Question:
Sleep & Pain. Sleep at nite about 5hrs and wake feeling nauseous, and ideas why?

I am currently 1 week post-op. I seem to only be able to sleep 5 hours at a time at nite. I do not take naps during the day. My main concern is that I feel nauseous when I do wake up and wonder why? I eat small amount of Jell-O and then i'm fine. I would like to sleep thru the night. I used to have to take Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) to help me sleep. Can I take this now?    — Anamarie A. (posted on June 14, 2000)

June 13, 2000
I also had open RNY . I don't know if this is common only to this surgery , but I had the same experience. I'd sleep a few hrs.then wake , and I was always nauseous upon waking. I was told to take Pepcid in the morning and at night but even so I would still awaken with nausea. Warm tea helped me , and time . I'm six weeks post-op and I believe up to a week ago I still had nausea in the A.M. As for not sleeping through the night that is just the way it was with me , in spite of the pain killers that made me tired , but I slept off and on all day. Talk to your Doctor or a member of the staff and do NOT take any meds (not even benedryl ) without talking to your Doctor first. Hope you feel better soon , but give yourself time. God bless you.
   — Rose A.

June 13, 2000
You're lucky you get to sleep for 5 hours...from the moment I left the hospital until about 3 weeks post-op, I couldn't sleep for more than 3 hours at a time. I also had the nausea and came to the conclusion that it was because I hadn't eaten. I felt more nausea from not eating than from the liquids I had to consume at that early stage of post-surgery.
   — Tracey D.

June 14, 2000
I woke up in the middle of the night at first, after RNY. I was hungry. If I ate a little something (protein) and went back to bed I was fine. This stage passed very quickly though. So, I wouldn't worry. Best wishes.
   — Cindy H.

June 14, 2000
Don't know if this will help you or not but, the 1-2nd wk after my rny (4/19/00) I had to get a prescrition for Claritin...seems the sinus drainage into my pouch filled & it made me sick when I drank anything or ate my blended meals. I take it everyday. Never realized I had sinus problems before. Hope this helps.
   — Janice K.

June 14, 2000
Have you talked to your doctor about your sleeping problems? It seems to me that he might have some insight and would be able to tell you if you could take Benadryl, especially since he knows what pain meds you are on-some will react. As far as the nausea, I had the same thing. I think it is probably your stomach being hungry. How long do you go before you eat the Jello? Is it several hours?
   — rinnchris