How much pain?

[PinkCadillac 0]

Hi Everybody!

I have my surgery on Monday. :smile1: (Dr Jose Rodriguez-Star Medica Hospical-Juarez) Surprisingly, I am not nervous! I'm just excited and anxious to start my new life after surgery.

Can anybody give me a "heads-up" as to what I can expect the pain level to be when I wake up after surgery? The only other surgery I've ever had was a breast reduction. I remember waking up in recovery after that surgery, and my first thaught was always "OMG! MY BOOBS ARE ON FIRE!!!" :flame: And then I would think "This sucks, I'm going back to sleep..." and I could! I know it sounds funny, but I could just fall back to sleep because I decided to! :sleep4: (That was SOOO cool!) After the initial recovery room experience, I don't remember having any pain at all, just uncomfortable while they were healing.

I know the post-op "flaming boob" comparison is a little weird, but is that what I can expect after VSG? Will it feel like my guts are on fire at first till the pain med kicks in? I am totally confident that I can deal, I just want to know what to expect.

Anything you can tell me about what to expect the first week or so will be greatly appreciated! (And WTH... If I end up with another funny post-op recovery story, then that's OK too)

Tina

[saulzy2433 0]

The pain isnt too bad since you have meds in your iv. It mainly hurts when you get out of the bed. Everyone is different though. When you are home it hurts getting up and down and sometimes swallowing. For me swallowing was really painful. I had gurggling and a sharp pain but it would pass. i just took the medicine they gave me for pain and I was pretty good. Not too bad though mainly just sore. Im on my third week and have virtually no pain. Just the occasional too much Water or too big of a bite going down. You will do good! :smile1: Good luck to you!

[pnw218 14]

Hi Tina,

I have had a breast lift and I think the post-op is very similar. Everyone is different but after both, I had very little pain. I had vsg surgery on a Thursday, quit taking pain meds on Sunday and went back to work part time on Monday. Immediately after the vsg surgery, the primary pain I had was in my lungs - likely from being tubed and inflated. That decreased tremendously after a day or two, and by the time I flew home on Sunday, I was fine.

I did not have any incision pain. I previously had lap surgery when my gall bladder was removed in 2004. That was not painful either - other than they had to vacuum out my abdomen when they spilt bile from the gall bladder, and that went away in a couple of days.

I also had a Tummy Tuck in 2007 and that surgery was very painful when using those muscles to sit or stand. I did not have that type of pain with the vsg at all. Even with the tummy tuck, I was off the rx pain meds within about 4 days and only took them at night to sleep.

I agree with Saulzy - drinking was a bit of a challenge sometimes! I am able to take decent drinks now. I used popcicles during some of the times when I just could not make the thirst go away.

My worst experience after vsg surgery was the first night. I woke up around midnight or so, and was nauseous and needed to pee. I decided to use the bathroom first and then ask the nurse for meds when I got back into bed. WRONG! I ended up with dry heaves in the bathroom. It was miserable. Fortunately the nausea doesn't last very long either : )

Good luck! You will be so happy that you did this!!

Edited March 21, 2010 by pnw218

[Tiffykins 673]

Gas pain was more troublesome and uncomfortable than any other pain. Except, I was a revision from the band to the sleeve, and where my port for the band was placed was encased in scar tissues and a lot of adhesions had to be removed. There was a significant amount of incisional pain around my port site, but pain meds work great.

Gas pains not so much fun. I had gas travel up to my collarbone area, and it just sat there causing lots of pressure. Walking helps tremendously, and others have said a heating paid helps as well. The CO2 gas they blow our tummies up with only escapes partially, the rest has to be walked or worn off.

I had my gallbladder out about 6 weeks ago, and I had more discomfort from that surgery than I did my revision.

[Stacy160 201]

I had next to no gas pain... I felt swollen and bloated, and would occasionally get a little "jab" up at my left collarbone, but that's about it. I also started on the GasX strips within a couple hours of surgery too though, so that probably helped.

For the first couple of days, my abs felt like I'd done a thousand crunches. There was some sharper pain when trying to roll or sit up in bed (which I kept half-up in the hospital), which I'd rate at about a 6-7/10, but that was very brief and started getting better about day three also. You will have pain meds in your IV and you'll have some to take at home; I never took them after I got home, didn't need to. Within 5 days I was functioning almost normally and by the 1-week mark, other than the fact that I couldn't put anything other than liquids in my mouth and that I had scars and a drain tube (which came out that day), I felt totally normal and would have never known I'd had anything done. It was my first surgery and I kept thinking about how easy it all was. :biggrin0:

[pnw218 14]

I had next to no gas pain... I felt swollen and bloated, and would occasionally get a little "jab" up at my left collarbone, but that's about it. I also started on the GasX strips within a couple hours of surgery too though, so that probably helped.

I definitely had gas but wouldn't have called it pain either. I did use the GasX strips right away, they were wonderful. Not sure if the amount of pain depends on which route the gas travels .... but I had fluffies not burps. LOL And for that first day especially, the GasX strips were like candy when you couldn't have anything else! :biggrin0:

[thinoneday 445]

Hi Everybody!

I have my surgery on Monday. :thumbup1: (Dr Jose Rodriguez-Star Medica Hospical-Juarez) Surprisingly, I am not nervous! I'm just excited and anxious to start my new life after surgery.

Can anybody give me a "heads-up" as to what I can expect the pain level to be when I wake up after surgery? The only other surgery I've ever had was a breast reduction. I remember waking up in recovery after that surgery, and my first thaught was always "OMG! MY BOOBS ARE ON FIRE!!!" :flame: And then I would think "This sucks, I'm going back to sleep..." and I could! I know it sounds funny, but I could just fall back to sleep because I decided to! :sleep4: (That was SOOO cool!) After the initial recovery room experience, I don't remember having any pain at all, just uncomfortable while they were healing.

I know the post-op "flaming boob" comparison is a little weird, but is that what I can expect after VSG? Will it feel like my guts are on fire at first till the pain med kicks in? I am totally confident that I can deal, I just want to know what to expect.

Anything you can tell me about what to expect the first week or so will be greatly appreciated! (And WTH... If I end up with another funny post-op recovery story, then that's OK too)

Tina

I've had the breast reduction too and let me tell its NOTHING like that! This is more of a discomfort then a real pain. . . tylenol did it for me. . .i was up and walking about 6 hours after surgery. . . my back hurt me more from laying down then the actually surgery . . . there is a pulling nagging sensation from the drain, but that was all for me. . . no nausea, sick feelings, nothing. . . just remember to walk alot. . . the gas pain isn't funny, but not as bad as the boob surgery. . . something you can deal with. . . good luck, you're going to do great!

[MlkPas 5]

I'm on Day Five and I've been amazed at how little pain I've had. I've also had zero nausea, which has been a huge blessing. No incision pain, either. Just a bit of gas pain the third day -- first day home (slept through the first day -- the day of surgery, and had IV pain meds the second day), which was easily handled by gas-x and the liquid tylenol prescription I got to take home. I haven't had any pain meds since the third day.

BY FAR the worst part of the whole experience was waking up with a drainage tube in my nose -- it was rubbing against the inside of my nose and REALLY hurt. Fortunately I was able to sleep most of the time until the nurses could contact my doc and get permission to remove the tube (the removal hurt like a sonofagun, but it only lasted a moment).

I'm just amazed at how I'm sailing through this whole thing. I have next week off work, but if I had to, I could totally go back to work tomorrow and do fine.