5wks till surgery and I have a few questions...

[MzBree 0]

I'm having gastric bypass on Oct. 15th and have soo many questions...

#1- How soon have you guys started to drive? I am a single parent and normally do everything on my own. I'm in the process of trying to figure out how long I will need someone's help getting them to and from daycare during the week.

#2-What should I expect during the time that I am in the hospital?

[Lissapmkn1 41]

Good morning

My gastric bypass was on June 30, 2014. I went in on Monday and came out on Wednesday. I could drive as long as I was not on any pain meds. I didn't feel any pain when I went home, except for a little gas, so I was off pain meds when I left the hospital. I waited a couple days but was driving by Saturday.

It varies from person to person and I would anticipate at least one week. If you feel well enough, aren't on pain meds and are not exhausted, then drive

Being that I am single, I didn't have any assistance at home and did just fine. No lifting 15lbs or more for a while though.

May need to work with your children, so they know they will need to crawl into your lap instead of you picking them up

Good Luck - I know you will do fantastically well!

Clarissa

[James Marusek 5,244]

As Lissapmkn1 said, your ability to drive is dependent on when you get off the narcotic pain medicine. When I went into surgery, I told the anesthesiologists that I wanted no pain medicine after I left the recovery room. She told me that she would go easy on the anesthesia also during the surgery. After I left the recovery room, I was up and about walking every 2 hours. I started to do significant lapses but the nurse came over to me and told me to cut it out. Otherwise when the anesthesia wore off I would be in terrible pain. So I began to limit my lapses. Well I think the anesthesia wore off at around 3 a.m. but I am unsure because I could barely tell due to the fact that I experience very little pain.

Anyways, I would attribute the lack of pain (1) to walking every day prior to surgery and (2) doing the walking while in the hospital. The nurse who distributes the pain meds would come into my room and when I told her my pain level was 0 or 1 on a scale of 10, she would leave angry with a scowl on her face.

While in the hospital, make sure you get one of those pull-up bars above your bed, so you can get up easier. At the beginning it is a little hard to get around because you are dragging a pole with wheels around that has your I.V. attached to the arm. But after a day that stuff starts to come off and it is easier.

The hospital I was in allowed your spouse to stay overnight. I liked that. Since you are unmarried perhaps one of your parents could stay with you.

I went in for the operation on a Friday. This is a bad day to go in because most of the staff rotates out over the weekend. I left the hospital on Sunday. But if I had it earlier in the week, I probably would have left the hospital a day sooner.

I was driving within a few days after I left the hospital.

Your time in the hospital will be uncomfortable. You will want to come home. In the hospital, you need to get up every two hours to do your walking. So you can forget about sleep. (There are two reasons for the walking (1) prevent blood clots, (2) stretch the muscles). So get some sleep and rest just before the operation.

[Lissapmkn1 41]

James is right…the walking was the key to no pain.

I came out of surgery around 4 pm and was walking at 7 pm and did walk every 2 hours, with no pain. The only "pain" was dragging the IV around.

They will send you to have do a "leak" test and that required drinking a little Fluid so they could see if it went through without leaks.

The beds aren't very cushy, so I sat up in a chair in the room a lot because the bed hurt my bottom. Made it easier to get up to walk also. While I had someone stay in the room with me, I found the staff to be really kind and attentive and sent my mom back to the hotel so she could sleep.

My surgical location was 4 hours from where i live, so the journey home was a bit arduous - had to stop every 45 minutes to walk for 15 to prevent blood clots.

Once home, my incisions never hurt (they were all laparoscopic and small), and getting up and down wasn't difficult either.

I was on Protein shakes for 2 weeks after and I think that was the most difficult part. Everything tasted super sweet but I plugged my nose and drank 4 oz 4 times a day! I was also sent home with medication for my gall bladder (for some docs,it's standard procedure) to prevent any gall bladder issues.

You will have some trouble getting in all the Vitamins, Water and Protein to being with just because your tummy is so small. Just be diligent every 15 minutes or so to drink Water and take a Vitamin or pill when you do.

