Post surgery - first weeks
Well, I am only a month out so I remember my first weeks well. I think everyone is different but here was my experience. First off, The pain was managed in the hospital and then I was pretty sore the first few days home. I'l say three days. Then I managed to get off of the narcotics because they were making me constipated and gave me night swweats and bad dreams. I slept pretty well for the first few days and then had major insomnia. I had emotional up and downs everyday until a few days ago. I regretted the surgery big time but only because I wanted to feel normal again. I had to do the lovenox shots in my belly for two weeks. Some days that hurt really badly but usually not. I didn't feel like eating but got hungry pretty quickly. The gas pains from the get go were the worst part for me. They do go away after a week or so but that was where most of my pain came from.All in all it was complication free and a lot less painful than my tonsileectomy a few years ago.However, I would line up people you can talk to and/or a great therapist to help with the emotions of losing food and the huge changes the surgery causes. I know people who had it much worse than I did but I also had no big issues before surgery. Hope this helps!
Immediately after? In a word . . . CRAP . . . you feel like crap . . . you want two words . . . WARM CRAP . . . but . . .
It passes. And gets better each day. Maneuvering through life is awkward and somewhat painful those first few days . . . things like hygiene, sleeping, eating, etc., but that also passes over the next days and weeks. Then you deal with that period when you're feeling physically great, but drained very quickly and it can be very frustrating. It's around this time (2-3 weeks out) that you may experience buyer's remorse or "what the he!! have I done!!" Oftentimes with major surgery you can go through several weeks of feeling very fragile . . . I'd heard this and didn't quite understand it . . . and I don't even know quite how to explain it more, but you will know it when you feel it. It's normal and it does pass. But you can't get a refund so you take it a day at a time, bite, sip, walk, sleep and repeat . . . and eventually that passes as well.
When initially I woke up, my stomach area felt really tight and hot and my back hurt because I was at an odd angle in the bed. The first night until they actually let me have water was a bit of torture and when I was allowed to have the ice cold cup with mouth swabs . . . I literally wanted to kiss the nurse . . . helped that he was a cutie.
By next day I was up and moving around, pain managed pretty well with the pain pump. Released on the 4th day and stayed alone at an extended stay hotel not far from the hospital/surgeon's office for a couple of weeks. Did a lot of resting, walking, sipping and watching cooking shows with a new eye. The most uncomfortable thing was sleeping because lying down was painful and frightening. I couldn't sleep on my back so ended up putting two chairs together. About the 2nd or third night in the hotel I finally laid in my favorite and most comfortable position which was on my right side . . . . in the bed. It was messy because that moved a lot of fluid to that side which filled my drain and seeped from the site . . . maxi pads helped that.
Main drain was removed about a week after my release . . . maxi-pads to the rescue for the next few days (oh, and my period started again . . . which had been absent since high school and has been like clock-work ever since. I was back at work fully after a month and though I would lose my energy pretty quickly those first 3-4 months, it got progressively better day by day.
I hope this helps, but I encourage you to read the profiles of different folks on the boards who often detail those first days and weeks and it'll give you an even better idea of what to expect.
Good luck,
Jo
It passes. And gets better each day. Maneuvering through life is awkward and somewhat painful those first few days . . . things like hygiene, sleeping, eating, etc., but that also passes over the next days and weeks. Then you deal with that period when you're feeling physically great, but drained very quickly and it can be very frustrating. It's around this time (2-3 weeks out) that you may experience buyer's remorse or "what the he!! have I done!!" Oftentimes with major surgery you can go through several weeks of feeling very fragile . . . I'd heard this and didn't quite understand it . . . and I don't even know quite how to explain it more, but you will know it when you feel it. It's normal and it does pass. But you can't get a refund so you take it a day at a time, bite, sip, walk, sleep and repeat . . . and eventually that passes as well.
When initially I woke up, my stomach area felt really tight and hot and my back hurt because I was at an odd angle in the bed. The first night until they actually let me have water was a bit of torture and when I was allowed to have the ice cold cup with mouth swabs . . . I literally wanted to kiss the nurse . . . helped that he was a cutie.
By next day I was up and moving around, pain managed pretty well with the pain pump. Released on the 4th day and stayed alone at an extended stay hotel not far from the hospital/surgeon's office for a couple of weeks. Did a lot of resting, walking, sipping and watching cooking shows with a new eye. The most uncomfortable thing was sleeping because lying down was painful and frightening. I couldn't sleep on my back so ended up putting two chairs together. About the 2nd or third night in the hotel I finally laid in my favorite and most comfortable position which was on my right side . . . . in the bed. It was messy because that moved a lot of fluid to that side which filled my drain and seeped from the site . . . maxi pads helped that.
Main drain was removed about a week after my release . . . maxi-pads to the rescue for the next few days (oh, and my period started again . . . which had been absent since high school and has been like clock-work ever since. I was back at work fully after a month and though I would lose my energy pretty quickly those first 3-4 months, it got progressively better day by day.
I hope this helps, but I encourage you to read the profiles of different folks on the boards who often detail those first days and weeks and it'll give you an even better idea of what to expect.
Good luck,
Jo
Diva Jojo: SW: 440lbs -- CW: 274lbs -- GW: 240lbs
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