Pain after Surgery - What to Expect?

[NewLifeFinny 22]

Hi everyone, I have RNY surgery tomorrow and am super nervous about pain.

I've heard of people being discharged the next day and getting back to their routines shortly thereafter, and I've heard of people who are in agony for weeks after.

I'm 30 and healthy outside of degenerative disc disease affecting L4 - S1, arthritic knees, and a dislocated kneecap that's always giving me pain. I think I have an okay pain tolerance; kidney stones were rough at times but I got through it better than most, and I've thrown my back out about a half dozen times (worse than kidney stones, in my opinion!)

What was your experience after surgery? What are your tips to coping with pain? Does anyone else have DDD - if so, how was your back?

Thanks everyone!

[goblue9280 481]

I'm 35, had surgery on a Thursday and was discharged around noon the next day. Pain was very manageable in the hospital. They sent me home with pain pills which I took a couple of the first two days home, after that I didn't need them. I slept a lot the first three days, by day 4 I felt good. I went back to my desk job on day 6. Pain was not too bad. I had a lot of gas pain across my back between my shoulders. A bit of pain at the incision sites but not too bad. My abdominal muscles were very sore for the first 4 days or so... felt like I was kicked in the stomach a bunch. Again though, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and was very manageable. Your experience may be different, but I bet at your age you'll do great! Good luck!

[Cervidae 2,389]

Tomorrow?! Exciting! Congratulations.

The first day was terrible for me in terms of pain but I was so out of it that it barely even registers in my memory anymore. Make sure you get up and walking asap after surgery. Everyone says that, and there's a good reason for that - it's truly the fastest way to start feeling better. Much of the pain is gas pain, and lessening that quickly will go a long way.

Good luck! Take good care of yourself. See you on the other side.

[yissi31 0]

I am 31 and had my surgery on Thursday 11/12/15.. When woke up i had chronic back pain.. It felt like I had tractor trailer go over me. I came home Friday and I have had the worse gas ever. I have try everything, i have even try lemon Water, ginger tea and cant get rid of the gas and back pain. The doctor gave me pain medicine, but thats nit hardly helping now. I am suppose to drink 4 to 8 oz of Protein and its been so hard, I have sip on water and the Protein Shake. chicken broth i can sip up to 4 oz only. I really just really need the gas to be gone..

[NewLifeFinny 22]

Thanks for the comments so far, everyone! Appreciate you sharing your experience.

[Hankster 2]

Had my surgery Thursday 11/12 . The pain to me was more abdominal muscle pain than gas. I walked a lot after surgery so that may have helped with the gas. The worst is getting up and out of bed, no real way not to use your abdominal muscles.

[gpmed 623]

What might make a difference for you is whether you've had surgery before and/or how much pain you've dealt with due to your DDD. There seems to be such a psychological component to pain.

For me, the pain was like nothing I've experienced because I'd never had surgery before or chronic pain due to a medical condition. When you go in for surgery feeling perfectly fine, it's more shocking to feel so crappy by comparison after.

I described my pain as an 8 out of 10 after I woke up, but my nurse got my pain (and nausea) controlled very quickly. I felt pretty good until the next morning when I had to get out of bed for my swallow test.

I think the anesthesia had worn off and I had gotten less pain medicine in my system overnight cause I was sleeping and not pressing my pump as often. It hurt really badly when I got up and I was really scared something was wrong, but I was fine.

I was in the hospital for three nights (an extra night for monitoring cause I had a fever the second night) and took pain meds at home for about five days. Then switched to Tylenol and was just very tired and had GI upset off and on.

I started feeling like my normal self about six weeks out. I'm now eight weeks out and feel on top of the world having lost 35 pounds and being off of sweets, soda, etc.

Good luck!!!

[NewLifeFinny 22]

Update - now "on the other side" and feeling great! Yesterday after surgery I was in a lot of pain, but it was well managed by morphine. By evening I was in a chair, dialed down to Loritab, and feeling so much better. I also slept in the chair since it felt more comfortable for my stomach and back.

The incisions and pump don't hurt too bad; like others said, its like doing a hardcore ab workout and feeling tight the next day. The gas is causing me the most discomfort so I can't wait to take a stroll.

My back is sore but nothing out of the ordinary, and nausea rolls around every couple hours but there are meds to take care of that too. Haven't thrown up yet (knock on wood) and once I coughed up some mucus, the spirometer (the breathing tool) got a lot easier.

Thanks for your support and feedback, everyone! Excited to start this journey.

[moothz 1]

Woah! They refused to give me morphine after the surgery, I have no idea why, they don't do morphine for any of the patietns that had RNY. I had to stay awake for 24 hours straight (in the recovery room) since the pain was unbearable, specially on my back. Actually, the only medicine I've received there was tylenol and dipyrone (like yeah, it's gonna soothe the pain, ok), after hours of moaning and real hard pain they were "kind enough" to give me something a little stronger, Ketoprofen.

Great to hear you didn't feel the same. Once you start walking around you'll feel a lot better (and won't want to sit or lay down ahahhaa).

