Will Have Bypass Surgery Soon. Long Beach, CA

Awesome!!! I'm excited for you!!! Congratulations!!!
You doing great with recovery!

Congrats to where you are so far..doing all the pre-op stuff is a journey by itself. It's been 6 weeks since my surgery. I feel amazing!! The results are great. I am so glad I did this. I am full of energy. Just have positive thoughts. Prepare yourself as much as you can to what your new lifestyle will be like and you'll do great.

Sounds like we are around the same start weight. Highest weight 285, then maintained 274 for 6 mos pre sx. I had GB sx on the 14th at Barix. When I woke up after sx I felt as if I was entering the hospital for multiple stab wounds and was on the brink of death. Not over exaggerating & NOT trying to scare you. I was in a lot of pain! After I woke in post op I let staff know I was in a lot of pain, was told to take deep breaths, and was in my hospital room when I woke hooked up to O2, saline drip, and morphine pump. For the first day I was nauseated, bloated, in pain. Every time I woke up I pressed the button for morphine, though I was told I didn't have to use much. The biggest problem was being pumped full of fluid causing me to urinate every twenty minutes-LITERALLY. I did not have a catheter.This caused me to not be able to rest. I walked around a bit to get gas pressure to decrease but couldn't walk long due to drowsiness from pain meds that I needed to semi-function. So, day one was full of sleeping, no drinking (thus being pumped with fluids), and using the restroom constantly.

The next day I was taken off of the saline drip since i started to drink my fluids. This allowed me to get some rest as I went from urinating every 15-20 minutes to about every HR. They also DCd the pain pump and began giving me one oral Tylenol 3-I opted for this versus Vicodin/norco because those have always made me sick unless I take them with extremely lt meals. The oral pain meds did not help with pain at all. 2nd day i was given an enema. Sounds gross but this really helped relieve gas, pressure, and move my bowels. I tried to stay on the commode for 25 mins to get everything out.

I still had pain afterward and was switched to dilautid plus fentanyl patch. This worked wonders and I was drinking and up walking around with pain controlled. I was sent home after 2 nights w/dilautid and fentanyl patches. I mostly slept only waking to take sips of isopure and walk around the house. I'm 6 days out and feel as I expect I should. Still drowsy, not able to focus, but can walk, etc.
It's been a breeze since pain was controlled and I really think this tool I've been given is going to chg my life.

Other notes:
-have milk of magnesia at home. One dose of this worked great! Don't wait too long because the gas and constipation is bad and you can prevent it with the MOM
-whether you are asleep or not, you will have a tag team of nurses and respiratory who will come in and take your vitals, have you do the spirometer and cough. Note-if you hold your stomach right it will NOT hurt as bad. Don't be afraid to do this.
-if you are in pain/discomfort please please please let them know right away. If I just tried to stay tough they prob wouldn't have gotten my pain med regimen right. So glad they did
-have extra steri strips at home. I changed mine because they were semi not clean looking. I you tubed how to take off, clean the area, and reapply the correct way
-don't bother bringing unnecessary items like books, makeup, magazines, etc. I was too tired to read them AND pain meds caused blurred vision which also didn't allow me to read. Furthermore, I didn't turn the TV on the whole time I was there. Not kidding.
-Chapstick and lotion will be your friends....although someone will prob have to put the lotion on for you.
-For me protein drinks are more important than water. Protein drinks count towards the liquid intake. Here's my regimen: 1 ready to drink 11oz premier protein drink day (30g protein), 1 isopure 20 oz ready to drink (40 G protein), 1-2 Popsicle and/or 1-2 sugar free jello cup, 1 16oz bottle water. This is really easy and it gets me to my fluid and protein intake requirements.

Sounds like you're REALLY close. I know you didn't ask for all this info but I wish someone would have told me some of this stuff. Take Care. Best of Luck!