Got a surgery date, how much help will I need?

After more than 6 months (since I made my decision and began on this journey).  2 surgeons, countless tests, and I feel so blessed that my insurance company approved on the first attempt.  

My partner and I are undergoing WLS together.  The surgeon surprised us with surgery dates 24 hours apart (me DS, her sleeve).  We are both in good health (usual weight related issues, but no reason to believe we will have complications).  We are wondering how much assistance we will need at home (post op).  We will have the house clean, laundry done, pills, supplements in place, wound dressings ready.  We are boarding our dogs for ??a week??  We have a ride home arranged.  How long will we need help at home?

Thanks in advance to anyone with insight.  You are all super!

A week on boarding the dogs is probably good.  I have a large dog and it has been hard for her to understand that she can't be up with me until my incisions heal!  You have the ride arranged.  It might be nice if someone could hang out with you the first night home, and maybe the second day just in case, but really, by the time I came home from the hospital, I could do pretty much everything myself.

Do you have someone on standby in the event of an emergency. Neither of you will be able to drive for a few days so I would just make sure there is someone you can call in case a trip to the ER is needed. If you have no complications, you should be fine. Just try to have some backup in place in case things don't go as planned. Also, there will be restrictions on lifting, so make sure that isn't an issue.

You may be hospitalized for different lengths of time ..... So someone at home for a night or 2 .... Or close by on call, would be best.

I had my laparoscopic surgery on a Friday and my husband brought me home, was there the first night, then he had to be away for 2 days and I was fine alone.

However, my neighbors were on standby, of needed.

Great to have the house clean, dogs boarded, etc.

You will want a pillow for the ride home (put it between you and the seatbelt) and lip balm and maybe some 'home socks' for comfort.

At home, having a small table for meds, water, remotes, etc was helpful.

I was also encouraged to have Benadryl on hand and take the lowest dose of pain meds with a Benadryl.

So, my pain meds were prescribed as 1-2 pills every 4-6 hours.

If I took 25 mg of benadryl, I could take 1 pain pill every 6 hours ... The Benadryl works with the pain meds and helped me sleep, which I needed anyway.

Since pain meds can be constipating, I wanted to stay ahead of the pain, but take as little as possible.

Congrats to you both, hope the procedures go well for you both!!!

Ask your doc before taking Benadryl or any other meds with your pain meds, especially meds like Benadryl that can cause drowsiness.

Do you want surgery dates so close together?  I wouldn't, personally.  I'd want my partner to be able to be there for me after my surgery and I'd want to be able to be there for my partner after his or her surgery.

As long as neither of you have any complications, you probably won't need much help.  You won't be able to drive until you're off pain meds so you may need someone to run errands, pick up something at the store, drive you to your first post op appointment, drive you to the ER if you have problems, etc.

I stayed in the hospital 2 nights and the first night home I had a friend stay over. (I live alone). It was good to have her their the first night. I had a few friends on stand-by if I needed them, but I was good. Had surgery on a Wednesday, got home on Friday, laid low for the weekend... went for my post-op visit Monday and started driving after the visit. I felt great 1 week post-op, but I had an afternoon energy slump for about 2-3 weeks. I am 56, had BMI over 50, and have bad arthritis and I did fine on my own. Except as I said having someone there the first night was very nice. That was the hardest night. I had RNY laproscopically, there were no wound dressings or drains to fuss with. Did clean the house the day before surgery. Good Luck!

I didn't have any help post op and had no problems.  I slept a lot but never needed any of my pain meds so was able to drive the second day home.

Unfortunately, we are all different and your experience may not be the same.

At the very least, make sure you have someone available to check on you and be around if you have a medical problem.

Good luck!

My response was the same as Kelly's... That it would be far more practical NOT to have both of you recuperating at the same time so that you can both be there to assist the other (and not have two people in pain, cranky, and potentially sick at the same time).

I would definitely be sure, though, that you have someone "on call" in case something comes up that does require assistance.

I had open RNY and really the only help I needed once I was released from the hospital was with the terrier puppy that I had at the time (so I stayed with my mom for a week). I was thankful, however, to have someone else the who could bring me more water or yogurt (I was on soft foods right away), etc. and I would have been even more grateful if I had been nauseous or had experienced some kind of complication.

I've had a number of surgeries over the past seven years since my Roux-en-Y, and other than help dealing with the dogs and/or puppies, I really didn't need help after any surgery except my knee replacement surgeries.

Lora

I had really bad nausea and needed to go to the ER twice for IV fluids.  I wasn't puking constantly and most of the time didn't really need any help, but I definitely needed someone to drive me to the ER when I was dehydrated.  When my surgeon called in a prescription for something different for nausea, it was really nice to have someone to go to the pharmacy for me.  I could have driven myself but I probably would have had to pull over on the side of the road to puke a few times.  It was nice to have someone that could bring me ice chips and go to the store for various drinks that I thought I might be able to tolerate better than what I had on hand.

I can't imagine my ex and I both recovering from RNY at the same time, both on the couch puking into garbage cans.