Believe me when I say I know how you feel (except for the part about ‘posting from the hospital’, which certainly wasn’t an option 22 years ago!)
Recovering from abdominal surgery sucks. You really never realize how much you use your ab muscles for until they hurt! Coughing, sneezing, laughing, going up stairs (try going up backwards; it helps!), vomiting, having a bowel movement, sitting up, standing up. . .
Ugh. So much. But you will get through this, and you’ll be glad not to have the SOB to worry about any more!
Well, THAT’s no fun at all! Sorry to hear it put up such a fight! (i remember the first word I said as I was coming to was “cold!”, and the second was “lap?”. Sorry your answer was different that mine :(.
Have someone you trust bring you real food, as long as you’re in the hospital. And afterwards, too, of course!
Biliary colic is horrifically painful, like a heart attack but without the heart damage.
The g.b. was very inflamed and infected with stones and had to go.
The surgery took about an hour. I stayed in the hospital for about 24 hours. They wouldn’t let me drink much of anything or eat anything at all till the next morning (the surgery was finished around 2pm).
I could not pee for quite some time and then had to take milk of Magnesia about 2 days post-op.
It was uncomfortable to recover from but not unbearable. Tylenol was enough.
I was able to go out to eat a non fat meal about 4 or 5 days post-op and able to drive a day or so after that. I took about a week or so off of work.
OP: I don’t know if you’re really going to feel like traveling very soon after the surgery. You are going to be sore for a while, esp. from where the laparoscope goes in.
YMMV.
I know, right?? I had no idea my abs were so useful!
I cried when I woke up because it hurt so bad! :o
Thanks everybody.. came home Monday and I am still really sore, but getting a little better every day. Taking colase and drinking plenty of water, and trying to eat veggies and stuff, but still no poo. Called the doc.. otherwise doing ok.. don’t feel nearly as crummy as I did in the hospital. Thanks so much guys, your support means a lot!
yep. Laughing, coughing, sneezing.
It will hurt a little when they take the staples out. Don’t worry if a few pop out on their own. You are healing from the inside out.
Oh, hell yeah! When I had mine out, I was in a hospital room by about 5:30PM. It was a semi-private room, so I had a room mate. 8PM comes, what does roomie put on the TV? Roseanne. You know, back when it was funny. Owwwwwww.
The only thing that kept my system slowed right down for the first couple days post-op was having not eaten anything solid for 3 days leading up to the surgery and a couple after that. Even after they started allowing me liquids, everything just started right up again. I have a fairly high fiber diet in general, but irregularity was never an issue. Over-regularity has been a challenge off and on since then, but nothing I haven’t gotten used to anticipating. I guss you just never know how you’re body will react…
Get well soon! I found that recovery seemed to take forever until the staples came out and then things seemed to start progressing much better – the staples really seemed to make every little movement that much more uncomfortable and having them pulled made a world of difference.
While I was recovering in the hospital, my best friend loaned me his little portable DVD player and a bunch of DVDs. The first one I popped in was “Red Versus Blue.” I had to shut it off after about two minutes because it hurt way too much to laugh while watching.
My SO and M-I-L were trying to kill me with hillarity today, that, the oatmeal and metimucil for breakfast, salad for lunch, more water, more colase, c’mon something WORK!
Ugh!!! At nearly a week post-op, you’ve beaten me by a full 3 days :(.
If things don’t get started soon, you might have go, er, go at it from another angle. Might want to talk to the doctor before trying anything along those lines, however.
Another option: given the trouble many folks have with digesting fat (at least for a while)… time to eat a stick of butter?
