How much pain/discomfort am I suposed to be in?

[Nickysmom 0]

HI all. I have a question about my new band. Was banded 2/14 and I am still sooooo darn uncomfortable. How uncomfortable am I supposed to be? I feel like someone is sitting on my chest and stomach. The Percocet is in pill form so I am swallowing 1/2 at a time and it tastes bad...don't know why I didn't get liquid meds...would have been much better.

I'm kinda wishin I didn't do this...I thought I'd be better by now 5 days later already.

Why do I get hiccups? They hurt too. I am drinking a little Protein Shake now because feel hungry...tired of Clear liquids...so can anyone tell me how long it takes to feel better? I was hoping to be out shopping by tomorrow...don't think so. I have the week off and will be in bed still. My calf muscles are hurting if I get up and walk around because I'm in bed so much. Not horrible pain but I hate this lump in my stomach...am I always going to feel it? I bet every fill will feel like this too? GOD I'm regretting it already...help

[PhotoNut 7]

Heyas Nickysmom, It took me until about the middle of week three to stop feeling so darn sore and get rid of the gas (thats what the pressure on your chest is). Some people walk out of the hosptial the same day feeling great, and go shopping the next day. Others require a few weeks. Don't get discouraged, and don't push yourself.. this will all pass and you'll soon be feeling great.

How long has your doctor told you to be on Clear Liquids? Mine told me to be getting 60 grams of Protein everyday from day one to help the muslces repair and fight infection. Could it be you misunderstood about not being able to have Protein shakes? Maybe you should check in with your doctor to be sure?

[Nickysmom 0]

Hi photonut. I'm supposed to be on clear liquids for 1 week then move on to mushy foods on Tuesday. But I tried some Protein Shake today. So the pain is still gas????? Hmmmmm, Maybe some swelling too? I hate this already. I hope it works because the discomfort is ridiculous. :think

[pugmum 0]

Hi, I was banded on 2/2 and I'm still a bit sore. That first week I was very sore and took life very easy. It is surgery after all! I do not think you will be regreting it in a couple of weeks. Have you ever awoke from a bad dream and been really really happy you are not still in the bad dream? Well, the first couple of weeks after surgery, I FELT THAT WAY. It was beginning to freak me out. Then, one day, I was grateful and very happy I had done this. It just happened.

Kelli

[PhotoNut 7]

So the pain is still gas????? Hmmmmm, Maybe some swelling too? I hate this already. I hope it works because the discomfort is ridiculous. :think

Oh yeah, some people deal with the gas for a long time. Walk as much as you can, the more you move around the quicker that gas will dissapate. And do drink protein! Be careful to get a good one, otherwise you'll just be dealing with more gas, of a different kind. *chuckles*

[SherryW 4]

Nickysmom,

I had surgery on 2/13 and I'm still uncomfortable. I found Gas X helped with the gas but, I know I still have some thats stuck as well. The calf pain you're having I had as well and it is from laying in bed because we really can't move much. Trying to get up and down from bed has been a doozy too. 3 days after my surgery I too was asking myself "what the heck did I do to myself" and cried about it. A friend told me it's because the anesthia was wearing off and that can cause a little depression. I found my liquid pain killer was actually making me sick to my stomach so I switched to liquid tylenol and that helped that problem. I still have this wicked and I mean...breath stopping...sharp pulling on my left side that I don't know what the heck the cause is but, someone here suggested it could be a stitch. I'm assuming it's in the inside because there are steri strips on the outside. It certainly makes it difficult to do the walking people tell you to do to dissapate the gas. Some people just heal up really quickly, others don't. You can certainly find help and encouragement here :confused: I suggest you get some Gas X, they have chewables but what I had in the house were the gel caps and I punctured them and squirted the medicine inside onto a spoon and took it that way. It definately helped and made the rest of the uncomfortabliness more tolerable. Good luck with everything and I hope you feel better soon. I just wanted you to know there are others out here going through what you are :cake: Sometimes it's scarey when you think it's only you :cake:

[Kell 0]

I had my surgery on 2/14 also and luckily the gas pains are gone (had gassy diarrhea though-yuck). I have not been getting in enough Protein, but my nutritionist said to just push fluids so I don't get dehydrated first of all, then work on adding Protein. Each day and as the swelling goes down it gets easier to drink more. I am still on liquids for another 8-9 days and then mushies. I have been getting in one Carnation Instant Breakfast low carb with 1% milk for a little protein, otherwise Water, juice and broth. I can't even think about thicker smoothies yet! I guess with time...

I didn't take any of my liquid lortab after surgery and just took liquid tylenol the day after for a low grade fever.

