Things I didn't expect my first month post-op

[fabnsab 19]

@@del112 I couldn't imagine doing this in Mexico. I love being able to call me doctor, no matter what time it is, if something doesn't feel right.

I had my surgery in Mexico last week and have already talked w them numerous times. They answer any question I have. And call on their own to check up.

[Michi121 1]

I was quite surprised by:

- the intensity of the gas pain

- my entusiastic reaction to pureed chicken after drinking nothing but liquids

- my new obsession (weighing myself in the morning, without clothes, with clothes, before pee, after pee, at my friend's house, after a nap, in the middle of the night, with my hair up, with my hair down, on the bathroom floor, in my bedroom, 3 times in a row, 4 times in case the previous 3 were wrong etc.)

- the feeling of not being hungry (yes I know it's normal, and I did not it would happen, but the feeling is still new)

The Third Point Made Me Laugh So Much Because I Thought I Was The Only One. I Know I Shouldn't Do It But It's Now An Annoying Habit. Thanks For Posting This!

[MojoCAMI 75]

2 Months out myself, but I remember month 1..I was surprised about the following:

1. I was surprised I still had some pain at week 4
2. Pooping was a rare occurrence but my doc said don't worry (much better now)
3. My sleep pattern is weird, I go to bed say at 10 or 11pm, I am done sleeping at 6am. I get up no groggy not lethargic I am ready to go..yay.. down side, some night I got to bed at 10 or 11pm and I am done sleeping at 3 or 4 am and can't get back to sleep..boooo
4. No return visits from any Protein or smooth foods or semi smooth.. Yay!
5. My body wants to walk (strange feeling)
6. less huffing after walking a flight of stairs
7. the swift down trend on the scale.

all in all good, happy I did it.. still getting use to judging how much I should put on my plate at dinner time.. but i have learned when to stop and how to graze.

[Uhearthat 2]

I has my Gastric Sleeve surgery 1/11/2016 and had a staring weight of 406.

Honestly the only thing that surprised me was what it would feel like when they pulled my drain out the day after surgery. I actually felt it dragging against the inside of my stomach. It wasn't painful just more of a shock to me.

The other thing that kinda freaked me out was the hole from my drain. It has one stich and a stery strip but I can see the hole and when I went to take the bandages off and take a shower I was kinda freaked out.

All in all everything that I have read and been told has come to pass. I would do it again in a heart beat and I look forward to the weight dropping off. I pray everyone who is having surgery the best of luck and just keep your eye on the ball.

Thank you.

[newjrny85 31]

This is a great post and I have enjoyed reading everyone's feedback.

My surgery weight was 320 and I was sleeved on Jan 4 and tomorrow will 2 weeks out. Here are things that I noticed worth mentioning for people who are prepping to go into surgery, the first comment is my experiences in the hospital:

-I was pretty anxious and apprehensive until the day of the surgery, it really helped to read different threads on here, my favorite being 'You know you lost weight when...' Highly recommend it to make you relax and laugh a little. I read all of the 500+ comments.

-The day of the surgery, I was oddly calm and cool... The pre-op nurse complimented me on being very cheery and positive. I was joking around with the nurses and the anesthesiologist who was a nice guy.

-If offered, definitely get the abdomen tap (name?) In which the anesthesiologist will use an ultrasound machine to inject meds into muscles just below the ribcage. The needles are pretty long so definitely let them sedate the area first. Also, you may get brief amnesia from this particular anesthetic which was fine for me.

-I had never been under general anesthesia and in the recovery room, I was extremely restless... I had the desire and the energy to jump off the bed and run. So, I was a very big pain in the butt to the nurses but just moaning and groaning and I continuously moved my legs. I sort of had no control over my body or my mind... I was not mean or nasty to the nurses but just was begging them to let me walk. It took about 3 hours for me to get to a hospital room and o was very glad to go for a walk and continued to walk every hour that night.

-Day #2 was very difficult for me. I was having difficulty drinking anything as bubbles continued to move up my esophagus and giving me extreme discomfort.

-Gas pains were painful but not as bad as described by others. The hospital provided a masseuse who came in and gave me a shoulder massage where I could feel bubbles moving down to my lower back. That is my big suggestion, get someone to literally rub you in a downward motion which will help.

-I regretted the surgery the morning of Day 2... It was a very emotional time especially since I felt like I'd never be able to leave since I couldn't drink on my own.

-Make sure to surround yourself with positive people, my family in the hospital and my friends visiting really kept up my spirits and helped me carry on.

-Day 3, I passed gas and continued to do so... GasX strips my sister in law brought me the night before worked like magic.

-I was in better spirits and was able to swallow on my own

-Overall, pain I could deal with and luckily, very little nausea but (THANK GOD) no vomiting.

[newjrny85 31]

Here are my thoughts for when I came home:

-Pain was minimal but it's difficult to adjust to laying on a flat bed and I missed the handles on the hospital bed a little. My husband pulled me up every morning for the first week and he was the only one to pull me up where I felt no pain because he did all the work

-I'm 30 years old and very active despite being obese so it was an adjustment to move slowly and to be careful.

