I am a bit concerned. My husband had his VSG yesterday morning and did well through the surgery. He was in a lot of pain yesterday of course, and spent most of the time in bed, except for a short period where the nurses got him up in a chair for a bit. He said last night he felt terrible.
I went back up to visit this morning and he was still in bed, very groggy, still in a lot of pain and has been up moving very little. (He says he was up for a few minutes this morning.) I was there for about 2 hours this morning and he slept the entire time.
The nurse practitioner from our surgeons office came in to see him and seemed a bit disappointed that he has not been up more, at least in the chair, and not walking like he should be. She said the norm is to be up walking 4 times per day at least.  The doctor is coming in this afternoon, and I am going back up this evening to check in again.
I am concerned. I can't judge his pain level because I have a pretty high tolerance and I have also had surgeries before. So I kind of know that it hurts. But can anyone else who has had a VSG give me some feedback on how you were doing the next day after your sugery? Were you up and moving slowly and sitting in your chair? Or were you in terrible pain and just wanted to lie there? Please help so I can get a better understanding of what is going on with him.
Thanks!

I was in terrible pain and just wanted to lie there. I reacted badly to the anesthetic and was miserable. They made me walk. I was unhappy and complained. Thankfully they ignored me. I felt much better after I walked a few times.

I really think it'**** or miss with pain.  I also have pretty high tolerance for pain.  I've had 2 abdominal surgeries, one for my gallbladder in 2009 and VSG 2 months ago.  I had a really hard time recovering from the gallbladder surgery, which is actually less invasive than VSG.  With the VSG, I felt great the next day.  For me, a lot of it had to do with the anesthesia used during surgery.  Because I had such a hard time with feeling awful and nauseated after the first surgery, I was able to game plan during the second surgery.  They pumped me full of a different type of painkiller and gave me lots of IV anti-nausea medication.  I can't tell you how different the experience was the second time around for me.

Anyway it's quite possible that your husband is having some lingering effects from the anesthesia.

I am 22 days out from my surgery.  Of course I had pain, but I KNEW I had to move.  He will need to force himself to get up and walk, walk, walk.  It will actually make the pain better.  You don't think it will, but it does.  Is he sipping his fluids?  If not, then he may be getting dehydrated which will complicate the overall picture.  When you go up this afternoon, make him get up and walk, even if it is only once up and down the hall.  He needs to do that at least every 2 hours.  He can sleep inbetween the walks.  The gas they put in the belly so they can see will to do the surgery causes upper abdominal and shoulder pain.  Walking helps our bodies absorb this air into the bowel so we can pass it as gas and the pain will improve.  Hopefully his doctor will make him get up and wal today and he will be feeling better by the time you see him tonight.  The first few days are the worst.  Day 3 was the hardest for me.  Most days have gotten a little better and I am feeling almost entirely normal except I can only eat a tiny bit....which I love.

Good luck to you and your husband.  Praying there are no complications and it is just an issue of not moving enough!

I was up and walking after my surgery in the evening and the next day.  But, that being said, I was still in control of the pain medicine drip so I wasn't feeling anything.  Since I was doing so well they decided to send me home the next day and I was ecstatic.  However, once they unhooked me from the pain meds I thought, what in the hell did i do?  I started to feel the pain before I even left the hospital.  Man, I wish I would've taken it slower and stayed another night.  I was in terrible pain days 1-9.  Sharp pains that made even the slightest movement excruciating.  I pushed through the pain every day and made myself get up and walk around every couple hours.  I thought it would never go away and not to mention I was reading on here how well everyone was doing and most people weren't on their pain meds a couple days after the surgery.  I, on the other hand, was counting down the minutes until I was able to take another dose.  My dr said because of being young and the fact that I had never had kids, no surgeries, etc that may have been a factor as to why it was so painful for me.  But, I'll never really know.  Just know that everyone's experience is different, everyone handles pain differently and he may very well just need a little extra push to get up and walk around.  I hope he starts to feel better soon.  But, if his pain does last a long time, there are people out there(like me) who have experienced the same thing and everything turned out just fine. :)  I hope this helps.

I had a good deal of pain the first 5 days...after that it was much better...
But I was walking a few hours after surgery and any time I wasn't sleeping...I was walking the aisles, whether I felt like it or not...It is VERY IMPORTANT and speeds up healing process and prevents blood clots in the legs.
One thing that helps, is holding a pillow to your abdomen when getting up from bed and when walking.

I was walking a fews hours after my VSG.

Your husband likely has gas pains and walking will really help get rid of the gas. The more I walked post-op the better I felt.

Gas-X strips were also a big help in getting rid of the gas they fiull you up with during surgery.

it could be the pain meds they hvae him on. Morphine made me sooo drowsy and nauseous and loopy. Once they took me off of that I felt SOO much better! I had my surgery on a monday morning, slept for hours and hours and hours (probably until late that afternoon) walked a little bit and was out of it until the following afternoon, when they took me off morphine after my leak test. Seriously, morphine is evil. Some people love it but I reacted horribly to it.

Also, some people react differently to anesthesia. It takes about 24 hours or so for it to wear off.

Personally, the stronger pain medicines did more harm than good as far as getting up and walking around. I was on loritab liquid by the first night and off teh heavy stuff. Once that started clearing my system, the loritab would take the edge off and by the next morning, I was all but running down the halls. If he's so groggy it would make me think he is on a strong pain medicine. While he may need it, the loritab was good enough for me and may be worth a shot for him.