Complications/Pain after Nissen Fundoplication

Hello everyone.  I had a Nissen fundoplication done on July 27th.  I had a very large hiatel hernia.  It's estimated that 3/4 of my stomach was above my diaphragm.  Surgery went well but on the second day post op, my oxygen sats dropped to 74 and I was rushed to the ICU and placed on oxygen for two days.  Then I was down graded to the progessive care unit for another 3 days.  Finally almost a week after surgery, I was released.  I drove myself home from the hospital and I was really feeling good.  The following Monday I returned to work part time.  Each day I worked, the pain seemed to increase.  Last week I was only able to work about 3 hours the whole week and even went to the emergency room with severe pains by my ribs.  The ER said I had pleurisy but the lung doctor doesn't think that's correct.  I've been eating regular food from about four days post op. 

I am still having severe pains by the left stomach incision.  It's horrible and I'm not sure what is causing it since it's not directly related to the incision.  It's an internal pain and it hurts to move when it happens.  If I walk or overdo it (I'm a mom, how can I not overdo it?), I get more pains by my rib cages wrapping around to my back and I tend to hunch over when that happens. 

Right after surgery, I had no hunger pains at all.  I had a hard time telling if I was full or hungry.  That is subsiding but even though I don't eat much, I'm not losing any more weight either.  I seem to have stalled and started gaining again. 

Any thoughts on what could be causing these problems? 

Regular food after four days?!
I was on liquids for three weeks.
Do you think it's hurting because the regular food?
Try liquid diet for a week. No lifting anything for two weeks. Good luck.

It sounds like you had a lot of fluid in the lungs and maybe it should have been drained or maybe it was pneumonia. There should be no "almost" in the completely black. Was there any air under the diaphragm or in the mediastinum or any other place it didn't belong? Maybe you should still be on antibiotics.

Pain at the incisions is to be expected for a couple of months. After all they went not just through the skin but through the abdominal wall too. And then they messed around there for along time, cutting the fat pad, releasing the esophagus, sewing up the hiatus ...

Listen to Joy and don't lift anything! Hire a housekeeper for a while.