The worst pain ever

 Getting out of bed is the worst, especially when I'm alone.. I made the mistake of sleeping in my bed last night. Usually I sleep upright on the couch. 

For the first few weeks, I slept propped up, on the couch. It was more comfortable than trying to get in and out of my raised bed. I had one of those bed support pillows that I used on the couch and had pillows supporting my back or side. It will get better!!! Plus, sleeping upright or on a wedge pillow keeps the acid from coming back up.


Gail

 I hope you start feeling better today!

 Thank you everyone. Your support helps.   I dont have a fever. The liquid Tylenol was a wonderful suggestion. It's only sold for children so we bought 2 bottles. took some along with the lortab and I had a good night sleep. I've been sipping on my protein all day. My abdomen still feels like its been beaten like a punching bag. I don't  understand how people are able to get on a treadmill on day 5. When I'm hobbling around to just get to my kitchen or bathroom. 

PinkLyfe--how are you feeling today? Your experience is so different from mine that it makes me feel worried about you. I had surgery a week ago, and felt really bad for the first 3-4 days and then pretty quickly started feeling better each day. Today I am feeling pretty darn good. Almost no pain, I haven't had any pain med for several days and not even any tylenol today. I hope things start to turn around for you quickly! If not I definitely think you should insist on talking to your doc.

Excessive pain can be a sign of a serious problem so you should talk to your surgeon. That's why they get the big bucks...

I really hope you are feeling bette, as everyone has said too much pain can be something serious that really needs to be looked at (now the but) but everyone heals at a different rate and everyones pain tolerance is different.
I personally had a LOT of pain that took a long time to go away. Thought I was a strong one but they proved me differently. I was walking around but never near a treadmill. I slept in the recliner for 2 weeks afterward too. If it gets worse please go in.

I really hope you are feeling better by now, you are a week out by now - if not, please call your surgeon today - you shouldnt still be in that much pain - yes, you should still have some pain especially if you sneeze or cough and getting in and out of bed but a trick for that is to take a nice fluffy pillow and hold it up against your abdomen and tight - then try to get up or then proceed to sneeze or cough.  This should help - it holds the stomach muscles tight to prevent the terrible pain.

Icing your abdomen is a great idea and can actually bring down some inflamation and reduce pain levels.  Some even find after a few days that a heating pad helps, so you have to figure out which one helps for you.

as far as your pain meds - they are great to take and take as prescribed  - I doubt taking 10mg instead of 7.5 mg wont hurt you the main problem is the tylenol content that you are getting.  If you are taking 10mg every 4 hours, I am not sure how much tylenol is in it and then you are also taking liquid tylenol in between - you need to figure out how much you are getting daily - we used to be allowed to take up 4000mg daily and then the FDA changed the regulations because alot of people were going into liver failure from too much tylenol and other drugs that affect our livers so they cut the upper limits of tylenol to 3000mg per day.  Many pharmacists are recommending patients only take 2000mg per day since so many of us also take PPI's and statins which also affect the liver.  Then for us post op, all the rapid weight loss, causes major stress on our livers actaully causes our liver enzymes to go wonky and many to end up needing there gallbladder to be taken out.

So, please be careful how much you take at a time - the lortab has 500mg per tablet - so the max is 6 tablets per day but if you are also taking liquid tylenol, then you have to cut the amount of lortab to 4 or 5 per day.  It is very important to watch these numbers.  You dont need to cause problems with your liver.  I am not saying to not take the pain meds, because you need them but maybe when you are at your surgeons this week, you can ask for norco instead of lortab- norco is the same narcotic - hydrocodone but it has 325mg of acetomenophen instead of 500mg in each tablet which can make the dosing much better and allow you take more per day.  Maybe you can call your PCP and ask for a prescription without waiting to see your surgeon - explain the liver issues with the max allowed due to accetomenophen dosing and I am sure your PCP will be glad to switch you.

as far as walking goes - you dont need to be on a treadmilll - my surgeon actually told us no formal exercise until our 5 week post op appointment to make sure everything is healed - he didnt want anyone doing anything they shouldnt be doing - lifting weights too soon causing hernia and the such which can happen if you lift too soon.  what he did say was to walk - start slowly 5 minutes, then 10 minutes per day and work yourself up.  If all you can tolerate for a few weeks is 10 minutes - then walk for 10 minutes but do it 3 or 4 times per day.  It will really help with healing, help your breathing and increase your early out weigth loss to increase your metabolism.  Walking is good.  I live in an apartment building and walked the halls - back and forth for 10-15 minutes at a time - 3 times per day for quite some time.  My surgery was in October so by time I was able to do more walking, it was dead of winter - so I Kept it up inside.  I felt it was a great way to keep walking.  after awhile, I did it for 30 minutes 2 times per day and felt great.   then after your 5 week post op appt, you get some 1 or 2 pound weights - they serve 2 purposes - either use when you walk for weight resistance and also to lift your arms to help tighten your skin and build a little muscle in your arms,  = it really helps.