Help after surgery?

[happymama2014 206]

So today I have one friend who had the lap band and she says that the cut muscle was so painful she needed help getting up out of bed and had to sleep in her recliner for several weeks. She has a has been there who is ready to help at any time. She seemed very worried that I wouldn't have anyone here with me after two days. 1-2 days hospital then 1-2 days help at home. From what I've seen on here everyone seems fine after four or five days. Now I'm nervous that I didn't make their arrangements. I'm a single mom and we have two dogs that need taking care of in our house:( tell me what it's really like those first seven days home.

[georgiare 63]

There are a ton of factors involved in answering this. For the band, I went home the same day, was only in the hospital a couple hours for the surgery itself, then came home to my daughter and my cat. I slept while she was in school and was up and about when she was home, but she was 7 and I didn't have to drive to get her to school or anything. Pain can be bad, I had 3 refills on my pain meds and used them all, but you are the only person who is going to know what you can stand and what you can handle. By the end of the first week to 10 days, I felt almost fully healed up, so it does go fast.

Sleeve was a bit different, I stayed 1 night in the hospital then 2 days at my mom's house so she could help with my daughter. By the 3rd day I was tired of being told to go lay down n heal so I went home to do it on my own. Most of the pain passed quickly, but I had pretty serious gas pains and I still get a little sore now and again 13 days postop. The hardest difference has been the diet, because being up and about is hard when you are on Clear liquids, but is much easier on full liquids because you have something in your system.

Edited October 29, 2014 by georgiare

[Jyoyonomore 319]

So today I have one friend who had the lap band and she says that the cut muscle was so painful she needed help getting up out of bed and had to sleep in her recliner for several weeks. She has a has been there who is ready to help at any time. She seemed very worried that I wouldn't have anyone here with me after two days. 1-2 days hospital then 1-2 days help at home. From what I've seen on here everyone seems fine after four or five days. Now I'm nervous that I didn't make their arrangements. I'm a single mom and we have two dogs that need taking care of in our house:( tell me what it's really like those first seven days home.

@@HappyMama my first week was relatively uneventful. I was 2 nights in the hospital I was just so tired and had a bit of extra bleeding at an incursion site that needed a new dressing. My husband took a week of Family a Leave a Time to be home with me. He helped me set up a system for the 5 PostOp meds I had to take and basically made sure I didn't have to walk downstairs to refill my Water pitcher or get a Protein shake or lift anything 10 psd or more and reminded me to do my laps around the living room. To have him for oral support & to watch over me the first week for signs of complication was priceless. And if there had been a complication he would have gotten me to a hospital ASAP. I think the 1st 7 days you need someone even if you have 3 girlfriends take turns checking on you.

[bikrchk 1,313]

It's different for everyone. For my sleeve, I was only in the hospital 24 hours, (released a day early), never needed narcotics and would have been fine on my own. I slept in my bed with a wedge pillow for the first week which helped. I just learned to roll to my side before attempting to sit up. It sucked, but I could manage it. My mother came home with me for a couple days and finally got bored and left after 48 hours of doing essentially nothing.

That said, IF there had been a complication, it was important that someone be there to monitor me for a couple of days.