Poll: How long did you have Gas/CO2 pain?

[Northern Mist 2]

How long after surgery did you have the shoulder, back and/or chest pain from the gas the surgeons use to pump up your abdomen?

Sorry I missed the 0 days option........this was my first poll :thumbdown:

Edited February 18, 2010 by Northern Mist

[banded213 7]

My gas pains lasted only 2 days!

[june09bandit 0]

You missed an option on the poll - I didn't have any of the gas pains.

[Northern Mist 2]

Sorry.....my first poll :confused:

[Humming Bird 275]

I had the left shoulder pain for several months, but it was not from the CO2. It is pressure on the phrenic nerve. The gas/air does not stay in the body very long at all.

[june09bandit 0]

Sorry.....my first poll :confused:

No problem, I just didn't want everyone to think the gas pains were inevitable. I don't know what the doc did to suck all the gas back out, but I didn't have any pain at all from it.

[Humming Bird 275]

I saved this post from another banster......very good info

03-09-2008, 09:11 PM #1 ajoneen

Shrinking Shamrock

Join Date: Nov 2007

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State: New York

Best explanation of left shoulder pain I've ever found.

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If you woke up with a pain in your shoulder, you'd probably think something was wrong with your shoulder, right? Maybe you slept on it the wrong way, maybe you're a weekend warrior who threw the football a few too many times. In most cases, your hunch is probably right. Pain in the shoulder usually indicates an injury or disease that affects a structure in your shoulder, such as, say, your subacromial bursa or a rotator cuff tendon. Makes sense, doesn't it?

But you might be way off. Sometimes the brain gets confused, making you think that one part of the body hurts, when in fact another part of the body, far removed from the pain, is the real source of trouble. This curious (and clinically important) phenomenon is known as referred pain. For example, it's unlikely but possible that your shoulder pain is a sign of something insidious happening in your liver, gall bladder, stomach, spleen, lungs, or pericardial sac (the connective tissue bag containing the heart). Yup - conditions as diverse as liver abscesses, gallstones, gastric ulcers, splenic rupture, pneumonia, and pericarditis can all cause shoulder pain. What's up with that?

Neuroscientists still don't know precisely which anatomical connections are responsible for referred pain, but the prevailing explanation seems to work pretty well. In a nutshell, referred pain happens when nerve fibers from regions of high sensory input (such as the skin) and nerve fibers from regions of normally low sensory input (such as the internal organs) happen to converge on the same levels of the spinal cord. The best known example is pain experienced during a heart attack. Nerves from damaged heart tissue convey pain signals to spinal cord levels T1-T4 on the left side, which happen to be the same levels that receive sensation from the left side of the chest and part of the left arm. The brain isn't used to receiving such strong signals from the heart, so it interprets them as pain in the chest and left arm.

So what about that shoulder pain? All of organs listed above bump up against the diaphragm, the thin, dome-shaped muscle that moves up and down with every breath. The diaphragm is innervated by two phrenic nerves (left and right), which emerge from spinal cord levels C3, C4, and C5 (medical students remember these spinal cord levels using the mnemonic, "C3, 4, 5 keeps the diaphragm alive"). The phrenic nerves carry both motor and sensory impulses, so they make the diaphragm move and they convey sensation from the diaphragm to the central nervous system.

Most of the time there isn't any sensation to convey from the diaphragm, at least at the conscious level. But if a nearby organ gets sick, it may irritate the diaphragm, and the sensory fibers of one of the phrenic nerves are flooded with pain signals that travel to the spinal cord (at C3-C5). It turns out that C3 and C4 don't just keep the diaphragm alive; neurons at these two spinal cord levels also receive sensation from the shoulders (via the supraclavicular nerves). So when pain neurons at C3 and C4 sound the alarm, the brain assumes (quite reasonably) that the shoulder is to blame. Usually that's a good assumption, but sometimes it's wrong.

From:

Anatomy Notes: Referred pain

[Northern Mist 2]

No problem, I just didn't want everyone to think the gas pains were inevitable. I don't know what the doc did to suck all the gas back out, but I didn't have any pain at all from it.

I wish all doc's were like yours. I think if you can prevent pain you should......if it wasn't for the gas pains I'm still going through, the surgery would've been lots easier to deal with.......as it is I'm in pain throughout the day and sometimes at work I hurt so bad I can't even answer the phone........co-workers are a little confused when they see me doubled over one minute and then fine 10 minutes later. I'm tired of "half" explaining what's going on.

Of course I researched the prolonged shoulder/gas pain after the fact and I came across a problem some people have with their Phrenic nerve - sometimes this kind of pain lasts for months........and people have to get a revision or removal, etc..... I'm, of course, thinking that this is going to be me. :confused:

I'm so glad you didn't have this problem and was just curious about the average number of days.....

[june09bandit 0]

Oh my gosh - you're 10 days out from surgery and STILL have the pain? I didn't notice your surgery date. I would call the doc and ask about it.

When I had my gallbladder out many years ago, I did have the gas pains, and I remember clearly how much it hurt. I was expecting the same after my lapband surgery, but was very pleasantly surprised when my biggest side effect was constant burping.

I hope you feel better soon - the gas pain is no fun whatsoever.

[Humming Bird 275]

it is not the "gas"

[june09bandit 0]

it is not the "gas"

I understand that, but I think everyone knows what I'm referring to, more so than they would know what referred or phrenic nerve pain is.

[ElfiePoo 109]

I didn't check any because I never had any gas pain. Actually, I never had any pain...just a bit of discomfort if I moved too quickly the first few days after surgery. What a waste of money that pain med was. :sad:

[kylady1966 0]

I never had any pain at all.

[flowerchild 0]

I had a great deal of pain after gallbladder surgery which I had a month before lap band. I was really dreading lap band surgery because I expected the same pain. I had no pain at all with the lap band surgery. I may be an exception but I really did not feel like I even had surgery. A little weak but other than that I felt fine.