5 Days Post Op - How long did you take pain meds or have pain?

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

Luciana,

I think if you don't go to follow-ups you will reduce your chances of long-term success.

My advice is to pull up your big-girl panties and resolve this conflict. You and your surgeon don't have to be best friends. But you do have to figure out how to work together.

To throw away your future medical follow-up resources because your feelings got hurt (and yes, that hurt!) is not acting like a grown-up.

You have to get over this and get beyond it.

[LucianaVictoria 24]

Yes - you are right. My husband just said the same thing to me 5 seconds ago. He said to not even mention it - to just drop it. I most likely won't deal with him after this initial check up anyway. I'll try to see what I can do to augment my follow ups via my regular physician as well.

Big Girl Panties On? CHECK! lol thanks!

[LindafromFlorida 1,542]

There is nothing to report to a Board about this insensitive doctor, no one will care. I am lucky I am older (hah 68) and did not have children to take care of. It was scary having the sleeve at our age, and I learned the surgeon was pretty much done with us after surgery. Thank God for a great primary care doctor. I feel I became more emotional after surgery also, but 9 months later not so much. We took one dose of the hydrocodone liquid at home, but we were able to rest and relax so maybe you were trying to do too much. Be gentle with yourself. (When people are begging doctors for more narcotic pain meds, I think a red flag goes up. It had nothing to do with you personally). Relax and start feeling better. Good luck!

[BitterSweet* 835]

He was an ass that day. We all have days like that. It's inexcusable how he treated you, but his lack of professionalism in that moment can happen to anyone. Everybody can have bitchy moments. I practice them regularly. Lol!

Follow through with your scheduled post-op appointments and give him a second chance. If he's on his period the next time you see him, offer him a Midol, a tampon, and when you check out at the front desk, notify them that ALL of your future appointments need to be with the surgeon himself, or another PA or NP - not the moody male who's constantly on the rag.

Just my thoughts. =)

[haleytrim 244]

What a jerk! He should have mentioned the possible side effects of the pain medicine as well.

[butterflygrl1 1]

Crying and having lots of emotions is really really normal. Part of it is simply detoxing from the surgery. The other part is releasing whatever emotions we might have had bottled up in our stomachs. Crying is theraputic.

[Dyesha 6]

Thanks sooooo much guys for your feed back!! Helped me out a lot I think I'll do some light walking on the treadmill until I follow up with my surgeon this week!! Thanks again God Bless!

[KarenF1972 78]

@@VSGAnn2014 - I complete disagree with you. She'll soon need to pull on her "little girl" panties!

[SherB 220]

I had pain, a lot of pain for several weeks. I did only take Tylenol after my bottle was gone because I didn't want to ask for more meds since I thought they may think I would get addicted. I am 5 weeks out and have just a tiny bit of pulling on the right side so YES you can still be in pain 5 days out. My doctor said everyone is different. I am not a baby or a whiner it just somehow happened that I had more pain. If your pain is excessive you may have to get checked out. I was checked out and was fine but trust me I was hurting. Take care!!

[BitterSweet* 835]

@@SherB, I'm glad you're recovering well from your surgery and if you were offended by my comments, that was not my intent. To clarify, a VSG is major surgery and will cause pain as all surgeries do. Healing times will of course vary for every individual, as does pain tolerance.

You will be sore for weeks to come. Soreness and discomfort are not the same thing as acute post-op pain, which would require the use of narcotics to ease. People needing narcotics for longer than others is not a whiny or baby-ish thing, it just means you may (note the word may) have a lower tolerance to pain compared to others. Doesn't make it a 'bad' thing, some people are simply that way, and others are complete opposites.

A good indication of the level of expected pain after surgery can be determined by a few simple things: The type of narcotic you are given after surgery; the count, or number of pills in the bottle (or amount of liquid); and whether there is an authorized refill already on the original presciption.

