Questions For Those Before Me!

[Sandra_Baby87 56]

hi all im scheduled for surgery May 10th.

im nervous and excited and everything in between!

I do have some questions for those who have already gone through the surgery, if you can help me out id appreciate it.

thank you!

1. How long did your surgery last on average?

2. How long did it take you to wake up from the anesthesia?

3. I know everyone is different but on a scale of 1-10 how much pain did you feel once you woke up?

4. How soon do they have you start walking around once you wake up?

5. If there are any ladies out there who had PCOS, did it go away or improve with time after surgery?

i have so many more, if you have any other info other than what i asked...its welcome!

thank you!

[Mita710 8]

I haven't had surgery yet...my surgery is on April 11th...pretty soon...I'm hoping to post something up while I'm in the hospital on how everything goes...so for the people who do have questions I can help out :0)

[ab76307 22]

Hi

I'm almost 6 months out and down 85lbs.

I think surgery was about two hours but I had a hernia repair as well.

I pretty much slept in the recovery room but I was pretty with it once I made it to my room. I think I stayed in recovery about two hours.

I was walking the halls not long after I made it too my room. I'd say by about a half hour or so after I was there and settled I was walking.

I didn't have PCOS so I can't help you with that one... Sorry.

Pain.....I didn't really think it was all that bad but my nurses were great with my meds. When I got home I found it really hard to sleep in bed so I slept in the recliner for about two weeks. Id say the most pain I had once home was when I'd go to the bathroom..., getting up and down when your tummy was sore was hard but I was sent home with pain meds and felt much better by two weeks out. I went back to work at three weeks out. Good Luck it really is not as bad as you think it is going to be.

Amanda

[joycelyn 19]

hi all im scheduled for surgery May 10th.

im nervous and excited and everything in between!

I do have some questions for those who have already gone through the surgery' date=' if you can help me out id appreciate it.

thank you!

1. How long did your surgery last on average?

2. How long did it take you to wake up from the anesthesia?

3. I know everyone is different but on a scale of 1-10 how much pain did you feel once you woke up?

4. How soon do they have you start walking around once you wake up?

5. If there are any ladies out there who had PCOS, did it go away or improve with time after surgery?

i have so many more, if you have any other info other than what i asked...its welcome!

thank you![/quote']

I was sleeved this afternoon woohoo. It lasted about an hour, when I woke up I was in pain,probably an 8 or so but the gave me pain med s quickly and now it's just a little sorely took several hours to wake. It's after midnight here and I wide awake. But very little pain. I have been taking a few ice chips, not to bad. But for some reason was not that nervous about surgery just after. the staff here is so great I have only been in hospital one time 27 yrs ago. Don't regret this not one bit. They weighed be just before surgery, I was under 200 for the first time since the 80s. That make me feel so good.

My advice to you to do everything th dr Tells you it will easy on you and you have no problems. drinking hasn't been that hard, but I'm just going to stick to Ice chips for now

Good luck and I'm praying for you have a smooth go,

[iegal 460]

Congrats on your upcoming surgery date!

1. How long did your surgery last on average? under 2 hours - Oh I was an outpatient too, so I went home that day and got to sleep in my own bed - YEAH

2. How long did it take you to wake up from the anesthesia? I was awake within one hour of coming out, but not ready to go home since I had a lot of nausea.

3. I know everyone is different but on a scale of 1-10 how much pain did you feel once you woke up? Um, is 10 high pain and 1 no pain? I felt no pain - none. But I have a lot of buddies in SoCal group who felt a lot of pain. Don't think of me as wonderwoman, I avoid pain at all costs.

4. How soon do they have you start walking around once you wake up? As soon as you can - within an hour after waking up. I was not attached to any pain meds or pain pumps or catheder or drain or heart monitor or etc. They wanted me moving right away. I was just another normal girl, minus most of my stomach. The nausea was bad though.

5. If there are any ladies out there who had PCOS, did it go away or improve with time after surgery? n/a

i have so many more, if you have any other info other than what i asked...its welcome! Ask away - that is what we are here for to share and cheerlead each other onto success. Remember we are all different, with different surgeons using different methods & tools.

Hugs!

[Sandra_Baby87 56]

THANK YOU LADIES!!

i really appreciate it!!!

I feel like the days are flying by! but i cant wait to start this journey!

[Wheetsin 714]

I had surgery a week ago so I'll answer while the info is still fresh in mind.

hi all im scheduled for surgery May 10th.

im nervous and excited and everything in between!

I do have some questions for those who have already gone through the surgery, if you can help me out id appreciate it.

thank you!

1. How long did your surgery last on average?

My surgeon's average time is about 40 minutes. Mine took about twice that because I was a revision and had significant scar tissue/adhesions he wanted to resolve.

2. How long did it take you to wake up from the anesthesia? I started coming out of it about 10 mins after hitting recovery. I tend to come out of anesthesia a bit more quickly than average. It took about 2 hours for me to be fully coherent.