-I live in a second floor walk up and going down the stairs was not fun.... Going up was much easier.

-Honestly, I only paced in my apartment which is pretty big but I didn't go for a walk outside... I was in pain and didn't have enough energy to do so for the first 5 days.

-I was permitted to be on full liquids day 5 and I made lentil Soup, broccoli Soup, butternut squash, and all of them are now in the freezer.

-You don't realize how little you eat and I ended up making too much.

-Make chicken broth ahead of time so you can put together Soups in no time by putting the ingredients in a pot and emersify when all cooked.

-Drinking 64 oz of liquids is an impossibility. Drinking Water has become a major chore... I'm okay with gulps but sipping is much more comfortable. It takes me hours to finish a bottle of Water which is so weird.

-Each day you feel a bit better.

-Let people take care of you

-I had a BM 5 days post surgery

-I took a Dulcolax a couple of days later, it was a bad idea. My doctor said when I begin to drink more water, my BM will become normal.

-I went to post-op on Wednesday, 9 days after surgery and all was well.

-I over planned and had too much fun this weekend hanging out with family and friends... I'm laid up now because the bigger incision hurts whenever it wants... I took a strong pain killer and don't plan on getting out of the couch til bedtime.

-I walked for 30 minutes one morning this week and needed a 2 hour nap afterwards.

Listen to your body and let it guide you. I had 2 ounces of chili last night which my doctor said I should begin trying chunky soups... It was an okay experience after much chewing.

Best of luck to everyone!!

[sparticus414 0]

I'm almost 5 weeks out with a starting weight of 346 and a current weight of 299!

I didn't expect how hard it would be to swallow anything! No matter how small the sip or the bite it feels like it slides down very slow.

I didn't expect all the dull pain on my left side under my ribs when I ate. I still experience this and sometimes it takes my breath away.

I certainly didn't expect to lose this much weight so fast but that goes hand in hand with certainly not expecting it would be so hard to eat and drink just to meet my daily needs.

[KendyLou 15]

1- that I can't drink plain Water anymore. It hurts my stomach.

2- that getting in enough fluids is the hardest thing ever. I don't think I've ever hit 64 oz yet but I just keep working on it.

3- Decaff tea is the best thing ever- cold or hot

4- that I would have so much trouble with pooping- seriously. it's a job making that happen.

5-that there would be so little pain and recovery would be easy. I expected the worst.

6- losing enough that working out hurts so much less already. That has been a great bonus!

[TheFormerFatGirl 17]

I'm a day shy of one week post-op, and I'm shocked and awed by a whole lot of things.

For instance:

- The pain! Not necessarily bad pain, but pain nonetheless. I was totally in the dark to the gas pain I was going to have, and that has been the worst for me thus far. And that weird left shoulder gas pain? It's a thing and it's real. Now, a week out, I'm still kind of gassy (the surgical gas has all but drained, but Protein Shakes and I... icky combination). No real pain at my incisions, but kind of a pulling on the lower two. My doctor says thats what it feels like when it's healing.

-On a similar train of thought, this was my first surgery of all time, and I was completely unaware of all of the bloating that I would endure in the hospital. Between the gas with which they blow your abdomen up, and the fluids they pump you full of, I pretty much bounced out of the hospital. My clothes didn't fit when I was discharged, which was both ironic and kind of hilarious.

- Getting down my fluids and Proteins is ROUGH. I needed to get 30 oz of Fluid (protein shakes included) down before I could be discharged from the hospital. It took until post-op day 3 for them to let me go. Since then, I've been getting fluids down, but struggling to do it. My doc wants me at 80 oz per day before I move onto purees. I'm supposed to move onto purees tomorrow so today is D-day on the fluids. I'm a person who, prior to surgery, could guzzle down 200 fl oz of Water in a day without batting an eye. I'm a fish. So the fact that I'm conscious of not even being able to sip down 80 is insane to me.

-Water is the hardest thing for me to drink and that's inconvenient because water is my favorite thing to drink. It's not that I don't like the taste, or that it hurts, but it's the most uncomfortable thing to sip. I feel like I can feel the exact place where my esophagus meets my pouch (I'm probably imagining that, but whatever), and I feel as though the water I'm sipping likes to splash around a bit at that juncture before it settles in and flows. Warm liquids are my go-to, since my first day out of surgery. And I never thought I would consider chicken broth a treat!

-The cravings are still there. And in the last six days, I've learned, already, something I've been trying to figure out for my entire life -- the difference between head hunger and real hunger. I'll watch commercials for restaurants and see others eating delicious-looking things, and want it, but know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I physically cannot consume this food right now. Plain and simple, I LOVE food; always have, always will. I spend a lot of my free time looking up recipes for Bariatric Eating on Pinterest, and it almost satisfies my head hunger to do so, instead of making me ravenously crave something that I cannot have.

