jacks home, after surgery

[jack mario425 0]

hi boys & girls ..... boy what a ride have i been on ! . OK so i checked in on may 4, doc got to me about 1 PM . i was put into the holding room where i said goodbye to my wife & mom. I met with the prep people &was taken to the operation room ,where they gave me a local followed by gas ,& off to wonderland i went .OK GET READY ---------- WHEN I WOKE UP, I WAS IN THE MOST PAINFULLY STATE I HAVE EVER BEEN IN .I FELT AS IF A SEMI HAD RUN OVER ME . but soon after that they hooked me up to morphine and hello!!!!!!!!! i was able to deal with the pain .i got 5 holes and all hurt. day 1 ,was me just dealing with pain . day 2, got better quickly, only problem was i could not go to the bathroom (#1) the morphine had stopped my urine. so they inserted a tube into my penis to allow me to go . not a lot of fun . DAY 3, gas , gas & more gas . cramps & more cramps. pain was manageable, i stop the painkillers & began to walk .walk .walk maybe a hour a day on & off . i would go into the back of the hospital where they have a park & just circle it over & over it made my gas pass and i felt better. it also helped with nausea witch i had from day 1 .-day 4 no more pain , just like that ! i was sore but that was it . it was so surprising! Dr wiz man came to check me out & clear me (by the way great doc ,)they removed my drain plug-- ouch!!!! and home i went . i have been good, only to eat what is allowed pureed eggs.chicken.tuna. --jello, ice pops, Protein Shakes etc. and mom made me a chicken Soup that i put into the blender before i ate . i have no regrets i feel i am on my way ! -people i say this to you , walk walk and walk -it helped so much in my recovery.... it's day 5 and i feel great no pain , not hungry, & very mellow ............. love to all :001_smile: got questions - ask me ...jack .

[stcyt 15]

YEA JacK!!!!!!

It gets better every day!!!!

[Tiffykins 673]

Many congrats Jack. Glad to hear you are home and recovering nicely ! ! !

[goodlife 3]

Hey Jack! So glad you're home now and doing better.

And holy crap..you can have all that stuff already?

[KabinKitty 11]

:scared0:

Jack,

I've had 4 open abdominal surgeries and one laproscopic and the pain can be close to the same for both, depending on the circumstances. I'm so glad they took care of your pain so quickly and you're feeling SO much better now!

Take care my friend and heal quickly! :001_smile:

[pnw218 14]

yea!! The worst part is over!! Now you can enjoy the ride!!

it does sound like you had an interesting time of it! had to laugh just a little at times; sounds like you kept a positive attitude and that is great!

eating soft and mushy early on helped me so much! I am glad you are able to also!

continued good luck!

[ouroborous 519]

Congrats on your recovery, brother!

My outcome was a little different -- the pain isn't too bad. My abdomen feels like it's been run over by a truck, but I only really notice it if I cough or when I stand up. The most annoying thing has been this persistent low-grade fever, but that seems to be breaking up. They've got me on "full liquids" now, so I'm drinking a smoothy made out of Protein powder, skim milk, and a half banana blended into a liquid. It tastes pretty good, but it's SUPER foamy so I can only take tiny sips without burping.

I'm glad to hear you're out of the woods, and I agree with you -- walking is key.

[goodlife 3]

ouro..one tip they gave me was to get Mylicon (symethicone) drops and put a few in the smoothie after you mix it....should help with that foam or air that gets mixed in when you shake it up.

I'm so jealous of you all you guys who can have all these good things like egg, and bananas. I can't even mix my shakes with milk yet!

[Swiftflow 6]

Awesone both of you guys are doing good. I also want to warn you not to do much bending twisting or lifting. I felt so normal that I stopped thinking about caution yesterday and bent down while I was walking to scratch the back of my calf and then pulled up with some sharp pain to my side. It is definately pressure on the internal incision as my external ones are fine and eating is fine. So as a man its tough not to grab the grocery bag or reach over and do something cause you feel good. I am hoping it is just a strain--nothing has herniated at the site yet...

