Notes from 2 days post-op

[efierke 60]

Just got home from the hospital about 2 hours ago and figured I'd talk about my experience. Was at Wellspan in York, PA with Dr Garber as my surgeon. Excellent doctor, btw, and would definitely recommend Wellspan's program for anyone who's in the area and considering it.

I was the first case for him for the day, and remember waking up in PACU for the first time around 1030 in the morning, in a lot of pain, very groggy, and nauseated. Got Fentanyl and Zofran in the PACU, and had Fentanyl in my PCA. Got up to my room around 2pm or so and actually managed to walk the 15 feet from the gurney to the chair, where I spent a lot of time that evening.

Monday night went about as expected - slept a little, had visitors, and used my PCA. Walked, but probably not as much as I should have, and the Fentanyl was only going so far in managing the pain. Felt (and still feel) a lot of pressure against my diaphragm when I stand up, but that's from all the air still in my abdomen.

Tuesday morning transport took me down for the barium swallow. Swallowing the barium wasn't the hard part - getting up on the x-ray table was the hard part. Easily the most painful part of my hospital stay, even more than my initial wake-up pains. Barium tastes nasty btw - if they let you swish your mouth out before and after, definitely take them up on it. Turns out most of that pain was from gas pressure.

Xray showed no leaks, but on further review, I did have an abnormally large amount of air in my abdomen and my small bowel - this was made evident when I was allowed liquids around noon - they didn't make me nauseated, but they did cause surges of pain and cramping in my belly - likely because there just wasn't room. I talked with my nurse, I was made NPO again for a few more hours, and told my nurse "I can't go home this evening if I'm still like this" - to her credit, she agreed. She called the attending, and we tried again with liquids later in the afternoon (around 4 I think). This time the pain was less, and each time I drank it hurt a bit less, so I was definitely on the right track. Still, no nausea thankfully. Also had no problems peeing after the catheter was out.

I stayed the night tuesday night, actually got a decent amount of sleep, and did a lot of walking. Was home by about 10 am this morning. About 12 hours longer than originally expected, but I'm a lot better off for it. Am tolerating the few pills I'm supposed to take, and am getting my liquids in every 15 minutes without nausea. Definitely have a lot of pain when I go from sitting to standing, but it's good to be home.

Couple of suggestions for those of you who are about to go through this:

1 - walk. the gas pains are worse than the surgical pains and it's true that your PCA won't help with the gas pains. It doesn't

2 - expect to be groggy - even without the PCA I was sleeping on and off from the time I got out of PACU up through tuesday afternoon.

3 - anesthesia + PCA = extreme dry mouth. Like worse than anything you've ever had. I couldn't hold conversations because my mouth would get so dry halfway through a sentence.

4 - Don't be afraid to speak up for yourself in the hospital. I say this as a nurse too - if you don't think you can go home when they're expecting to send you home, say so. if the pain isn't under control, say so. At least at my hospital, the floor I was sent to is where all the bariatric surgery patients go - they know you need to walk and will help you walk. Take them up on it.

[bayla1212 5]

Just got home from the hospital about 2 hours ago and figured I'd talk about my experience. Was at Wellspan in York, PA with Dr Garber as my surgeon. Excellent doctor, btw, and would definitely recommend Wellspan's program for anyone who's in the area and considering it.

I was the first case for him for the day, and remember waking up in PACU for the first time around 1030 in the morning, in a lot of pain, very groggy, and nauseated. Got Fentanyl and Zofran in the PACU, and had Fentanyl in my PCA. Got up to my room around 2pm or so and actually managed to walk the 15 feet from the gurney to the chair, where I spent a lot of time that evening.

Monday night went about as expected - slept a little, had visitors, and used my PCA. Walked, but probably not as much as I should have, and the Fentanyl was only going so far in managing the pain. Felt (and still feel) a lot of pressure against my diaphragm when I stand up, but that's from all the air still in my abdomen.

