Recovery Stories :)

[Kristin1031 0]

Hey guys,

am I the only one bothered by diarrhea? I can't eat anything without it going right through me.

I also have the sholder pain. It's good to hear that it's common.

I was told before my clear liquid diet that liquid in liquid out.....LOL

I know it is true because right after surgery it was pure Water that was coming out. It has changed a bit, now and then but most of the time it is very loose and easily passed at least for me.

I have not started taking my Fiber yet, will do that this week when I begin mushies. But that is very important from what I understand.

I have had no real problems with it, not painful, cramps, or sudden let go so to speak.....thank the Lord. I am returning to work tomorrow and that would not be fun at all.

[RxTracy 0]

I could take a tad of diarrhea over here. I haven't went since surgery, but I am not feeling worried yet. Been putting the Benefiber in juice. I think it is probably the pain medication that is holding things up.

[kickrmom 0]

I've had it now and then, especially since I started on mushies. It hasn't been terribly bad or spontaneous, nor have I had any pain or bloating often associated with it. I assume my body is just getting used to all these changes!

Your shoulder pain should occur less and less each day. I get a twinge now and then and then it's gone.

Welcome to the board!

Thanks Longhorn.

Nice to hear the same stories from others.

Shoulder pain has been worse today than ever but will continue to move and I'm sure it'll work out soon.

Other problem has stopped. Yea!

[steph_co 9]

I didn't really get the shoulder pain that everybody talks about. I was so prepared for it, too. All I really got was kind of a radiating pain that went up to the bottom of my shoulder blades - it was worse on the right side, go figure.

As for further recovery update - feeling pretty good, actually! Compared to how I HAVE been feeling, that's for sure. Woke up today not hurting too terribly much. I only took a half a Vicodin and didn't really need it. I'm doing my first full night of work tonight (6p-6a) with a little stand-by assistance from DH if I get too run down.

The only thing bugging me is the pinching around where my port is while I was driving to work. Ugh. I had to recline the seat more. Kind of a pain, but not unbearable. Anybody else feel a pulling around their port? I don't feel like I can stand completely straight all the time - it feels like it's pulling the port. I just hope everything stays straight in there.

I set up my post-op appointment for next Wednesday. I look forward to see how well my incisions have healed!

[Skinny_Jill 36]

Hi everyone! It is the morning of surgery. I am nervous but it will be ok. I will check in when I get home!

Last post in my non-band life.

Jill

[nomadem 1]

today is one week since I was banded 11-13-07 at Brigham $ Womens Hostpital in Boston MA. its been a slow recovery and today is day 2 back at work. Was on some really heavy narcotics (not sure if this slowed my recovery or not), and still feel weak....hard to get all the Protein in and still very tired.

[Longhorn 1]

today is one week since I was banded 11-13-07 at Brigham $ Womens Hostpital in Boston MA. its been a slow recovery and today is day 2 back at work. Was on some really heavy narcotics (not sure if this slowed my recovery or not), and still feel weak....hard to get all the Protein in and still very tired.

At one week, I was still pretty tired, too. But by ten days, I felt much better. Just baby yourself and get rest whenever you can. It can take awhile for the anesthesia to completely leave your body, from what I've been told.

Take care!

[Carsons_Mommy 0]

Hi Everyone! I'm back! I haven't been on the chat forum for a while - life stuff, recovery, blah, blah, blah. So far, my recovery has been "OK". I say that in quotes because I've had some minor ups and downs. The pain in my shoulder got to the point of being almost unbearable. I'm not sure why it was so bad for me, but truly the only thing I could do was lay in bed, propped up on pillows, heating pad over my shoulder and good pain meds going down my gullet. That all seems to have subsided and I'm actually feeling pretty great now. By Day 4, I graduated out of Clear Liquids and ventured into the world of "anything pourable" like Tomato Soup, runny mashed potatoes, runny (blended) oatmeal. I've been able to tolerate *everything* I've consumed so far which is SO encouraging!! I've lost 10 lbs since my surgery on 11/9 which is AMAZING!!!

I was able to be off all of last week. I have the best boss ever!! I went back to work yesterday and that was a little tough. I was so exhausted at the end of the day, but I made it through. I slept like the dead, though. Unfortunately, I think I'm coming down with my toddler's nasty cold. On Thursday, almost a week after my surgery, I felt a sneeze coming on and went into a bit of panic. The thought of sneezing after abdominal surgery - not cool!! But I'm flushing so much Water through my system, I think I'm gonna breeze through the cold with minimal suffering. :-)

So, I made a completely WONDERFUL discovery over the weekend. I had made my husband some of my fabulous beef stew and GEEZ!! By the time it had finished its little crockpot cycle 8 hours later, it smelled SOOOOOO good! So I thought, 'Ok. I can enjoy this too. I'm gonna run a couple of cups of this stuff through the food processor <so that I have some for dinner now and some for meals later> and I'll pour it over mashed potatoes - like gravy!' It - was - THE BEST MEAL EVER! And it was so nutritious because it was everything in the stew - the beef, carrots, onions, mushrooms, etc! I'm telling you guys this because it's a great solution for Thanksgiving! For those of you that are eating mushy foods now, you don't have to be deprived on one of the best eating holidays known to man!! You can blend together some turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, yams, green bean casserole or whatever you usually like to have on your plate - pour a little gravy over it and enjoy a little hodge-podge bowl of mashed Thanksgiving! You can even put a small amount of your blended YUMMY on a small amount of mashed potatoes, pour a little gravy over that and VOILA! Thanksgiving in a bowl!!!!

