Question:
WHAT LEVEL OF PAIN CAN I EXPECT POST OPERATIVELY AFTER MY SCHEDULED ROUX EN Y ON 5/13
I realize it is different for each patient. How long did most stay in the hospital, baring no complications? After the weekend help of my spouse, how did everyone take care of themselves the first 2 weeks post op? I am very anxious — nana2one (posted on May 11, 2009)
May 10, 2009
I stayed in hospital for two days. The pain was tolerable i guess, the
worst was the gas pains, you must walk, walk, walk to get rid of the gas. I
really ignored most of the housework for the first two weeks, it drove me
nuts but i had to take care of me. My hubby was very helpful with the
laundry and housework and took over the cooking for the kids and himself
for the first two weeks. I needed my afternoon nap, lol. Good luck in
your upcoming surgery, you will love your new pouch when u start seeing
results and will see it was all worth it.
— sassy1696
May 10, 2009
same here, pain for me was very little, maybe some discomfort but nothing
that was not toleable. i just rested for the 2 weeks . i was alone so
nothing got done. but i am 5 weeks out and feel great now. good luck
— gogirl1960
May 10, 2009
The only real pain that I had was the gas pain. No one really told me about
this. And the only way you get rid of it is walking. Otherwise I didn't
have any pain. Good Luck with the surgery
— sbsmiles52
May 11, 2009
I had my surgery Wed. 4/29 and I came home Sat. I did okay helping myself
but thank God I have a loving husband who took great care of me but he did
go back to work (3rd shift) and I was at home alone after Sunday during the
evening. Really walk walk walk and sip sip sip. You will be great! Donna
— gonnabethinfinally
May 11, 2009
I was sooo lucky! I had almost no pain. I didn't even have pain from the
gas that most others complain about. I had prepared myself for a much
worse ordeal than it turned out to be. On my fourth day post op, I was
home and even managed to drive my mother home after a visit with me. (
Shhhh...don't tell anyone, though.) I wasn't supposed to drive for at
least 2 weeks, if I remember correctly. I was in the hospital for two
days. Oh, and I only gagged a couple of times that first night. After
that, no gagging or vomiting. It's really not as bad as you might think.
I pray you will be as lucky as I was. God bless!
— PaulaJ
May 11, 2009
I had my surgery on Monday afternoon and went home Wednesday morning.
Thanks to the lovely self-administered pain pump, I felt virtually no pain
at all, even while they had me up walking the halls that evening. In fact,
they had to keep telling me to slow down because my heart rate was getting
too high. The first day home, we stopped at the pharmacy to get some more
dressing material, and then nearly every day after that we had to go get
more as I developed an infection at the incision site for one of the drains
that they left in. But even IT wasn't painful. The only thing that gave
me any trouble was muscle soreness, and trying to turn over in bed at
night. I pulled a muscle in my upper right abdomen trying to turn over and
it made it hard to take a deep breath for a few days. We had to go to the
ER to make sure that it wasn't a blood clot to the lungs.... but luckily,
it was just what I thought it was, a pulled muscle. The more you get up
and move around, the better you will feel, faster. And I'm also one of
those ones who never experienced any of the "gas" pains that
others had. Guess I'm just lucky.... You'll do fine, good luck to you,
and don't be anxious. You're taking a huge step in the right direction...
towards a healthy, new life. And we're all here to support you!
— Erica Alikchihoo
May 11, 2009
I had absolutely no pain from the surgery. Nada. However, I had a lot of
discomfort from the leak test. The fluid did not want to go into the
pouch, and then when it did, it did not want to come out.
— panorris
May 11, 2009
i'm not sure if i had a terrible case or if only people that had little to
no pain are posting, but here's how it went for me:
had surgery on monday. went home thursday. monday night discovered i have a
serious allergic reaction to morphine. later that night, found out i have a
serious allergic reaction to dilotted as well. (dr said i'd have probably
gone home tuesday evening, wed morning at lastest if i hadn't had those
complications).
so couldn't be on IV pain meds. they gave me liquid lortab, but that didn't
help nearly as much as the IV pain meds did...
anyway. now i'm probably scaring you. they said MOST MOST people do not
have this trouble. keep that in mind. maybe all of this ended up making my
situation unusual.
i've really gone off here. my point is this:
i had a great deal of pain. i started walking immediately, as soon as i
could...within two hours of getting to my room, for sure. i insisted on it
as soon as i was coherent enough to insist on anything. DO THIS. they said
i could wait, things had been rough, etc, but i am so glad i did NOT wait.
other suggestions:
do NOT try and lift yourself up if you can't easily do it. i did this and
ended up slipping back and twisting and tore some internal sutures. that
increased the pain and made it last longer.
i could not roll over at all for weeks. possibly a month. at that point i
could roll on to one side, but not the other. could have been worse due to
torn sutures?
as far as taking care of yourself, here's what i did. get yourself
somewhere that you can get up and out of on your own. perhaps a recliner?
