow test, then had the swallow test. Once it was determined my pouch wasn't leaking, I was told I could go home that evening, as long as I walked as much as possible. I had to have worn grooves in the floor of that hallway as many times as I walked around it! The nurse gave me an occasional liquid Lortab for pain, as needed.

Once home, I slept alot. I took the liquid Lortab every 4 hours, then up to every 6 hours, then 8, until I stopped taking it all together by day five. I ate only when my mom reminded me that I had to. I could only tolerate a few ounces of any liquid, whether it be water, bouillon, or protein shake. The weird part was - I could feel the liquid as it moved through my pouch, especially if the liquid was cold. I'd have to sit up very straight as I drank to help decrease the feeling. VERY weird sensation. I wasn't able to take any vitamins or pills of any kind for quite some time. Fortunately, most meds were stopped at the hospital. I'm no longer on cholesterol or high blood pressure meds. I had to buy a liquid vitamin (Wonderlife), as the Bariatric Advantage vitamins made me nauseous.

It's been a journey so far, but each day I'm thankful for every pound lost, that I'm in ONEderland to stay, and for the health benefits WLS has given me. Good luck to you in YOUR journey. You're going to do GREAT!

Thanks for your input, I guess im really just concerned about my BP meds, its a huge pill, but looking forward to finally being on the road to health!! and of course wearing normal sizes... Thanks again.

 

Diana

You should talk to your surgeon and pharmacist about plans for big pills. Sometimes a liquid or chewable alternative can be prescribed, or the pill may be crushable -- but you need to sort it out with your pharmacist. Good luck!

I've posted this several times before. Hope it helps.

What follows is a list of everything I remember that happened on the day of surgery, supplemented by my husband's observations when I was too woozy to think straight. If you've been hospitalized before, you'll already be familiar with most of the details. If you've never had surgery, this list will give you as complete a picture as I can manage of what surgery day was like.

 

 

• Once you go into the hospital, head to the admittance office and complete whatever paperwork they require. Bring ID, insurance info, a list of your current medications, a copy of advanced directives, and any other papers they will have required in advance.

• You will be directed to the surgical unit waiting room.

• Wait there until a nurse calls your name.

• The nurse will take you to a curtained-off cubicle, which will have a gurney, a chair and a plastic bag for your clothes.

• She or he will direct you to change into a hospital gown, put a paper shower cap over your hair, and put on those ever-so-stylish hospital pressure socks (Their purpose is to help prevent blood clots in your legs from extended immobility.) The nurse will leave while you change. When you're dressed in your stunning new outfit, open the curtain, and wait for the nurse to come back.

• The nurse will settle you onto the gurney in a semi-reclining position if you're not already there.

• Wait around some more.

• Another nurse will come in and take some blood draws from your arm. An IV port will be inserted (usually in your hand or arm) and fluids from the bag hanging on the IV pole next to your bed will be started to keep you hydrated. An oxygen monitor clip will be placed onto your fingertip. An atutomatic blood pressure cuff will be wrapped around your arm. All of these instruments will be attached to a machine that continuously measures your blood pressure, oxygen levels, and heart rate. It beeps a lot. Don't be alarmed. That machine just loves to beep.

• At this point, if someone came with you to the hospital, he or she will be allowed to come in to keep you company.

• Wait around some more.

• More forms will be brought in for you to sign (liability releases -- just what you want to think about right before surgery.

• Wait around some more.

• At some point, your anesthesiologist will visit you for a few minutes to tell you what he'll be using to keep you comfortable before, during, and after surgery.

• When your surgeon is ready for you, they'll move you fast.

• Your gurney will be wheeled out of the cubicle, down various corridors, and finally into the OR. It's very bright and cold in there. Ask for blankets if you're cold.

• There will be lots of hustle and bustle around you as the team preps the instruments.

• A little something relaxing will be injected into your IV. It's very soothing. Mmmmmmm.

• Your surgeon will come in masked and gowned. He'll make sure you're you and say a few encouraging words.

• An anesthesia mask will be placed over your face. You'll be told to breathe deeply. A few breaths later, you'll be out cold.

• While you're under anesthesia, the surgical team will intubate you; that is, insert a narrow tube down your throat and into your trachea. This is a precautionary step to keep your airway open during surgery. If your surgeon wants a urinary catheter inserted, they'll do that too. I don't remember anything being said about a catheter in my case. If they used one, it was removed before I regained consciousness. Don't worry that you'll be too heavy for them to do this. They've done it a hundred times before.

