VSG: Surgical day - POD 3

The morning of Friday, August 31, 2018 I had to get up at 3am to drink a bottle of regular Gatorade (per my surgeon's instructions) and then report to the hospital at 5:30 am.  I was supposed to have a 7:00 am start time, but they were pretty late.  I have to say it was a good experience from start to finish.  I mean, it is the Cleveland Clinic.  They're the #2 hospital in the nation (which pretty much means the world).  I kind of expected good care.

My surgical weight was 227.6.  My highest weight was 254, by surgery I had lost 27 pounds.

I lost 7.2 pounds in August!

Courtney and Emma took me to the hospital and hung out all day waiting for me to get done and settled into a room.  Emma stayed with me overnight.  I don't think she would have gone home even if I forced her.  lol  She's always been Mommy's girl and is a good caretaker.  That first post-op day was TOUGH.  Who am I kidding? I'm on day 3 now and it hasn't stopped being tough!

But that first night, I was so nauseous and kept throwing up and my pain was horrible.  Have you guys ever had abdominal surgery?  Even laparoscopically it HARD.  You use your abs for every little movement you make from standing, sitting and rolling over to putting on your underwear and wiping yourself.  I have seven incisions on my belly and they HURT!

We were literally up all night and even though the next day I still couldn't get much rest, she finally conked out.  Poor baby.

The next day I decided I wanted to go home.  I could have and probably should have stayed one more night, but I couldn't do another night with no sleep and being so uncomfortable.  So we came home and I've been slowly trying to move around and sip sip sip.

I asked my friend Lauren if she would bring me some pebble ice from sonic and she sent me back this picture... Ugh I love her.

It's now post op day 3 and I am moving slightly better.  Instead of my pain being a 10, with movement it's now a six.  Still high, but getting better.  Most of my incisions aren't hurting anymore, but the one in my belly button and just to the right of it are SOOOOO painful.  Those are the biggies.

In addition to the gastric sleeve, they also repaired a small umbilical hernia I had, so that might be why that area is so much more tender than the rest.  I will say that keeping a heating pad on my stomach has helped immensely.  So has the abdominal binder they gave me in the hospital.  I didn't think it was helping so I took it off, and now I can tell that it was and I'm going to put it right back on when I finish here.

I can see how it will be a struggle to fit both your protein shakes in as well as your fluid intake.  One, I don't feel hungry and could probably go the whole day without eating or drinking anything if I'm not mindful about it.  And two, I don't hold that much.  But I just have to keep at it and trust that it will all work itself out in the end.

I'll keep you posted as I progress!



XO, Veronica