How painful is painful?

I'm trying to gear myself up for this surgery and i don't think it's possible to really know how painful it will be....

Does anyone have an explanation of their experience with the pain and how long it lasted after surgery, or what it felt like?

I have done hundreds maybe even thousands of hours of research and have never found anyone to say what it feels like after surgery. (except for it being VERY PAINFUL)  I think my pain tolerance is pretty good but i have never experienced any kind of surgery before.

Thanks in advance for your feedback,

Trying to wrap my head around this,
Tina

The caffeine withdrawal headache, IV catheter irritation and sore butt from lying in bed stick with me more than the abdominal pain associated with the surgery.  General discomfort more than horrible pain.  I also found the dramatic change in energy level and stamina (dropped) disconcerting.

What I honestly remember as being the worst pain was night time...Just the act of rolling over in bed, laying down, sitting up....pretty much any movement in bed was the worst for me...I felt fine as long as I was up, sitting, standing or walking (didn't have alot of stamina)....and if I had to guage the pain on a level of 1-10....I would say it was about a 7 whenever I was doing any of those things in bed...the rest of the time I would say about a 4....and I was unable to take pain meds after I left the hospital...so that is a measurement without narcotic pain management....Hope that this helps...
Good luck!
Cherry

Did you just celebrate your one year sergiversary? If so congrats! So, did you make your goal?

 Pain perception is so subjective..it varies from person to person. 
You will wake out of anesthesia and already you will have pain meds on board.
You will have an IV with pain meds in it and you will be able to control how much you need . Do not wait until you have pain to dose yourself..its better to be ahead of the pain.The machine will  not let you overdose yourself.

My experience was that I was more sore than in acute pain. With the Lap procedure there are smallish holes in your abdomen which are much less pain producing than large incisions as they used to do before the sophistication of the instruments used..less pain, less chance for infection and faster healing.(from the inside out)

For me clearing up after the anesthesia was more bothersome than any discomfort from the small incisions.

PS I was done on June 2 and have lost 82 lbs.

best, jude

I wrote a blog about this same issue- as I was shocked at the amount of pain I was in. People told me that it would be painful, but no one can really describe how excruciating it can be- mostly because everyone IS different.

Just take your pain meds, walk as much as you can and it will pass quickly and you'll be up and around and forgetting all about it soon enough! Good Luck!

 Thanks for all the comments!  I guess I will wait and see what its like!  

I thought I was going to die at one point. But I have had gall bladder attacks since then and those are 1000 times worse. My problem was I couldn't keep up with the morphine cause I was so high from it. Once the switched me to pills I was MUCH better. It really wasn't too bad and I would do it again.

I didn't have any pain really. I did from gas pains but nothing from the incisions either. My partner didn't have pain either. Both of us were off pain meds on day 3-4

I had Quite a lot of pain after surgery for about the 1st week.  In the hospital I was on a morophine pump which worked really well.  It is hard to lay flat.  I had to sleep sitting up for about 3 weeks.  I am almost 3 months out and really the memory of the pain is starting to fade as I am loosing more weight and starting to feel better again.  Take seriously the other remarks about lack of energy.  You will not feel like doing anything for quite a while.