Tuesday morning transport took me down for the barium swallow. Swallowing the barium wasn't the hard part - getting up on the x-ray table was the hard part. Easily the most painful part of my hospital stay, even more than my initial wake-up pains. Barium tastes nasty btw - if they let you swish your mouth out before and after, definitely take them up on it. Turns out most of that pain was from gas pressure.

Xray showed no leaks, but on further review, I did have an abnormally large amount of air in my abdomen and my small bowel - this was made evident when I was allowed liquids around noon - they didn't make me nauseated, but they did cause surges of pain and cramping in my belly - likely because there just wasn't room. I talked with my nurse, I was made NPO again for a few more hours, and told my nurse "I can't go home this evening if I'm still like this" - to her credit, she agreed. She called the attending, and we tried again with liquids later in the afternoon (around 4 I think). This time the pain was less, and each time I drank it hurt a bit less, so I was definitely on the right track. Still, no nausea thankfully. Also had no problems peeing after the catheter was out.

I stayed the night tuesday night, actually got a decent amount of sleep, and did a lot of walking. Was home by about 10 am this morning. About 12 hours longer than originally expected, but I'm a lot better off for it. Am tolerating the few pills I'm supposed to take, and am getting my liquids in every 15 minutes without nausea. Definitely have a lot of pain when I go from sitting to standing, but it's good to be home.

Couple of suggestions for those of you who are about to go through this:

1 - walk. the gas pains are worse than the surgical pains and it's true that your PCA won't help with the gas pains. It doesn't

2 - expect to be groggy - even without the PCA I was sleeping on and off from the time I got out of PACU up through tuesday afternoon.

3 - anesthesia + PCA = extreme dry mouth. Like worse than anything you've ever had. I couldn't hold conversations because my mouth would get so dry halfway through a sentence.

4 - Don't be afraid to speak up for yourself in the hospital. I say this as a nurse too - if you don't think you can go home when they're expecting to send you home, say so. if the pain isn't under control, say so. At least at my hospital, the floor I was sent to is where all the bariatric surgery patients go - they know you need to walk and will help you walk. Take them up on it.

This was very helpful..my sleeve is scheduled for feb 4th..a little nervous so far. My surgeon is Dr.Gandsas in Annapolis. I have heard of your doctor tho because i lived in Red Lion for 10 years. Someone told me to take gas-x melting strips for after surgery and i was wondering if you were allowed to do this because i dont think my doctor will allow this?

[FrankyG 1,450]

That's wonderful that you're doing so well now! Great that they let you stay longer to ensure you were good to go home too.

I had no gas pains at all. I asked about it when I saw him right before my doc released me, and he said he makes it a point to remove as much of it as possible because they know it causes so much discomfort and pain. Last time I had laproscopic surgery, I couldn't sleep flat for over a week and hurt soooo much until the gas was dissipated, but this time was shockingly pain-free so I guess I lucked out on having a doc that actually cared about that part. I actually had almost no pain at all and was off my pain drugs within 2 days of surgery.

At my hospital, they had glycerin mouth swabs - they were a lifesaver for the dry mouth thing when you're waiting to be cleared to sip something (but they did allow me a little ice too).

Oh! And I had a standing x-ray for the swallow test. Just had to step up slightly and hold still. It was so easy!

They didn't do a catheter at all for my surgery - my doc said he wanted you up as soon as you can, and the surgery is expected to be pretty fast so they said there was no need and it's uncomfortable to get one anyway so they never do them.

Totally agree about the walking - get up and get going as often as possible! The more you walk, the better you'll feel and the less chance of developing blood clots.

[beachgurl84 456]

This was very helpful..my sleeve is scheduled for feb 4th..a little nervous so far. My surgeon is Dr.Gandsas in Annapolis. I have heard of your doctor tho because i lived in Red Lion for 10 years. Someone told me to take gas-x melting strips for after surgery and i was wondering if you were allowed to do this because i dont think my doctor will allow this?

Ask your doctor. I took a box with me and showed my doc, he said they were fine to take and they did help.

[bayla1212 5]

Great..hopefully they will let me take them too!