• You will wake up in the recovery room. You'll be very woozy. Your first coherent thought will be "I'm alive!" Then, "I did it! I'm sleeved!" These are very pleasant and reassuring thoughts!

• At some point while still you're still woozy, the nurses will remove the intubation tube. It will feel a little weird but it won't hurt. Sometimes it's removed before you wake up. Your throat will feel very sore. It will take a few days until the soreness goes away.

• You will have a drainage tube dangling from one of the small incisions in your abdomen. It shouldn't hurt, but it's kind of gross looking.

• As if what you were wearing wasn't already sexy-looking enough, you'll find inflatable "pressure boots" wrapped around your lower legs. They automatically inflate and deflate to prevent blood clots in your legs.

• Nurses will keep coming to you and asking in unnecessarily loud voices how you feel. Tell them if you feel nauseated or are in pain (you probably won't be; you'll still be flying high from the anesthesia). But if you find that you're in any distress, the nurses can inject meds into your IV to help you feel better.

• When you're recovered enough to know what's going on around you and can be raised to a sitting position, they'll wheel you to your hospital room, where you'll rest for a little while. You'll still be hooked up to that beeping machine. It lives to beep. You will just have to endure it till the nurse comes in and fixes whatever is making it beep -- empty IV bags, gremlins, whatever. There will be a call button attached to your bed rail to call the nurses if you need them. Rest for a while and contemplate the future. You probably won't feel like reading, watching TV, or playing with your laptop. You'll still be a bit too woozy do much of anything. Over the next few hours, your alertness will increase and you'll feel pretty much like yourself again.

• You will be given a plastic device called an Incentive Spirometer. It looks sort of like a small plastic pitcher with a short hose attached. Your nurse will show you how to use it. It's designed to help you breathe deeply despite the discomfort from your abdomen. You need to start breathing normally and deeply again to prevent pneumonia. You should use it several times an hour. You get to keep it for your very own and take home to use there.

• About four hours or so after your surgery, nurses will come in and help you to your feet and guide you to the bathroom for your first walk and a very welcome bathroom break.

• When you're back in bed, you'll probably sleep for a while.

• You may have one of those push-button painkiller med dispensers. Use it if necessary. You'll feel stiff, and your incision sites will feel sore. You may have pain, especially in your shoulders, from the gas they used in the OR to inflate your abdomen. Sitting upright and walking frequently helps dispel this gas.

• Nurses will come in at regular intervals to inject you with blood thinners and painkillers, check your IV, replace empty IV bags with full ones, and do other sundry chores.

• Once you're fully awake, you can start to take charge of your own recovery. This is where the "walk, walk, walk" advice kicks in. Get up and walk around slowly and carefully in the hallway every half-hour to an hour. You'll be glad you have your PJ bottoms on. You'll have to roll your IV pole along with you. Your sleep that night will be broken up by nurses taking your vital signs and administering medications. Use those breaks to take short walks before going back to sleep.

• This next step was not done by my surgeon but is commonly performed the following morning. You'll be wheelchaired to a room where the surgeon or another doctor will give you a tiny amount of barium solution to drink while observing your new stomach on a fluoroscope to determine if there are any leaks along your incision line. Usually, the line holds just fine.

• Back in your room, having passed the leak test, you'll be given two ounces of water to drink. It will take you a long, long time to get it down. Take heart. Your ability to drink liquids will increase dramatically over the next day or two as your stomach swelling starts to diminish. This is when the "sip, sip, sip" advice kicks in.

• At some point during the day after the surgery, your surgeon will examine you and ask questions about how you're feeling. He'll then determine whether you can go home that day or need to stay one more night. Nearly everyone can go home the day after surgery.

• If you're to be discharged that day, the nurses will remove the drainage tube. Sometimes you have to go home with it, in which case you'll be instructed how to take care of it. If they remove the tube in the hospital, it will feel very strange but shouldn't hurt. They'll start unhooking you from the infernal beeping machine, and the IV will be removed from your arm.

• You'll get dressed in your own comfortable clothes and wait around some more.

• A nurse will give you more forms to sign. They'll also go over a list of discharge instructions, which you will take home with you. These instructions tell you what you can and can't do in the first few weeks following surgery and when to call your surgeon should any complications crop up.

• Wait around some more.