lying flat in bed may not work. KEEP WALKING. do get up and get yourself
something to drink. keep anything you'll need up on a table. getting
something off of the floor was pretty hard for me, and painful. by the end
of the first week, i had a SIGNIFICANT drop in pain. i stopped taking the
liquid lortab probably a week post-op.
i have had chronic pain for years, since i was about 20 (even before i was
obese), and thus have a good tolerance for pain. i just really don't want
you to come out of surgery and think "wow, i'm a big baby" or
"there must be something wrong!" if you have pain. if you're
prepared for it, you'll probably think "hey, this isn't so bad!"
and it's really NOT that bad. i was never in tears from the pain - nothing
like that. just very tired and aware of the pain.
good luck to you.
— rachieo
May 11, 2009
I was told to expect a lot of pain and then if I didn't have a lot of it,
that would make it easier. I blew that off-thinking I'll breeze through
this as I have a high pain tolerance. The pain was bad for me the first
day. Felt like I had been run over and stabbed repeatedly. I had no gas
pains to speak of. The next day I was markedly better. I am single and
aside from a friend being there the first day I got home, I was on my own
and perfectly able to care for myself from then on. This is the best thing
I have ever done for myself-wishing you the best on your upcoming surgery.
— Kristi K.
May 11, 2009
On a humorous note.....the 2 nights in the hospital were torture...and not
from pain....just a bad crew....labor day/first day of school....all the
good ones were off or were on vacation. Pain....totally controlled in the
hospital and once I got home, I didn't even have to open the bottle of
liquid codeine that was prescribed...on another note....the first couple of
bowel movements after surgery were worse than child birth....so here's a
heads up...start taking stool softeners as soon as your doc says it's OK,
and of course lots of water helps as well.
Good luck to you.
— Dee L.
May 12, 2009
I had surgery on a Friday morning (April 17th) and I was very out of it and
in a lot of pain after. I could not get comfortable. I was actually quite
surprised by the pain, since I have had several other surgeries and don't
ever recall being in that much pain. Anyway by Saturday I was feeling much
better and they sent me home. I actually went to work for half days
starting the next Wednesday and back to full time the following week. Not
sure I would recommend that to everyone, but my job is sitting at a desk. I
figured I could just as easily sit at work as I could at home. Best wishes
to you and I hope all goes well.
— colabear32x
May 12, 2009
The only real pain I had was on the left side where they used he stapler.
They went through a muscle and had told me that was were I would hurt the
most. Pain meds helped and it only really really hurt when I moved around,
but of course, moving also helps it get better. Splint it with your hand
when you get up and down as that helps als. Good luck!
— Elizabeth K.
May 12, 2009
Hello, I had a open RNY on 2//11/09 I had a epidurel and I never had pain
at all I was in ICU for 2 days I had breathing problems and my 02 was
under 70% but I never had pain,good luck to you on your journey to a
healthy life.
— sweetpee
May 12, 2009
Honestly I was in a crazy amount of pain (but note I have a low tolerance
of pain...I still cry getting my blood taken). The first day out of surgery
I cried almost every other hour because the pain was so bad and I felt like
I had made the biggest mistake of my life. I had tremendious back pain and
gas pain (some of the back pain they attributed it to the fact that I sleep
on my stomach so sleeping on my back REALLY bothered me). I was also
supposed to be discharged wednesday evening or thursday morning (surgery
was tuesday morning) but because of the pain and lack of eating cause of
the discomfort I felt when I did eat they kept me till friday evening. So
to me....pain was horrible but now a full week after surgery I am feeling
pretty good. I haven't taken anything for pain since saturday afternoon and
I am able to sleep on my side...left side at that (most tend to have more
pain on that side because of the extra work put in on that side). So don't
be discouraged by the possible pain, they try the best to wack you out on
meds so you don't feel anything.
— uNiQuE, iTs wHaT i Am!
May 13, 2009
You will be okay. If you have a good recliner, they are wonderful! We
have a high bed and I could not tolerate getting into it for about 4 days.
It just hurt too much. Then we got a step stool and all went well, except
it hurt too much to turn over. Getting up and down - use the recliner
arms, will help significantly. Also, a pillow over your tummy will too. I
think pain was okay, morphine pump helped a lot and so did the liquid
lortab. For the first 5 days or so, I took it pretty much around the
clock, then went few hours longer, etc., till I was off it at week or so.
I tended to get tired doing things - we went to Wal Mart one week post op
and walked around for about 40 min. That did me in. Slept all the way
home. Just be prepared for the first two weeks to be really tired about
doing most anything, walking around the block, etc. I took lots of naps.
That helps you heal. And oh yeah, let your husband help you out as much as
possible. Mine helped in the shower, with cleaning and cooking. He's
wonderful!! Take care of yourself. As my doctor says, sip,sip,sip,
walk,walk,walk. Carol
— CarolH1953
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