Question:
back pain and soft food issues

I am having pain in my left back by my shoulder blade. It's been going on now for a week or more and I'm 3 weeks out. I'm also haveing trouble with the soft food, (egg, beens ect) don't know what to do and I'm away from home due to family emergency?? any ideas, heating pad does seem to help some.    — LBowker (posted on October 21, 2008)

October 21, 2008
I had pain like that at about 3-4 weeks out and it was a urinary track infection. I had the pain for over a week before I got the rest of the symtoms. I took an over the counter medication called azo it helped with the back pain in about 2 days, butr the other symtoms were still htere so I had to do an antibiotic for 3 days now I'm 7 weeks out doing great. My dr. said it was probably from the cathater they put in during surgery.
   — humper

October 21, 2008
I have had pain in my left back by my shoulder blade for a long, long time - we called it "The Crab" as it can literally disable me for hours and I need to lay on a heating pad to help it. No doctor has ever been able to tell me what it is but it happened after abdominal surgery and although I have days without it, it never seems to completely disappear and is sometimes very troubling. It does seem worse when I have gas or tummy aches. I also had trouble with soft food so I ended up mostly drinking plain non-fat milk and applesauce.
   — nofrogs29

October 21, 2008
i believe i'd call my doctors office. i haven't had anything like that, might be something small.
   — peggy R.

October 21, 2008
I have heard and read this is very common post op. Talk to your Dr. but you should be able to take Tylenol, naproxin or possibly aleve to help w/the pain. You should still be on mushies at this stage. Most important take your vitamins and drink your protein and my favorite is Whey Protein from Walmart. I hope this helps some. Let me know! 3 weeks out, is far from healing and being able to eat solids. Good luck!
   — premenewme

October 21, 2008
Everytime I had that specific pain, I'd walk... it really helped. Gas-X didn't help me, but it practically gave my friend (her surgery was 2 weeks after mine) her life back! So try walking and Gas-x (chewables). Good Luck!
   — pattschiele

October 22, 2008
You might also want to consider whether it could be referred pain from a bad gall bladder, esp. if the pain eventually goes away only to return sometime later. I did get back pain like that when I had a bad gall bladder. I hope it is not, but it is common following WLS to end up needing your gall bladder removed. Just for the record, I had mone removed many years before WLS. Best wishes, dana
   — jujuprof

October 30, 2008
I agree that perhaps you could be having some gall bladder pain going on. Get an ultrasound or C-T scan asap and have it checked out. Having to have your gall bladder removed after WLS is something that can occur more often than you'd think. Dawn Vickers
   — DawnVic