Still in pain around the big incision point on my left...

Hi,

I was sleeved on 3/21. Still can not move freely and in some amount of pain on my left side where my surgeon took out my stomach. I am not on pain meds because I have to work and drive so just taking Tylenol. Is this normal?  Some days are better than others.. but when I move wrong - ugh - small searing pain.. I asked the NP at my 1 week appt and she said that they took stitches into my muscle, etc and that was what I am feeling..

Any one experience this?

Thanks

I had forgotten about it but yes I did have some left sided pain at an incision site.  Kind of deep. Seemed like it would catch me. My wife had it too.  It went away.

Yes, that's normal. I had pain in the same spot for almost 6 weeks after surgery, which my surgeon said was normal. The reason it hurts so much is exactly as your NP said: because of how seep they have to cut to remove your stomach, they have to cut through the muscle layer, which then has to be stitched up. The pain you feel is due to the movement of this intra-muscular suture. As long as the Tylenol is helping and you aren't having excruciating pain all the time, I would say not to worry about it. If it gets worse or becomes a constant, then obviously you'd want to reach out to your doctor. I found that when I was doing things that I knew were going to hurt my incision (sneeze, cough, sleep on my side, ride in a car, etc) it helped to hug a small pillow--the pillow helps absorb some of the movement so things aren't as rough on your incision.

It was the worst part of recover - i found that a postpartum support belt helped soooo much.  It does go away, eventually

http://www.amazon.com/Medela-Postpartum-Support/dp/B0070QOEX G

Thanks. It seems from other posters that they were just fine and I was not sure that I was normal.

I don't like the binder - it does not fit but let me look at some other solutions.

I appreciate it!

I'm a little over one month post op and I still get sore at the incision site where they pulled out the stomach. I sometimes feel like a tugging sensation when I stand or try to lay on that side. The pain does get better though...it just takes some time. Only problem I have right now is some redness and itching around the site. The pain subsides and it just takes awhile to heal fully.