Two days to D-Day so to speak

Hello people. Two days to go until surgery, I was curious on a couple of things, once you had your surgery, did anyone have problems sleeping on their side or chest down? I can not even when I was a little kid able to sleep on my back no matter how tired I was, for example I was in the hospital 10 years ago for 23 days (I caught a staph infection in the ER of all places), I kid you not, I probably had 5-6 hours sleep total over those 23 days, it was literally hell on earth. Back to my question, I am concerned about pulling stitches, inside or outside of the body. 

Hey!  May surgery is scheduled for Tuesday am.  I am an almost strict stomach sleeper so this is a great question and I hope someone gives us an answer.  Good Luck!

I hate sleeping on my back too!  I was in the hospital for 5 days and the only time I slept was immediately after the dilaudid dose...I could get a good 1-2 hour nap every 4 hours.

I was always a stomach sleeper, but it was a couple of months before I felt safe enough to sleep on my stomach.  For the first few months I slept on my side with a roller type pillow from Brookstone wedged against my back/side.  You get used to it.  Good luck on Tuesday!

Can I ask what kept you in the hospital for 5 days?

I had complications (an obstruction in my sleeve) and had to have the RNY the following day.  I have not met one other person this has happened to, it's very rare.

I didn't have any restrictions on my sleeping positions.  I've always been a side or back sleeper.  My belly was so big that I couldn't sleep on my tummy!.  Its hard to imagine doing anything that would pull on the stitches, but its probably a good question for your surgeon.

best of luck with your surgery and recovery.

Carol

Tomorrow will be 4 weeks post op for me and I'm still not able to sleep on my side or my stomach. It's really frustrating and lands me sleeping on the couch at least a couple of nights of week, because my instinct in bed is to roll over. 

You might have a difficult few days ahead.  I am a side sleeper, the days after surgery I was too sore to do that and ended up sleeping on my back.  In the hospital I elevated the head of the bed about 30 degrees and with the pain meds they were giving me I was able to sleep.  I used the pain medication more to allow me to sleep then for any actual pain I was having.  Once I got home it was around day 5 post op before I could comfortably sleep fully on my side again.  I did use pillows behind my back to sort of put me in a lateral tilt to the right side, so I wasn't full on my back in the beginning.

Hope this is helpful, everyone is different, you may have no problems side sleeping at all.  Good luck on Tuesday!

I'm a tummy/side sleeper, too. It took me almost three weeks before I could sleep on my stomach/side again. Even with meds. I ended up putting squishy pillows all around me and tucking one under my abdomen almost like a wedge and finally got some rest that way, but it was not fun. 

The pain for me was situated around my incision lines (I have 4 scars) that were glued shut with the majority of the pain being where they pulled my excess stomach out through my abdominal wall. I don't know how many stitches I had inside. Getting up and sitting up were the hardest. I found that swinging my legs over the side of the bed and having a table to use for balance was my best way of maneuvering immediately post-op. I was in the hospital for one night and the nurses had me up and walking around every hour. 

Hi congrats to you and hope everything goes well but to answer your question i just had mine this past monday and im a stomach sleeper also. I was able to lay on my side which actually made me feel much better. Good luck.