Edited November 17, 2015 by moothz

[Djmohr 6,965]

@@moothz

What the heck! What hospital were you in? I need to make sure I never go there. This is the first time I heard of a hospital not treating ones pain properly following such a big surgery.

You poor thing!

I can tolerate a lot of pain and I do mean a lot. I have had 6 back surgeries (yesterday I had another one). Several other big surgeries as well.

There was only one time where I had a terrible nurse following a back surgery who was too busy and rude to ensure my pain was under control. They gave me something that was not working. I requested that he page my surgeon and he refused. I remember crying all night. In the morning I requested I speak with someone from the hospital so I could lodge a complaint against this nurse. They send a patient advocate to my room immediately and I told them the whole story. After being discharged I had several other people from the hospital call me to apologize and let me know they were dealing with that nurse. He apparently had some issues and his patients were clearly suffering. I have had so many surgeries in my life that I knew this was not right, in fact I usually get scolded for backing off pain drugs too quickly.

With bypass that first night I did not sleep at all. Mostly because of the gas pain but they gave me good pain drugs, gas drugs, nausea meds, hot packs. Their whole goal was to make me more comfortable.

I am so sorry you had such a terrible experience. Everyone knows that the better you control pain the faster you heal. Hopefully you gave your surgeon a piece of your mind.

[The Candidate 3,215]

@@moothz wow that must have been awful! I was on a morphine pump the entire time I was in the hospital with my RNY. My pain was actually minimal but it definitely helped me sleep through the noise and chaos of being in a hospital. What you went through is more along the lines of cruel and unusual punishment. You're definitely a trooper!

[moothz 1]

@

@@Djmohr

Thanks for the kind words! I'm feeling a lot better right now (4 weeks post op), tho. So it kinda "erases" the past.

Bah! Bad nurses like that can totally ruin your experience, that is not very good to begin with (having a surgery), I'm glad she could be "dealed with".

I could barely sleep the first night back at my room too (making me more than 30 hours awake...), laying down is very uncorfotable as you mentioned. All they could do was intramuscular dipyrone (ouch) OR liquid tylenol (boy, that tasted SO BAD), after the medicine, they told me just to keep walking (3, 4, 5AM...).

Apparently that's the surgeon's orders - the nurses just do whatever he allows.

He's held as the "best bariatric surgeon", lots of celebrities from here specifically want him to do the surgery. He operates around 3~5 people per day, so his visits are very brief (like 5 mins, max), leaving us with no time to complain about it. I'll make sure to question him this thursday when I have the 1 month post-surgery appointment.

By the way, they actually said the contrary to your last statement - "You gotta withstand the pain, you'll heal faster. It's a part of the process, we won't be suffocating you with unnecessary medications.". The other doctor that assists his surgeries always kept bringing you down like you are a wimp for not withstanding the pain ahhahaha. I actually believed all that, but reading posts here has opened my mind. I'm glad that's over, tho.

The other two people that had the surgery with me didn't feel as much pain, but one of them had an obstruction and had do redo it, and the other had to stay 1 more week in the hospital because of some others complications.

Edited November 21, 2015 by moothz

[sketcher709 9]

Woah! They refused to give me morphine after the surgery, I have no idea why, they don't do morphine for any of the patietns that had RNY. I had to stay awake for 24 hours straight (in the recovery room) since the pain was unbearable, specially on my back. Actually, the only medicine I've received there was tylenol and dipyrone (like yeah, it's gonna soothe the pain, ok), after hours of moaning and real hard pain they were "kind enough" to give me something a little stronger, Ketoprofen.

Great to hear you didn't feel the same. Once you start walking around you'll feel a lot better (and won't want to sit or lay down ahahhaa).

I had shoulder surgery on September and learned the hard way to negotiate pain control BEFORE surgery. I found the treatment post surgery for rotator cuff surgery to border on cruel to the point i considered filing a complaint with the hospital then decided I'd hold off since i am still under the care of that surgeon and was lined up for surgery number 2 in November. I made sure to understand how they would treat my pain because morphine does nothing for me. They started me out on dilaudid then switched me to fentanyl when the dilaudid did not do the job. I will never again have anything done to me EVER without first understanding how I will be treated after the procedure.

[samcl1 52]

I've been a nurse for 35 years and unfortunately the trend i have seen is that post operative pain is very under-rated these days. I'm having my bypass in 9 days and I have a horrible back with multiple bulging disks and spinal stenosis, I am dreading the surgery more because of the way I'll be positioned on my back for the surgery which will cause me a lot of pain later, than I am the actual surgery

That's undertreated. Not underrated. ....autocorrect.

[moothz 1]

I've been a nurse for 35 years and unfortunately the trend i have seen is that post operative pain is very under-rated these days. I'm having my bypass in 9 days and I have a horrible back with multiple bulging disks and spinal stenosis, I am dreading the surgery more because of the way I'll be positioned on my back for the surgery which will cause me a lot of pain later, than I am the actual surgery

That's undertreated. Not underrated. ....autocorrect.

When they laid me on the surgery table I said it was very unconfortable (my back was "floating" and starting to hurt), but they said it wouldn't matter... I'm pretty sure that was one of the main causes of back pain, associated with the gas, of course