6 Days Post Op (LONG POST)

ALOA2013
on 11/20/13 11:06 am - Brampton, Canada
RNY on 11/15/13

Hi everyone,

Well its day 6 post op.  How am I doing.?? just ok  Surgery was on Friday the 15th at TWH with Dr. Urbach. I have to tell you that my experience from the minute I walked into TWH to the minute I walked out was phenomenal!!!! I am beyond impressed.  Will write a longer post about my inpatient experience on another post for all the pre ops.

Well I am not doing as "well" as I had hoped for 6 days out. On Sat in hospital I was quite nauseous and had a lot of pain, thank god for IV gravol & Percocet.  Then when I got discharged Sunday morning I started getting a fever, the RNs thought I was just warm as the hospital had the heat cranked and I mean cranked.  They told me to monitor my temp and got home and it start to rise and rise, so more Percocet and by Monday evening it started to come down.  All the while I am just beyond exhausted, I can't tell you how tired I am, and I end up sleeping through a lot of meal & snack times.  And I still have a lot of pain.  When I can get up I am eating my 1/4 cup of cream of wheat or 1/4 cup of yogurt/cottage cheese/cream soup.  Or sipping my water (OMG water, will get back to that in a sec).  And if I am not eating or sipping I am walking my brains out.  I go from my kitchen to my front door back and forth, back & forth, my two dogs (black lab & chocolate lab) follow me and they think its a game, very cute!!  But then I collapse in bed and sleep for two or three hours exhausted!!  

Yesterday I forced myself to stay awake all day and eat all my food that is recommended in my TWH Binder they give us and sip, sip, sip my water, WELL almost died last night!! The "too full" feeling and the "someone put a 50 lb rock on my chest" feeling would not go away. I finally went to bed after walking and doing mini leg lifts to get some food & water moving and it did not help. I tossed & turned, not very well mind you as it hurts to turn in bed and did not get any sleep.  I woke up more exhausted than I already was and broke down and had a good cry!  After I settled down I called the Nurse Navigator's at the hospital (post op Nursing care by phone) and she says to me "oh my don't try and eat all that food we tell you to in the binder, that is only a "guideline" to not go over that amount we have in the binder and if you can't don't worry and cut down on the water if you have too, don't force anything." Well thank you!!! Why is that not posted somewhere!!!!  I am sticking to the rules to a "T", in fact I usually eat my 30 ml of food with 20 mins in between cuzz I want to be safe not sorry.  So today was a bit better but now (back to the water thing) I think like a lot of you I can't tolerate plain water.  It HURTS!  So I grabbed some Crystal Light, still can't handle the water with that in it. So now what do I do?  Pre surgery I guzzled water like it was going out of style, I love water and actually miss it!!!  And again like most of you I find everything to be too sweet, the chewable vitamins make my skin crawl, the sublingual Prevacid is almost unbearable and don't even ask me how DISGUSTING the liquid calcium & vit D is!!!!  And to top it all off I have a mouth full of CANKERS!  I talked to the nurse about that today and I stumped her, she said she has never heard of someone getting a mouth full of cankers after surgery. I think the combo of little water and the diluted apple juice (acidic) and the apple sauce (acidic) and the orange flavoured liquid calcium (acidic) are killing my mouth. 

I have no appetite, I am exhausted all the time, I can't eat very much and water whether or not it's flavoured kills.  I burp a lot, at random times of the day & night and it hurts.  Coughing, sneezing, yawning, burping and laughing hurt like a B*TCH, so that's new and not fun!!!!  So all in all struggling. Feeling a little down in the dumps I am not healing or doing as well as some people here.

Have not once said to myself that I regret this because I DON'T, I just wish I was a better at healing and was more ahead than behind.  On a positive note... since starting Opti on Nov 1st I have lost 22 lbs!!!  I welcome all your comments, suggestions, stories and help.

Thanks everyone,

Leslie

 

Height 5' 5" HW: 244  SW: 226  CW: 128    

    

(deactivated member)
on 11/20/13 11:37 am

RE CANKERS:  SWISH WITH SAL****ER AFTER EVERY SWEET ITEM (VIT, JUICE, WHATEVER).  BRUSH TEETH REGULARLY.  IT WILL GET THINGS BACK TO NORMAL.

pugalootz
on 11/20/13 11:58 am - Canada

Congrats on making 6 days out!  I am still preop so I have no answers for you sorry!  Good for you for realizing you don't regret the decision.  It's all for the greater good.  

