Hurts more than I thought!

Hey ya'll! I am officially day one after my VSG surgery/ (My doctor counts surgery day as day 0..hehe). I had surgery on January 11th, and I have to say it went smoother than I thought. I don't remember a darn thing.

Well...except waking up in horrifying pain. I remember begging the PACU nurses to "please...help me" because I thought I couldn't breathe. My chest hurt so much I felt like I was having a heart attack!! I realize now it must've been gas/acid paid but holy cow!!! And of course the nurse just kept saying "Your blood oxygen level is a 97% you're fine." Trust me that did not help.

Also the bed they wheeled me into my room after recovery in didn't have a functioning down button. Talk about fun having to switch beds 1 hour after waking up!

My lovely boyfriend came in shortly after with a gorgeous bouquet of sunflowers, so that definitely brightened my day. Oh and I guess the morphine didn't hurt. ;) The whole day yesterday was quite mild, except for the acid/gas pain. I couldn't even feel my abdomen compared to that! Something else I quickly learned was that apparently I didn't get to drink ANYTHING until the next day (today) WHAT! So walking around and sleeping was all that got me through.

So midnight rolls around and the nurse takes me to get weighed. Not only did I gain weight, but my blood pressure had been high since I arrived in the hospital and they still couldn't get it down, and my sugar was crazy high (I have normal sugar usually). I actually asked her if they did the right surgery on me! LOL! 

I was cleared to drink liquids at 7 a.m. this morning. What a blessing. I downed quite a bit of glorious water right away, in the appropriate sip sippy cups. They took away my IV after I had consumed enough which meant bye-bye morphine and hello cherry-flavored oxy and PAIN. My abdomen hurts like no other. But my surgeon stopped in around 2 and said "okay go home you did great bye!". So now I'm at home in pretty bad pain and trying to walk around my living room in cotton candy colored fluffy socks.

Can you guys tell I'm on narcotics? Cause I sure can. Sorry for the crazy disjointed post, just wanted to tell a nice story! Still excited for my journey, just wish that it didn't hurt so much. ;) Not to mention I'm terrified something bad will happen. Oh anxiety, you old friend. Hope everyone else getting surgery around this time is doing well too!

Oh dear heart I promise it gets better. Just take the appropriate dose of pain meds and rest as much as you can between walking and sipping water. Once the gas pain goes away you will feel miles better. 3 days out I passed gas and I was giddy because my pain level finally went down to tolerable and I was able to venture out Christmas shopping for several hours. I'm keeping you in my thoughts lovely lady. 

I feel your pain no pun intended. I had surgery 8 weeks ago. Granted I woke up in almost no pain, the highlight for me was when I stood up and blood started to seep from one of the incisions as they were putting the binder on me. Easily fixed with an occlusive dressing like they put over your iv catheter where they inserted it. That said, the worst sensation I had was when I had my first sip of fluid the next morning, it was in a 1 ounce cup like they use to bring meds to you in. the nurse so drink this so I drank it in one sip, was that a mistake, I felt so nauseous, it wasn't even funny. The nurse pumped a preloaded syringe into my iv line and I felt better in like 10-15 seconds. She stated she wanted me to take about a 1/3 of an ounce at a time. I was like, now she tells me. Lol. Anyways CQ, you will persevere, it will get better and the journey will be well worth it. Some people take longer to heal than others, face it, you just had MAJOR surgery, but you are home and recovering and soon it will be nothing but a memory as you contemplate why you didn't do this sooner. Good luck.

Sometimes nurses can say the least helpful thing. I remember when I was in labor with my DD and they were trying to do the epidural and I was in so much pain and not breathing through contractions, which I realized wasn't good but they hurt! One of the nurses told me that when I didn't breathe I was hurting the baby because if my O2 level dropped so did the babies. Super not helpful!!

I didn't have pain with my VSG surgery, but I did with my gallbladder removal. It sucked. I found that a heating pad helped. 

Hopefully it goes away soon!

I could have written the exact same post. But don't worry, it gets much better after that first day, and then slowly better over the next several weeks.

Drink and walk. As much as you can. Not drinking is the best way to ensure you feel like crap.

Congratulations on your surgery and I hope your pain gets resolved soon!!! Sip, sip, sip, walk, walk, walk and repeat!

Getting most of your stomach removed tends to cause some pain. Some patients, like you, have a lot of pain -- keep taking your pain meds; that's what they're for. Some patients don't have much pain but have a lot of nausea. A few patients have very little of either. We all react in our own ways to the surgery.

Keep walking through the pain. It should start subsiding soon. If it doesn't, call your surgeon. Keep drinking your water.

psychoticparrot

Congratulations and welcome to the losers bench.  Like everyone said, it does get better.  You'll have good days and bad days.  Just keep drinking and walking, then drink and walk some more!

Can anyone help?  It looks like i'm posting 2 different tickers!?

Welcome to the loser's bench!   Glad to hear all went smoothly!