For example, if you are given Percocet, 30 pills in the bottle, and there's an authorized refill, the doctor is expecting you to have a moderate amount of pain and has planned ahead by giving you a very strong narcotic, and a lot of it. If you get Lortabs (5mg tablets), get 10 pills in the bottle, and no refills are authorized, the doctor expects your pain to be minimal.

[SherB 220]

@@BitterSweet*, I was not offended at all. It takes a lot to offend me. My issue was with myself. I had my gallbladder out and had zero issues and very little pain. Had a C-section and it was a bit painful but not too bad either. So when I saw all of these people having the sleeve and going back to work in a week, I was like cool, that will be me. Even though I knew it was a major surgery I was shocked at the amount of pain and the recovery time it took for me to feel better. I kept questioning myself as to what the heck was wrong with me and was feeling mad at myself for my slow recovery. I really just started to feel better last week. I finally had a discussion with myself, accepted for whatever reason this was taking me longer than others and trying to keep a positive attitude. I have spent years beating myself up for being overweight, I figured I needed to stop beating myself up over this surgery.

[LucianaVictoria 24]

No offence here! :-) Yes - I had a refill on the prescription but it wasn't to be refilled for 8 days. And I was on day 5... but again - doing the math and per his assistant's instructions - take the 25 ml every 4 hours... a pint will only last 3.1666 days :-)

I'm actually feeling way better today. It is like night and day from Saturday morning and the previous days. Today I only took tylenol and have been fairly active walking around with the kids, doing dishes, making dinner... resting in between of course.

I'm feeling positive towards the decision and cant wait to get back to exercising as well!! No food cravings or real hunger - I guess it's why they call it the honeymoon period!! I'm going to do whatever it takes to follow the protocol exactly as prescribed - no messing around. (especially since I paid $17,500 out of pocket!!!) I can't wait for 6 months to pass and say "it was worth every penny!" :-)

[2late4bed 37]

No offence here! :-) Yes - I had a refill on the prescription but it wasn't to be refilled for 8 days. And I was on day 5... but again - doing the math and per his assistant's instructions - take the 25 ml every 4 hours... a pint will only last 3.1666 days :-)

I'm actually feeling way better today. It is like night and day from Saturday morning and the previous days. Today I only took tylenol and have been fairly active walking around with the kids, doing dishes, making dinner... resting in between of course.

I'm feeling positive towards the decision and cant wait to get back to exercising as well!! No food cravings or real hunger - I guess it's why they call it the honeymoon period!! I'm going to do whatever it takes to follow the protocol exactly as prescribed - no messing around. (especially since I paid $17,500 out of pocket!!!) I can't wait for 6 months to pass and say "it was worth every penny!" :-)

Everyone's pain is not the same just because you had the same surgery. You don't know if they might have bruised or nicked your liver during surgery which sometimes happens during any abdominal surgery. Your surgeon should have been concerned that you were having a lot of pain 5 days out and had you come in to be examined just to be safe.....but more than likely you were experiencing the rebound effect of going cold turkey after having taken the highest dose of hydrocodone every 4 hours for days. It just means that when the narcotic finally gets out of your system your pain will seem to be intensified and a lot worse than if you hadn't taken the narcotic or had taken a very low dose and endured some of the pain. But they should have warned you about that....the pharmacist should have too. But please keep your follow up appointments with the surgeon. Surgeons are KNOWN for their bad bedside manners. Just be like a fish and let everything slide right off of you. Hopefully he'll be much nicer at your next appointment. Some docs are that way....very temperamental. Good luck!

[toohot74akaelh2 80]

I'm in pain I had my surgery on the 21st of August and I'm just about out of the meds. The pain is bad my Doctor told the surgery went fine but my liver was enlarged not sure why did let you at the hospital the next day I'm not sure why they don't give you at least one refill on the medicine they prescribe you.

[Thinkingthinner1109 485]

Wow your surgeon had a bad day for sure! Geesh!

Edited September 1, 2014 by tbahm