Anyway, sorry I've been away for a bit but I'm feeling somewhat human again and can tolerate sitting at my computer. So glad to see that everyone else is doing so well!!!!!

[hollyberries 2]

Glad to see things are going good for you. You will feel great shortly and the losing will keep you very motivated. I am 2 weeks out and feel great.

[steph_co 9]

Hi everyone! It is the morning of surgery. I am nervous but it will be ok. I will check in when I get home!

Last post in my non-band life.

Jill

I hope everything went well for you, Jill!!! I know it's way past, but I still wish you good luck! Look forward to hearing how things went for you.

At one week, I was still pretty tired, too. But by ten days, I felt much better. Just baby yourself and get rest whenever you can. It can take awhile for the anesthesia to completely leave your body, from what I've been told.

Take care!

That is encouraging. I mean, physically I feel better than I have, but good heavens, I'm sleeping a lot. I think I've had about 12 1/2 hours total sleep in the past 24 hours. :bored LOL

ANDIE - I'm glad to hear the update!! Sounds like things are going pretty well. OMGoodness, you made ME shudder at the thought of sneezing. LOL Sounds like a good dinner you had.

[emnasmom 0]

Okay...bear with me.....this is gonna be a long one. I wish I would have looked for this site before surgery, it would have been wonderful.

Here's the condensed version froms start to finish. I have been in the process of qualifying (with my insurance) for this surgery for over 1 year (I first looked into it 2 1/2 years ago). I finally got all the "hoops" jumped through to submit, and was hearing several negative things about the surgeon I had chosen, so I switched. That didn't really hold things up too much, but it did a little. We submitted my papers to insurance, and they got "lost" somewhere in the system (basically something needed to be fixed, and someone forgot about it). Once that was ironed out we scheduled me tenetively for the 14th of Nov, because my new surgeon doesn't have block time at the hospital I have to go to. Well, low and behold I got denied (I broke down at the nurses station at work in the middle of a shift). Turns out I was denied because my original surgeon hadn't given the new surgeon my psych clearance. It took me a week to get a hold of it, and submit my appeal, and by this time it was a the 5th of Nov., and the insurance company told me my appeal would take 15 days, so we cancelled my surgery (I was devastated). Low and behold I get a call from the insurance company at 4:00 pm on the 12th saying I was approved, so I try and call the surgeons office (of course the people I need to talk to are gone, so I leave a message). They called me back at 11:00 the next day and said, "This is going to sound wierd, but we haven't filled your spot, and the hospital still has time, do you want to have surgery tomorrow?" I was like "uhhhhhh......SURE!" So there you go, the (not so) condensed version of how I had surgery. (my dr waived the pre-op diet for me.....fabulous!)

[Longhorn 1]

Wow, what a roller coaster you've been on these last few weeks and months!

Congratulations! How are you feeling?

[emnasmom 0]

I thought that last post was getting to novel length, so I thought this way you could skip this one if you got so bored with the last. This one is about my recovery though.

I stayed in the hospital overnight, because I didn't get out of recovery until about 4:30 pm. I was in a lot of pain and nauseated at first, but they gave me good drugs and fixed that. I got ice, Water and apple juice that night, the next am I got broth and Jello. I got home at 11:30 am (to find 2 of my friends cleaning the house that I didn't get done before I left, how wonderful are they?). Slept a lot the first couple of days, but walked short distances a few times a day.

Every day I got better, day 3 I think was probably the hardest. The gas pain was the worst, both in my tummy and my left shoulder. The BEST thing I did for myself was push myself to walk, it has helped me feel better than anything. It helped with gas and weakness.

I had a harder time the first couple of days because of the limited amount of calories I was consuming, but feel better now that I am eating. I can have soft foods now (6 days post op), even canned deli meats and thin sliced deli meats. I can only eat 4 tbsp 3 times a day though. I have felt hungry, but can usually get by with a Propel, some herbal tea or a sf popcicle.

My only advise to those who are still to be banded, walk as much as you can tolerate and drink your liquids warm or room temp for the first couple of days, helps with the pain and the gas.

Thanks for listening to me blather on! Good luck to all....hope to get to know you better.

[emnasmom 0]

Thanks Longhorn! I actually feel REALLY good today. I actually drove myself somewhere. I feel like a wimp compared to some of these girls going back to work now (agh! Qatar Phil posted somewhere else that he went back to work 2 days later). I am actually taking a month off. My surgeon said I could go back at 2 weeks, but I am a labor and delivery nurse on her feet for 13 hours a day with heavy lifiting involved. Not only do I not want to go back at 2 weeks, my boss doesn't want me to, and I have the long term sick leave to cover it (but we all know it's just really a paid vacation the last 2 weeks).:eyebrows:

[Longhorn 1]

Believe me, if I had that kind of leave saved up, I'd take the time off, too. You won't need all of that time to feel better but you'll have time to get used to your diet without having to pack up a bunch of equipment and supplies to work. And you'll be able to start walking regularly without having to fit it into your work schedule.

I don't get any leave -- I'm an adjunct faculty at a community college. But even if I did, it would be impossible to get a sub for that many classes. I cancelled one class from each course I taught -- one on Thursday and three on Monday -- and went back on Tuesday. I considered waiting until between semesters but I was assured that five days would be enough and it's been fine but I was sore and tired at first and was really glad when the week ended! Today I felt a little queasy and lightheaded -- I think I didn't eat enough this morning -- so I had a SlimFast Low-Carb shake and that helped.

For me, the third morning after surgery was the worst, enough that I started feeling a little down about it. But by afternoon I started feeling better and noticeably improved day by day. I hope you're already over the roughest part!