Pain Level From Surgery

1bunni4me · January 13, 2007

:help: I just got my surgery date of 1/31/07 and it is reality time...I am secretly freaking out. :omg: People are bombarding my family with horror stories and one is the level of pain involved. I have had several women tell us that it was much more painful than the gallbladder surgery they had..ok I can handle that...but they are saying that their C-Sections were nothing compared to the pain of this surgery.

Now, I have had 3 C-sections and have a really hard time believing that much is more painful than that, so can someone please give me the truth? Not only am I low threshold for pain but I have to go back to work soon after...:help: ???

nataliec · January 13, 2007

Do you know that many people who have had lap band surgery and are trying to discourage you???

GayleTX · January 13, 2007

Do these rays of sunshine understand that you are having lapband, not a gastric bypass??? The pain level is minimal in most cases....I never even took a Tylenol, never needed a GasX , altho many people do.

Yvonne · January 13, 2007

Hi,

I've had a c section and it's much worse than getting a lapband. I was ok after a couple of days with the band and feeling fine after a week. I only had pain when bending or taking really deep breaths. I couldn't sleep flat for a couple of days but honest - nowhere near the pain of a c section.

Take care,

Yvonne

x

BabyGotBack · January 13, 2007

I also had two c sections and one Tummy Tuck and the lapband was a breeze. I didn't even need my liquid tylenol, only like 2 times right after to sleep.

People just like to talk about things they don't know anything about. Everyone is an expert and the funny thing is they don't even know anyone who had lapband surgery and are only talking out of ignorance (at least in my few cases when discussing lap band surgery in general).

You will be fine as long as you have a good and experienced surgeon.

Audree

ennigmah · January 13, 2007

I had NO idea what to expect because I had never had any surgery on my belly but other than the bloating discomfort from the gas (the anesthesia gas and MY OWN!) which only lasted 3 or 4 days I did not take any pain medicine at all. In fact, I put my prescription for pain med through the shredder! YOU WILL DO FINE!!! Go for it!

1bunni4me · January 13, 2007

Thank u all for replying and yes I do know about 30 -40 people who have had gastric and lap band.

The company I work for has about 30 there and growing because of insurance. About 6 more in the next 2 months that I know of. We live in an area, also, that has one of the doctors and center who helped bring the band to America, so we are very blessed.

Well, if it hurts too much I will be back here whining during my recovery! :nervous

nataliec · January 13, 2007

And we'll be here to listen.

beachgirl · January 14, 2007

I agree, there are soooo many people that give you their opinion about band surgery that haven't even had it and act like they know exactly what's going on. That irritates me to no end. My pain level was about the same as going to the dentist. I didn't even take my pain meds that Dr. Sanchez gave me. You'll do great.

angyl2314 · January 14, 2007

Thank u all for replying and yes I do know about 30 -40 people who have had gastric and lap band.
The company I work for has about 30 there and growing because of insurance. About 6 more in the next 2 months that I know of. We live in an area, also, that has one of the doctors and center who helped bring the band to America, so we are very blessed.

Well, if it hurts too much I will be back here whining during my recovery! :nervous

Those people who suffered a lot of pain after their lap band surgery obviously had bad surgeons. I had asolutely no pain and the most minimal amount of gas, and that was actually like a week later. I had no pain meds, aside from the morphiene in the hospital, which I was just using to use, I think lol. It was not bad at all.

GrannyAces · January 14, 2007

I never needed pain meds at all. The doctor gave me a prescription which I never even filled. Five days after surgery I drove a thousand miles alone from Tijuana to Washington. It was a piece of cake and I'm over 60 years old. Good luck and don't let them scare you.

rms78645 · January 14, 2007

I was banded yesterday. The only problem that I have is stomach muscles. But today I am already feeling much better than yesterday. I have had some gas pain but I am taking gasx.

Bostongurl · January 14, 2007

Those people who suffered a lot of pain after their lap band surgery obviously had bad surgeons. I had asolutely no pain and the most minimal amount of gas, and that was actually like a week later. I had no pain meds, aside from the morphiene in the hospital, which I was just using to use, I think lol. It was not bad at all.

I don't think that's a fair thing to say, I had a wonderful surgeon who did an amazing job, but i still had a lot of pain. Every BODY is different and different people react differently to different things.

I did'nt have any of the gas pains that people talk about but I did have a lot of pain around my port area. I was unable to move without a ton of pain for at least a week.

Having said all of that though, I would do it again in a second, and even though I had a lot of pain, it was abolutly worth every benefit I'm getting now, 75lbs lighter.

Good luck to you!

Tulip · January 14, 2007

I was not expecting much pain following surgery because of stories I heard from 2 of my close friends that had already had their surgery. They both only complained of gas pains for about a week.

My surgery was on Jan 8, and for the first 2 days, I had more pain than I expected. Getting in and out of bed was very painful, and even shifting position in bed hurt for those first 2 days. I still have some pain at the port area and muscle pulling when I stand up or sit down. It isn't too bad now. But I definitely was not expecting to hurt as much as I did those first 2 days.

I did not expect to have the swelling that I had either. My swelling was to the degree that my skin was stretched tight all over my abdomin.

I did have a c-section and don't think lap band hurt anywhere as much as the pain of that surgery. Lap band was painful for me, c-section was very painful.

I would not want to scare anyone, but I wouldn't want to sugarcoat the recovery process either. Just telling it like it is.

Everyone is different, and hopefully your recovery will be a breeze. I know I would have the lap band again in a heartbeat!

transformer · January 14, 2007

I did not have any pain related to the actual lapband procedure at all. I took Tylenol for the first four days--never touched the Vicodin I got. The only pain I had was from the anesthesia--all of my muscles hurt all over my body until Day 4 post-surgery. This procedure was nothing compared to the 28 hours of labor I was in to deliver my son!