Sometimes we just need a cry and a rant to get us back on track.  Good luck!  Keep us posted. 

Christine

gwynnkitty
on 11/20/13 1:30 pm - North York, Canada

I'm 7 days post-op, and I have to tell you...I get this post. Today was the first day I got in 60g of protein (yay me!), and I swear I nearly cried with relief! My surgery was a lot more in-depth than I expected (AND than Dr Klein expected!), so I'm still on Oxycodone - and almost out. I do NOT want to go to my PCP and ask for a prescription of Oxy. I simply do not. 

I'm SUPER exhausted. Laying down is BULL**** plain and simple. If I sleep sitting up, it's glorious - but then my tailbone is a wreck. Laying down means a hell of a lot of pain; more than I care to discuss, quite frankly. 

I just keep reminding myself - this is a PROCESS. I can't expect this to "just work" right from the get-go, especially because I was a revision, so I'm trying really, really hard to just keep positive and keep plugging away. I'm hopeful that by this time next week, I will be singing an entirely different story.

Hang in there!! :)

Referral to Surgeon: February 12, 2013 Appointment with Surgeon: April 24, 2013 Endoscopy: April 30, 2013 Referral sent to Bariatric Registry: May 2, 2013 Orientation Appointment: May 27, 2013 Dr Klein Appointment: June 6, 2013 Second Upper GI Series: June 11 Dr Glazer: August 12, 2013 RN/RD/SW: August 29. 2013 Follow-up With Dr Klein: September 23, 2013 Start Opti: October 23, 2013 Surgery Date: November 14, 2013 

      

merry1
on 11/20/13 7:48 pm - Canada

I am almost six months from my operation.  I didn't have the pain you have but I was so disgusted with food it was very difficult to get the food down.  Even the thought of food made me want to hurl!  You just have to be careful to get in the protein as it maintains healing your stomach.  Have you tried premier protein shakes from Costco?  They were the best for me as i did not like the Whey protein at all.  Also Skotidakis Yogourt has 18g protein in 3/4 cup and i still go thru at least two tubs of it every week, to this day.  It will get better - by the third or fourth week and then it gets steadily better after that.  I still have no apetite and I can still turn up my nose at some foods, some days are better than others too!

NewMe2.0
on 11/21/13 12:17 am - Ontario, Canada
RNY on 05/20/14

Thank you for your post and for your honesty.  I am still pre op, and I am the type of person that will get every weird side effect or complication, so it helps to read these type of posts.  I am sorry you are having some issues though. Hopefully things will resolve itself in the next few days and you will start to feel better.  Take care of yourself, and good luck..

 

  • Referral:  Feb 2013/ Guelph  
  • RNY May 20th 2014 (Dr. Bhojani)                                                                         
  • 2nd RNY (revision due to marginal ulcers) Aug. 10th 2015 ( Dr. Bhojani)  
  • Revision to VSG (marginal ulcers): March 22nd 2016 (Hamilton, Dr. Hong)
  • Total Gastrectomy:  Dec. 15th 2016 (Hamilton, Dr. Hong)

 

    

TurnThePage
on 11/21/13 12:40 am

"  I am still pre op, and I am the type of person that will get every weird side effect or complication, so it helps to read these type of posts.  "

Be careful that you are not setting yourself up for problems. If you expect to have difficulties, you probably will. That kind of thinking can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy---especially in the emotional turmoil that often follows WLS.  The odds are good that you will be just fine. Not everyone has issues or complications. Most people go through surgery without problems and then get on with their lives. Some of them post about their success here, but there's not a lot of motivation to post when one's life has gone back to normal.  Those that post problems on such a forum are the minority. While it's helpful to be aware of potential issues, It's also important to keep a realistic perspective.  Best wishes on your journey!

 

NewMe2.0
on 11/21/13 12:54 am - Ontario, Canada
RNY on 05/20/14

Thanks for your reply to my post, but just to clarify...I am not saying I will have issues...and to me, these issues are all part of the healing and learning process after wls.  And by reading these posts, I will see and be prepared if something like that does happen to me, and will also have learned how other people dealt with them. 

