Post Op Observations - 1st 3 days

My pain was just below my rib cage. Not sure what combo of surgery, incisions, swelling, gas it was that hurt. I couldn't imagine just Tylenol. That's what I'm on now and think I've overdone the moving since discharge, I'm uncomfortable today. Hard to call it pain after what I felt waking up from surgery. Hard to relate/explain level of pain to someone else? As for the spasms - yes I had them too, mostly the first 48 hrs. When first drinking I found I could only start with the tiniest sips and had to wait 180 seconds between them or I would get a spasm. Now I can drink water pretty freely - 2 or three 15 ml sips back to back, then wait 30-60 seconds. But, when it has protein mixed in, my sleeve tightens unlike plain water. I would only give swallowing protein a pain level of 1 or 2. Like swallowing to big of a bite of food preop. 

Are you feeling better every day? Can't say I feel better today, but drinking is again easier. About 60 oz as of 4pm (and 3 hrs of naps).

Stomach churning pain seems like an acid issue perhaps.  Are you on a PPI like Nexium or Prilosec?  

The swallowing pain, for me, was because of intubation.  Chloraseptic helped a lot, as did SF popsicles.  

Sorry , no advice to give you, just wanted you to know that you are not alone. Had my VSG 5/22 and feel the same way. Swallowing water is like 12 inch daggers going down my throat :( Was just released a few hrs ago and worried I will dehydrate without my IV. One day at a time is all we can do at this point. I've followed this forum and others for a year now and even the ppl with deep regrets,  seem to get better and  not regret it later. Thats what I'm hoping for too. 

I don't know what's typical but one of the many things I had hooked up to me was this pouch with a teeny tube that delivered numbing medication to my healing stomach. I think that made a huge difference to how much pain I had.

I had surgery Tuesday for the first time ever I have no memory of recovery but then they weren't waking me up trying to send me home the same day.

There was discomfort and pain especially getting up, but I had a morphine pump that I controlled. Dry mouth to me was horrible was nice to even drink the nasty tasting contrast for swallow test. I slept a lot, better once I got extra pillows and used the bed adjustments. I had pillow under my knees, under each arm for support, bed raised some under knees as well and some under head. One angel of a nurse my second evening saw I was using an extra pillow under an arm and then asked me well how about under here etc. That made a HUGE difference.

The biggest area was where they took out lapband/port and where I had drain tube, that was uncomfortable to take out! Once that was out it helped with a lot of the discomfort I had. They kept me until late in the day on Thursday. Again I think that numbing med tube made a huge difference, it ran out sometime during the night and I removed it this morning.

wow..I am waiting to go for surgery too and your description was awesome...although I am sure you didnt feel awesome. I wish you a speedy wonderful recovery from here on in!  And thanks so much for sharing your experience...it totally sounds realistic

Wow.  I wish I had something that relieved my stomach pain locally too.  Today is no better.  Anything that hits my stomach causes a spasm, and the last few hours it hurts all the time as if I drank something really acidic or peppery.  I'm already taking Prilosec, ranitidine, and Carafate.  I'm trying to wait it out until Tuesday when my doctor is back at work.  I'm supposed to be back to work Tuesday too.  I would have expected each day to get a little bit better, but it's the same or worse.  A doctor on another site said, "We did upper GI series on the second post op day on our first 50 sleeve patients for quality control, to help rule out a leak, and to correlate what the patient was feeling when they swallowed with what the patient and I saw on the fluoroscope (x-ray tube). In most cases the fluid passed through without symptoms or difficulty. In a few patients there appeared to be some spasm of the sphincter muscle between the esophagus and the sleeve. In these cases there was some pain and some reflux when the contrast material hit the sphincter muscle. Patients had to swallow two or three times to get fluid down. In other cases, patients experienced some pain when fluid hit the upper part of the sleeve and caused distension of the sleeve....Pain with swallowing is often due to problems like the ones I mentioned... but it can also be associated with more severe complications like a staple line leak, a kink or twist of the sleeve, or a point of significant narrowing of the sleeve."  If on Tuesday I'm still in this much pain and still having spasms when anything hits my stomach, I'm going to ask if I can have an upper GI series to find out just what is going on.  Thanks so much for everyone's comments.

Oh my gosh...I cannot for all the world imagine being discharged the same day I had a bypass or sleeve procedure--maybe the band, but even then, I think that's asking a lot.  I sure hope you will have a lot of help when you get home and that your 5 kids will be understanding.  It's now been 6 days since my sleeve procedure, and my stomach is still spasming whenever anything hits it.  It'll even keep spasming pretty severely another couple of times after each swallow of whatever it is.  I took 2 tsp of Maalox about an hour ago.  My stomach still spasmed with the first sip I took of a protein drink a minute ago, but it was just a tiny bit muted compared with how bad it was without the Maalox.  I'm at the point that honestly I don't care if I ever eat or drink again.  I'm tired of my stomach hurting to some degee all the time and really hurting whenever I swallow anything.