3. I know everyone is different but on a scale of 1-10 how much pain did you feel once you woke up? I'm not sure I should answer since my surgery was a bit more involved than most. When I first woke up I was rating my pain a 6 - 7. But here's a little more context. When I had lapband surgery in 2006, I woke up rating my pain a 0 and asking to go home. When I had my gallbladder out, I woke up rating my pain a 3 and not wanting meds. When I had my lapband out, I woke up rating my pain a 3 and wanting meds. My surgeon really had to poke around with me because of the revision factor, and I had a new side incision that was particularly painful. That one incision/area was the 6 or 7. Everything else was a 2 or 3.

4. How soon do they have you start walking around once you wake up? They wanted me up and moving at least once every four hours, even for just a few steps. I ended up doing about 40 laps around the hospital floor (off and on) my first night. I was moving slowly. I stayed one night and was discharged the next afternoon and was probably walking for about 3 hrs of my stay.

5. If there are any ladies out there who had PCOS, did it go away or improve with time after surgery? I don't have PCOS so I can't speak to it personally, but weightloss is one of the things that can help PCOS.

i have so many more, if you have any other info other than what i asked...its welcome!

thank you!

Ask away, I'm not shy and will answer anything in any amount of detail that you want.

[Catracks 865]

1. How long did your surgery last on average?

Around 2 hours I think.

2. How long did it take you to wake up from the anesthesia?

They woke me up pretty much right after wheeling me into recovery.

3. I know everyone is different but on a scale of 1-10 how much pain did you feel once you woke up?

Hard to answer because I was trying to shake off the anesthesia and mistakenly thought I should give myself some morphine from the pump they installed. The morphine just make me feel bad. I had no nausea, but I don't like being doped up so I I didn't take any more pain killers after the first dose.

After that what I felt was discomfort from the gas. I would say on a scale of 1-10 it was a 3.

The nurse twice gave me a non-narcotic pain reliever, but I don't think I needed it.

Keep in mind that I may be out of the ordinary. I've heard people really complaining of pain and nausea.

4. How soon do they have you start walking around once you wake up?

THEY didn't have me do anything. I wanted to get rid of the gas so I was walking about a half-hour after I got to my room.

5. If there are any ladies out there who had PCOS, did it go away or improve with time after surgery?

Didn't have that, but blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and other things went to normal. sleep apnea disappeared.

Oh yeah. Bring chapstick and a small cushy pillow to put on your stomach when you get up and down and for the car ride home. It helps with the bumps.

I also would recommend gauze pads, butterfly bandages and tape. My big incision decided to open and release all the subcutaneous blood that was trapped there. For the first week if I wasn't wearing a bandage I would bleed on my shirts. Really irritating.

[NJsharon 119]

I also would recommend gauze pads, butterfly bandages and tape. My big incision decided to open and release all the subcutaneous blood that was trapped there. For the first week if I wasn't wearing a bandage I would bleed on my shirts. Really irritating.

Has anyone else had this? I am having surgery in Mexico & live in NJ, so a long flight for me, so this worries me a bit!

[Wheetsin 714]

It will depend on how your incisions are closed, and what dressings they use. My surgeon typically uses stuff that looks like clear contact paper, and puts a big sheet of it over the incisions. The stuff is waterproof. No problems.

After my first surgery with him I found out I'm allergic to it (I'm mildly allergic to most adhesives) so for my second surgery (GB removal) he just used gauze pads taped on top. My largest incision leaked between the staples when I got out of the car after returning home, and I didn't notice until I saw the trail of blood drops on our new floor.

Third surgery was lapband removal and I asked them to send home some extra gauze packs because I didn't not want to have another mess, which they did, but I didn't need them.

Today is my post-op appt so I went ahead and pulled off the adhesive Patches they gave me this time. I didn't react to them nearly as much, but they OKed me to take them off early as long as I could promise not to do anything to pull on the staples. One of the Patches pulled a staple out when I took it off and I "seeped" a little (no blood ran out, but if I pushed my finger on it, it would come away with blood on it). I just stuck a band aid on it. (I have more gauze and the adhesive sheets I'm not reacting to, but I thought that was overkil... I may not think so when it's time to take the bandaid off though!)

I brought a lip moisturizer, I always have some in my purse, but the hospital gave me a tube of stuff I liked a lot better.I think it was just called "oral moisturizer". It comes in a sealed tube and you squeeze some out of an applicator tip. It's a lot thinner than regular moisturizer and felt really good on my lips, and I didn't get the "gunk" in the corners of my mouth.

Go to the pre-op forum. There's a thread pinned there, with lots & lots of contributions on what you'll want to take with you. I posted things for in the hospital, as well as for once you're home.

[Catracks 865]

Has anyone else had this? I am having surgery in Mexico & live in NJ, so a long flight for me, so this worries me a bit!

Not to worry. Just apply the bandage and have some extras in your carry on. Those butterfly bandages are like extra stitches and the gauze pads absorb any leaks. It's funny now, but I was overdoing it my first day home from the hospital. I was putting a casserole dish way back into the cabinet and I did a bit of twisting. It probably needed to come open anyway because there was a lot of trapped blood. Anyway, I really started bleeding profusely and soaked a dishcloth. I called the on call surgeon and he was totally unphased. He just told me to apply a gauze pad and tape. The butterflys were my idea.

Anyway, this doesn't happen to everybody. It's just a good idea to be prepared.

Also: a long flight after surgery? Make sure you get up and walk the aisle a bit when you can and stretch out those legs.