Once I was on soft foods (2 weeks out of surgery), I had to focus on getting in 92 g of protein. I had a hard time doing so because my tummy was so small - had to really plan!

I went back on all foods on August 15th however, I have kept out of my diet anything but lean protein, fruit, veggies and sugar free popsicles. I was a carb eater and so I have left out bread, tortillas, crackers, Cereal etc..and my weight continues to decline. Started at 368 prior to surgery and am now at 298. I am eating Quest Protein Bars and have found them a great help in getting in all my daily protein. These were recommended by my nutritionist. I order them on quest.com and they are shipped to my door in about 3 days. They are made with sugar alcohol and can be pretty sweet. I eat half a bar at a time because they really fill me up and are so sweet.

I did have some odd sensations when it came to smelling food because my appetite is gone. Some smells nauseate me and I don't like things I used to , but all in all it's a good thing!

My head likes to tell me I am hungry when I am not, so I have been really paying attention to that issue.

My goal is to be down 100 pounds total by Christmas and down an additional 75 by June.

Again - good luck!!

Clarissa

[Ginger Snaps 1,323]

You might ask your surgeon if there is a bariatric coordinator at the hospital or if there is a class to tell you what to expect in the hospital. My hospital had an hour long class where we toured the floor we'd be on and they described every step of what to expect... pre-op meds, starting IV, during operation, recovery, what liquids you'd get while you were there. It was very thorough and answered all my questions.

Worth checking into.

[WL WARRIOR 692]

I'm in a similar situation. Is there anyway that I can drive myself home after surgery? It is an hour drive and an easy route I have driven many times.

[Lissapmkn1 41]

My Dr. said no to driving myself home

[golden39 10]

Fatti - they won't let you drive home afterward as this can be a huge liability for the hospital. You will definitely need to find a ride home. I know that may be hard but you would be amazed at how people will offer to help if you let them know your need. My husband was with me but one of my co-workers offered to drive the 4 hours to where I was having my surgery and drive me home if he could not.

MzBree - tons of good advice in here already. I am a nurse that went through this on July 14th, 2014 so have some advice from the medical side of me I asked for a Compazine patch to be placed before I went into surgery and asked for Zofran. I told Anesthesia that I get really sick with any anesthetic. They did exactly this. I left the patch on for 48 hours and had no nausea at all! It was the best thing. My doc does not believe in doing the Leak test so I was lucky - he does something during surgery for testing - you might find your doc does this. As to driving - just as everyone else said - you can drive if you are not taking narcotics - I drove during the day and let myself have narcotic pain medicine at night for the first week - this really helped. Also - be very careful to stick to the lifting restrictions - you will feel like you can do anything after about a week or two but the issue is you can get hernias from lifting related to where the sutures are. I kept forgetting and wanting to pick up my grandson (30 pounds) and had to mentally remind myself not to do this as I did not want to have a hernia repair on top of everything else. Best advice I got post-surgical was the Gas X strips as I was suffering - of course walking is huge in helping with this. Some have said these helped tons and I have seen some say they did not help much at all - worth a shot. Hope this all helps! Good luch - best thing I ever did!!

[Racewalker48 41]

I made sure that I had enough liquids and Protein for the 2 weeks I was home and on narcotic pain meds. I did ask my boyfriend to get me some sugar free popsicles, but other than that, I was pretty self sufficient at home as I recovered, and my boyfriends and 2 girlfriends were just a text away if I needed something. I took Uber to my 1 week post op appointment. My surgeon stated that I can only drive when I am completely off narcotic pain meds (Percocet in my case), so I heeded his advice.

As for what to expect during the hospital stay, I can only tell you my experience. I was in the hospital for one night and pretty much dozed on and off until the next day. I was given morphine and Toradol for pain around the clock (I was completely pain free). I was also pumped full of fluids and had a catheter in my urethra and drain in my abdomen, both of which were removed before discharge. The following day after surgery, I had a swallow test, then I tried Clear Liquids. After pacing the halls for what seemed like hours, they sent me home. My hospital does does not discharge patients to catch a cab or take public transportation (it's a patient safety and liability issue), so my girlfriend picked me up and helped me get settled back in at home.