Good luck! Hope you start feeling better! :confused:

Kell

[Iziksmom 0]

I was one of the fortunate ones in that I didn't have much pain with the incisions after my surgery. I did however, have the gas. I used the chewable gasx pills and they worked great. I still had some pain in my left shoulder 2 weeks after the surgery and I kinda got scared. My neice is an anesthesiologist and she said that residual anesthesia can stay with you for that long. So, don't get scared like I did if it don't go away in just a few days after surgery. The gasx and walking is a good attempt at relieving it though. I also had these hiccup/trying to burp thing the first week. It subsided about day 8 or 9 though. I can burp okay now as long as I don't overeat. Good luck and hang in there!:confused:

[marciemom 0]

Hi, I'm new here. I got banded on Feb. 15th '06. The doctor spent more time fixing my hiatal hernia, he said it was bigger than a softball! I developed so much pain and gas, it was horrible. I cried! My sister told me to make celery tee, with the leaves of it and boiling Water with 1/2 tsp sugar, not the fake stuff. It is very good, soothing and calming, and it takes cares of the gas. She used it for her babies (40 years ago..lol) Hope you feel better. Also I don't eat nything prepared, like chicken/beef broth (it has garlic, it causes too much gas). Make your own Soups, just boil a piece of chicken, ad salt and a little bit of oregano and celery leaves to prevent gas. Then blend it and have a wonderful creamy-Soup, homemade. Ad some oatmeal for thickness.

cheers!

Anybody has any other suggestions for food for the first 2 liquid weeks?

thanks,

Marcie

[wallisj 0]

Hi..

I got banded on 24/1/06 and it took amost 2 weeks before the gas pains subsided ... 1 day i was ok, the next i was really miserable with pain.

I took something similar to gas-x (i'm uk based so we don't have that)

Walking (even slowly) for around 20 minutes every few hours helped get the gas moving out.

The soreness for me took another few days...on wednesday i'll be on 4 week aniversary... for me today i feel absolutely fine...cuts are healed, gas gone...eating small amounts of mushed up fish and a little mash potato....still 90% Soups though

I will move more and more onto puree food this next week.

Lost a total of 26lbs since op and feeling good (clothes are starting to look big on me)

It will pass

Jamie

[Nickysmom 0]

Thanks for all the replies. So it's still gas? I don't really pass that much...I am going to the supermarket now to buy a few things for the mushy stage and will pick up the gas-x I think. My Dr said to start mushy in one week so I was going to try some today which is one day before a week. Tired of clear liquids.

[wallisj 0]

Hey ... just one week on clear liquids .... i did 5 weeks ... 2 weeks pre-op, 3 weeks post-op ... i am only now getting onto mushy food and i can tell you its been a weird experience ... can eat so little ... thats the point i guess but still strange

They said to me to eat liquids for 3 then mushy for 3 so the band can bed in and reduce slipping risk

[ljones4521 4]

I agree get the gas-x pills and do try to walk. Even if it is only baby steps. I walked for what seems like hours at the hospital and then after discharge we went and did a little shopping (Mexico) where we walked even more. I hated it while doing it but understood walking is the best way to get things going. ONce I got home I would walk around (wouldn't do the steps) upstairs becuase my calves were aching as well.

Also, try a tea that's helps with gas. I drank lots of tea during recovery.

I too suffered with hiccups. It happened EVERY time I sipped something. It was excruciating.

Then one morning I woke up and felt completely normal! As if I hadn't had surgery. I called my patient coordinator and told her something was terrible wrong. I was certain my band had slipped or something. I didn't expect to feel so completely normal.

Hope you feel better soon.

Hugs :hug:

Nicky,

I have a 9.75 cm band that holds 5cc's. At time of surgery I got a 1.5cc fill. Still had the same symptoms you are describing, except I had to drink very slowly. Liquids didn't pass very quickly or easily (becuase of the swelling).

[Nickysmom 0]

I don't know why everyone is different with the liquids....it's weird. I even see that some peoples pands are different sizes. I don't know what size I got I think 5cc??? I saw someone had one that's 11cc. I wonder why

[Mikey 0]

Just a quick reminder - a lot of the gas pain isn't digestive, so Gas-X and other similar remedies may not do a lot for you...

In most laproscopic surgeries, they inflate your diaphragm with carbon dioxide so they have more room to maneuver their instruments. A little of it escapes by the time they close up the incisions, but definitely not all of it. So the gas stays inside your body for awhile - and it takes a little time for it to dissipate.

Since we don't have much in the way of nerve endings in our diaphragms, most of the shoulder/upper back pain we experience is actually referral pain... The gas really isn't in our shoulders - it just feels that way.

The movement these folks are recommending (walking, etc) helps speed up the osmosis process - so it definitely helps.

I just had my surgery on the 13th - and my wife had hers on the 15th. She is still having some significant pain from the gas, but I got very lucky. As it turns out, I'm really big I was nearly too big for the doc's instruments to reach effectively - so they didn't have to use much of the co2... which means that I have had almost no gas pains after the 1st couple hours of recovery.

Yay for me... bummer for Janet...