As a short anecdote, my Italian mother is in town this week taking care of me. And as a 'thank you' to my roommates for letting her invade their lives, she's making sauce and a giant pan of lasagna. I was convinced that as soon as I smelled my mom's sauce boiling, this liquid diet would be all but over, and I'd be on the ground writhing in pain over tomatoes lost, begging at her feet for a meatball.

Instead, I can smell it, know it's there, and appreciate it. Kind of like a weird Yankee Candle. And in the back of my head, I know I'll be able to have that meatball someday, but that day is not today.

[Dixie32 1]

I'm a day shy of one week post-op, and I'm shocked and awed by a whole lot of things.

For instance:

- The pain! Not necessarily bad pain, but pain nonetheless. I was totally in the dark to the gas pain I was going to have, and that has been the worst for me thus far. And that weird left shoulder gas pain? It's a thing and it's real. Now, a week out, I'm still kind of gassy (the surgical gas has all but drained, but Protein shakes and I... icky combination). No real pain at my incisions, but kind of a pulling on the lower two. My doctor says thats what it feels like when it's healing.

-On a similar train of thought, this was my first surgery of all time, and I was completely unaware of all of the bloating that I would endure in the hospital. Between the gas with which they blow your abdomen up, and the fluids they pump you full of, I pretty much bounced out of the hospital. My clothes didn't fit when I was discharged, which was both ironic and kind of hilarious.

- Getting down my fluids and Proteins is ROUGH. I needed to get 30 oz of Fluid (protein shakes included) down before I could be discharged from the hospital. It took until post-op day 3 for them to let me go. Since then, I've been getting fluids down, but struggling to do it. My doc wants me at 80 oz per day before I move onto purees. I'm supposed to move onto purees tomorrow so today is D-day on the fluids. I'm a person who, prior to surgery, could guzzle down 200 fl oz of Water in a day without batting an eye. I'm a fish. So the fact that I'm conscious of not even being able to sip down 80 is insane to me.

-Water is the hardest thing for me to drink and that's inconvenient because Water is my favorite thing to drink. It's not that I don't like the taste, or that it hurts, but it's the most uncomfortable thing to sip. I feel like I can feel the exact place where my esophagus meets my pouch (I'm probably imagining that, but whatever), and I feel as though the water I'm sipping likes to splash around a bit at that juncture before it settles in and flows. Warm liquids are my go-to, since my first day out of surgery. And I never thought I would consider chicken broth a treat!

-The cravings are still there. And in the last six days, I've learned, already, something I've been trying to figure out for my entire life -- the difference between head hunger and real hunger. I'll watch commercials for restaurants and see others eating delicious-looking things, and want it, but know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I physically cannot consume this food right now. Plain and simple, I LOVE food; always have, always will. I spend a lot of my free time looking up recipes for Bariatric Eating on Pinterest, and it almost satisfies my head hunger to do so, instead of making me ravenously crave something that I cannot have.

As a short anecdote, my Italian mother is in town this week taking care of me. And as a 'thank you' to my roommates for letting her invade their lives, she's making sauce and a giant pan of lasagna. I was convinced that as soon as I smelled my mom's sauce boiling, this liquid diet would be all but over, and I'd be on the ground writhing in pain over tomatoes lost, begging at her feet for a meatball.

Instead, I can smell it, know it's there, and appreciate it. Kind of like a weird Yankee Candle. And in the back of my head, I know I'll be able to have that meatball someday, but that day is not today.

Thank you so much for the post. I am on day five post surgery and I am not dealing with hunger as well as you. I know that it is as you said head hunger, but it is constantly top of mind. Anyone have any tips or tricks to get through this liquid diet?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

D

[katladee 156]

@Dixie32 Check out the member video titled "How To Fight Head Hunger" on the topics on the right hand side of this page.

[Dixie32 1]

@Dixie32 Check out the member video titled "How To Fight Head Hunger" on the topics on the right hand side of this page.

Thank you! I will check it out!

[CanadaLoser 80]

This was a great post, thanks to everyone for sharing!

[yerawizardamy 241]

Things I didn't expect:

I didn't expect my recovery to be so hard. Pain mixed with the worst Constipation of my life made me honestly wish I were dead.

The exhaustion. I am SO tired now. I know this is partly because I haven't taken any Vitamins since my surgery (they made me vom once so now I'm looking for alternatives), but the thought of getting out of bed to take a shower is probably the last thing I can handle right now.

The weight loss! In 4 weeks (including pre-op) I've lost 38lbs. Pretty good if I do say so myself.

How hard the puree food stage is. I honestly preferred the liquid stage!

How easy it is for me to drink Water. I saw so many posts about how hard it is, I expected the worst! Thank goodness that's one thing I'm able to actually do.

[araywill 20]

I'm 11 days post op and didn't expect :

To be discharged with a drain and for that to cause so much pain . Take the meds!!

To feel so good once the drain was removed;

To lose 20lbs in 10 days

To have such loud noises coming from my stomach

To have such tiny poops post op

To not be hungry at all

Hope that helps . Great post