And I don't think there is anything wrong with being prepared and well informed.  If I know I have issues with say nausea, (i did an earlier post), then what is wrong with being prepared on how to deal with it.  I just underwent 3 emergency surgeries (unrelated to wls), spending over 2 weeks in and out of the hospital-- and part of that issue was how my body handles nausea and pain medications..and according to the surgeon, I happen to fall into a small category of people that happen to suffer weird symptoms and side effects.

I guess it goes back to my brownie/girl scout days of being prepared.

I know first hand what to expect (normally) with this surgery as one of my best friends is almost a year post op.

But I get where you are coming from, as some people can almost wish complications on themselves...I was just merely thanking the original poster for telling us her story...because sometimes it isn't always rainbows and unicorns.

 

 

 

 

  • Referral:  Feb 2013/ Guelph  
  • RNY May 20th 2014 (Dr. Bhojani)                                                                         
  • 2nd RNY (revision due to marginal ulcers) Aug. 10th 2015 ( Dr. Bhojani)  
  • Revision to VSG (marginal ulcers): March 22nd 2016 (Hamilton, Dr. Hong)
  • Total Gastrectomy:  Dec. 15th 2016 (Hamilton, Dr. Hong)

 

    

em_dep_qua
on 11/21/13 12:45 am - Kitchener, Canada
RNY on 11/19/13
I am on my 2nd day post op. I am very surprised that you guys get food. I had tea, broth, jello and juice. I never managed to fini**** all. The tea and broth took me about an hour. Sorry you are feeling poorly. Michelle

Referral sent - Jan 11/13  Orientation - Apr 4/13  Nurse & Dietitian - Apr 8/13 (287 lbs)   Food Class - Apr 10/13  Social worker - Apr 29/13   Nurse, Dietitian & Social worker - Jun 3/13 (284 lbs)   Meet Surgeon - Oct 31/13 (277 lbs)   Post-op food class - Nov 4/13   PATTS - Nov 6/13 & Nov 15/13   Surgery - Nov 19/13 (264 lbs)

      http://static7.fitbit.com/simple.b-dis-png.hfae558bc2c41731b503ebe7a6047f0d8.pack?items=%2Fimages%2Fdash%2Fbadge_lifetime_kilometers250.png  https://static0.fitbit.com/simple.b-dis-png.h30068d83181db189c8748b935814ece7.pack?items=%2Fimages%2Fdash%2Fbadge_lifetime_kilometers750.png    http://static2.fitbit.com/simple.b-dis-png.h6dfcb257cfbfba6f178818461d9f9962.pack?items=%2Fimages%2Fdash%2Fbadge_lifetime_kilometers1k.png  https://static0.fitbit.com/simple.b-dis-png.h47ce919ba710f3cfedaa1d34fa9522e8.pack?items=%2Fimages%2Fdash%2Fbadge_daily_steps10k.png  http://static5.fitbit.com/simple.b-dis-png.h58e6c75703a655be91bb229e9a500540.pack?items=%2Fimages%2Fdash%2Fbadge_daily_steps15k.png    https://static3.fitbit.com/simple.b-dis-png.h2e5f0b0a057c1141c8c09aa96f17b8c3.pack?items=%2Fimages%2Fdash%2Fbadge_daily_steps25k.png

  

Delicious_Delilah
on 11/21/13 4:17 am - Ottawa, Canada

I am about 15 months post-op, and just wanted to share my own experience.  I remember that for the first 10 to 14 days after surgery it felt like it was one step forward, two steps back in the healing process.  Just when I thought I was feeling better, I would get a pain here or there, or feel exhausted, or something...  This lasted for the first couple of weeks, when things finally started moving progressively forward.  So don't despair, it does definitely get better. 

Keep in mind that you just had major surgery.  You should rest as much as you can.  I remember one day (two or three days after surgery), I got up in the morning, and after having some water and some sort of nutrition (probably part of a protein shake), I felt exhausted.  I remember thinking this isn't going well...I should be able to do better then spend my day in bed.  Then I gave my head a good shake, and told myself to listen to my body and give it what it needs.  Clearly, that was sleep!  So don't be too hard on yourself.  Listen to your body!  That's my best advice!!  And everybody is different in terms of healing. 

Good luck!

DD

    

 

 

 

 

    

    

    

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