[BJean 16]

jack I really enjoyed reading your experiences! All I can say is what a wuss. KIDDING!!

I am so glad that you're on the mend and I second that emotion, Swiftflow, don't try to pick up anything or scratch anything lower than your butt. KIDDING!!

I do not know what's happened to me you guys, but I seriously have been acting like I'm trying out for the comedy show. I think I am already very happy I've done this or maybe it's just that I got that freakin' band out of my system. Whatever it is, I'm in a great mood and although Swift has me beat by a mile with his weight loss, I'm real happy with the way things are going.

Hang in there jack, like stacy says things get better every day!

And goodlife, symethicone is what GasX has that makes it effective. And my doc gave me the go ahead on that if I need it. Which I have not. I've had a soft scrambled egg, a poached egg, applesauce, banana, cottage cheese, pears, chichen & Tomato cream Soups, yogurt, mashed potatoes, baked potato, soft cooked carrots and green Beans and tonight I get black Beans and salsa. I am thrilled with the way they set up my eating plan to add something good every other day. In fact, it's probably too good because I'm not drinking as much of the Protein powder as I should in order to get 64 gms. of Protein everyday. (goodlife you'll probably NOT lose your hair and you'll be saying "ninnie, ninnie, na-na" when mine does.) I also have trouble getting in all that Water. But I'm not complaining! Tuesday I start fish. Whoo hoo!

Edited May 8, 2010 by BJean

[goodlife 3]

wow bjean...that's incredible! We were sleeved on the same day and I can't have crap!

I can't have cottage cheese until 4 weeks out. They don't want me to have mashed potatoes at all. I can have well cooked veggies at 5 weeks.

I can't have eggs until six weeks out...I can't have tuna or fish or chicken or turkey until 8 weeks out and I can't have any beef or pork for six months.

Big DRAMATIC sigh! lol

[BJean 16]

That definitely IS amazing goodlife! I wonder which of our doctors has been doing this the longest? That may have nothing to do with it. However the doctor's surgical assistant and I had a talk last week and I was bragging on the way they've structured the post-op diet. She said that they used to have their patient's coming after one week and then again at 3 weeks saying they were starving to death. So they had their dietician re-do the plan and she said she worked it out to the letter. Now they have a daily plan that adds up to 1200-1400 calories per day but there is no way in the world that anybody can actually eat it all. So not only are the foods varied, but their patients feel like they're really accomplishing something by not eating everything on the list. I'm easily influenced by reverse psychology, I guess because I fell for it hook, line and sinker.

And interestingly the only discomfort I've experienced, food-wise, is a burning sensation in my mid-section. I also learned that I have a hiatal hernia so it could be from that. Or it could just be from having the tube down my throat during surgery or whatever they manhandled during surgery. I do get the messge real quick that I should stop eating and have only had a couple bites too many once or twice. And don't want to do that again.

My heart goes out to you. I'm so happy and handling this so darned well that I feel really lucky. I know I would think I was starving to death if I were on your eating plan. But like I said, I'll bet you drop some significant poundage much faster than I do. That will make what you're doing all worthwhile because that's why we did this, right?

Keep me posted on your progress, please. It really helps to have someone else at my same surgery date, to compare notes with.

BJean

[iluvaleo 1]

goodlife, you are not alone...that is the same post-op diet my bf is on too! He was also sleeved on 4/28. But, the good news is that he has not been hungry. At least nothing that Jello or s/f popsicle didn't satisfy.

[BJean 16]

I was thinking about this some more and I thought of another reason why your diet may be better than mine (and iluvaleo's bf's) is that I may not be getting enough Protein because I'm filling up on other things that are better tasting. They print in big letters that it is very important that you drink 3 whey Protein drinks per day. I'm only getting in about one of maybe 2.

This whole discussion has made me think better of what I'm doing. I'm going to work harder at drinking the shakes. I don't have that much hair to start with!