Hard recovery

Well I hope your recovery is much better than mine. Many seem to make it through with minimal pain. I do count myself as blessed because none of my issues have been major. Congrats on your upcoming surgery! Hospital pain control is much better than at home pain control just remember that. I didn't feel so awful bad until I got home. An elevated toilet seat has been a God sent for me. Otherwise I would have needed help off the toilet. Very good purchase FYI. Also a pill crusher if you don't have one.

You got me thinking and I was reading up on the gas. I do not know when we can have hot tea but someone recommended 'smooth move' tea. I might pick up some even if I can only drink warm tea.

Thank you again!

Penny

Thanks so much. I think we can as long as it is decaffienated.

I'm sorry you're having a rough time. Every surgery and every recovery is different. I was lucky to have only moderate pain the first few days, and then it was only mild pain for a couple of weeks, easily managed with tramadol and nothing harder. I wish that for everyone, but it doesn't work out that way always. I'm glad you're getting better even if it seems very slow.

Thanks so much. Feeling a lot better today. The pain does seem to vary a great deal between patients. I?m just glad the worst is over.

So sorry to hear that you have been so uncomfortable. I have had 3 major abdominal surgeries prior to my VSG this past September. Rocking in a rocking chair was very helpful for me to relieve some of the gas pains. It seemed to help release it and is somewhat comforting. If you have one available would not hurt to try it. This was recommended to me by my first surgical doctor back in 1981 and has been very useful for me with all the subsequent procedures I have had. Good luck to you! It will improve.

Age 61 HWE 330 SW 272 VSG 9/19/17 CW 247 GW 160

Thanks so much. Getting better every day!

I'm sorry you're having such a tough time (I did too-they took my gall bladder out at the same time and apparently that can make things a bit worse). I remember posting here way back when and asking for some help relieving pain without meds. Of course there is no magic answer.

You can probably guess I was going to tell you to call your surgeon because pain that takes your breath away is too much. Then I remembered you are a nurse! Nurses are so my heroes - you probably know more in the way of practical advice about postop healing than your surgeon does!

So I will stick with just saying please take care of yourself. Your experience and how you got through are going to be helpful to the next one that has a difficult recovery.

You are too kind! Much improved today!! Posted an update. Thanks so much for checking in on me.

Your experience is pretty textbook, and I give you mega snaps for achieving protein and fluid goals!

No matter how you look at it, this is a major surgery, and it's so darned commonplace here that we often forget that..especially when people are saying they were back to work in a week's time.

I took a total of 8 weeks off work and seriously, the first four weeks I couldn't even focus on the television because the pictures moved too fast. I couldn't get out of bed myself, and everything I did, I did very slowly and carefully. I had no complications at all, but was a cheap date to the anesthesia and it took forever to get mental clarity. Around six weeks post op, I started feeling more like myself again, and took my final two weeks to develop a workable routine for going back to the office.