• The nurses will help you into a wheelchair (don't bother telling them you can walk out; the hospital's liability insurance demands that you be wheeled out). They'll wheel you out to the entrance where your designated driver will pick you up and take you home. Use that pillow you remembered to put in the car to hold against your stomach to cushion it from bumps in the road.

• When you get home, do a little victory dance in your head, go to bed, and take a nice, well-deserved, beepless nap. Then get busy recovering.

 

 

This is fantastic !!! Thank you so much. I cant wait till next Tuesday !!!

 

This is brilliant. 

First of all congratulations! You'll do wonderful. Here is how my hospital stay went: Got there at my check in time of 12:30 (surgery was scheduled for 2pm) sat in admitting forever because they "prioritize" people as they see fit. In fact my bariatric clinic (which is on one of the floors of the hospital I had surgery in) finally called down and had to kind of chew the admitting ladies out and tell them to get me up to floor 6 (surgery floor) asap.

Once I got up to 6 my family waited in the waiting room and I had to cleanse myself with pre surgical wipes that keep down infection by killing germs sitting on your skin and smell gross and leave your skin sticky :( which was the worst for me I hate feeling sticky. And then I had to change in my (generously sized) hospital gown and non skid socks and lay on the gurney while they got me hooked up to IVs and such.

My OR nurses and my anesthesiologist came in and introduced himself (his name was Neville and I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd so that made me excited lol) and because I was having bad anxiety and crying like a baby lol he gave me a "chill shot" which I think was like straight valium or xanax because I chilled out then and there.

Then my surgeon came in and talked to me about everything and then my parents and my auntie came back to hug and kiss me and wish me good luck and to meet my surgeon. And my surgeon is super chill and he took a selfie with me before I had to turn my phone over to my nurse who put it in a safe place. Then my family left and I was wheeled back into the or and the last thing I remember is them putting my oxygen mask on me and telling me to breathe deep and count back from 100, I got to 97 lol.

Waking up in recovery I will not lie the pain was pretty bad, it felt like bad chest pain mixed with intense heartburn, and I was sweating my butt off. Luckily the recovery nurses were mostly awesome (I had issue with one nurse and I made her go away because she was very rude and I cried until they got me a new one. In hindsight I am sure I was just overreacting because of the anesthesia) and they took the squeezing leg cuff things that prevent blood clots off me and brought me a damp rag and I was hooked to a pain drip of delautid so I started pushing that button every ten minutes. They also gave me anti-nausea meds (zofran) because I felt like I was going to be sick.

I was in recovery a long time (4 + hours) due to a room not being ready (this was my only real complaint and they apologized immensely for it) and my mom had to come there to see me before leaving because freezing rain was falling and she needed to make it safely home.

Then they wheeled me up to my room and I finally got to pee (by myself but with a nurse right on the other side of the door in case I needed her) and they made me pee into what they call a hat which measures fluid output. You will pee a lot because they give you a ton of liquid via IV.

As soon as they got me to my room they got me into a new gown because they changed me into one that was too small before they took me to recovery and my whole back and butt where hanging out. But they got me another generous sized one and a male nurse (so embarrassing to me) tied me into it and laughed when I apologized he had to look at my butt and said he sees it all and not to worry.

Then I walked and walked and walked some more. The nurses at the nurses station kept track as I walked and gave me ice and water with a swab thing to swab my mouth but I wasn't allowed to drink the water. The nurses were very impressed because I spent the better part of the night/early morning walking and chatting with them. Pain meds don't make me sleep they keep me up and make me chatty lol. I had regular checks of blood pressure etc but mostly they left me alone to walk or watch tv in my room.

I go****er and crystal lite the next morning about 6 am (after dosing just about 2-3 hours) and I was about to get down 30 oz by 10am when my surgeon came in. He was super impressed and I asked if that meant I could go home that day and he said if I tolerated liquid pain meds I could. So a nurse unhooked me from the pain pump and gave me liquid hydrocodone and zofran and I tolerated it so I was released to the care of my mom by 3:30ish I did have to be pushed out to the car in a wheelchair (hospital policy) though I was fine walking.

Sorry it was so long but I wanted to be detailed as possible. Also take chapstick with you to the hospital omg my lips were so dry and I was so glad I had it. And take a pillow to hold on your tummy for the ride home. Good luck!

Thanks so much, I really appreciate all the replies. I cant wait !!! 5 MORE DAYS !!!