Just had my surgery 16/9/13

Day 4:
Well had a good nights sleep and woke up around 8 am, I ate some Greek yogurt before bed with an apple juice drink as my sugar levels were a bit low and think I didn't give enough time to digest it. Felt more painful upon waking than yesterday and getting stabbing pains in my back and side, the left side is the worse. I'm also getting a stabbing pain in the left kidney area so think I'm gonna have to reach for the pain meds today. My mood is still low and find it hard to get joyful over anything, I really wasn't prepared for feeling depressed after surgery which to me makes everything feel 10 times worse. My mood does pick up towards the evening but mornings are hard to deal with it.

Today will do some shopping as I need to pick up some apple sauce and some gaviscon advance and might have a go at eating some chicken noodle soup. I had some carrot and coriander soup as a post-op meal in hospital and that was disgusting so will steer clear of that. Also I will pick up some almond milk as dairy makes me bloated although greek yogurt seems to go down fine but not sure if that's classed as dairy or not. Are things like fruit juices ok or is it best to steer clear from acidic foods for now?

I'm still having problems with constipation so will up my dose of senna to 2per/day I am trying to do things like walking to help out but no joy yet. Is that how you get rid of the general anesthetic out of the body? