Colleen M.

I am 8 days post op, and I pretty much lived in my recliner until last night. I tried to sleep in my bed because the doc took my drain and staples out. I napped alright in my bed, but I didn’t get much more than four or five hours of sleep overnight. I’m on my way back to the recliner for another REM cycle. Trying to sleep on my left side hurts much more than my right, which doesn’t make any sense to me. My left side doesn’t have the largest incisions. I do see a lot of people talking about holding a pillow to their tummies while sleeping, and I wonder if that might help me too. In fact, I wonder if I should give the binder a try again. I came looking for this topic for hints and tricks, hoping there was something I could do to keep myself comfy in bed, but I agree that this is a very individual issue. Try out different sleeping positions and listen to your body. It will tell you what works and what doesn’t.

I hadn’t considered the bathtub approach! Thank you for the idea and the kind words! I’ll try that.

Hey, everyone! I’m new here and I haven’t explored the entire forum, so this may have been asked and answered before, but I’m three days post-op and I’d really like to take a shower. I have a medicine ball hooked up to my stab sites and a drain as well, and my concern is that I don’t have another dressing for the medicine ball. It’s already leaking out the bottom, and I worry about getting it any more wet than it already is. Any tips or suggestions? I have to get clean or I’m going to go crazy!

That’s great! I look forward to fitting in coach again, too.

Hey, I’m in the same boat as you! My surgery was on the 27th. For me at least, I only just began sipping the Premier protein drinks last night. My biggest issue was the fact that my esophagus and throat were too swollen to comfortably swallow much of anything. Event the Unjury chicken soup was difficult. I existed on ice chips. But waking up on day 3 post-op, everything feels a lot less swollen. Now I feel like I can shift my focus from just getting water into my system to trying to get as much protein as possible and work on my vitamins. Do you feel like you have to burp after each sip of whatever you drink? That’s been the most uncomfortable part of drinking for me.

Yeah, this is why I didn’t tell anyone outside of my supportive friend/family circle. I’m just a couple of days post-op, and this is definitely NOT an ”easy way out”. Don’t let their opinions get to you. You still have to put in all the hard work changing your lifestyle, your diet, and exercise.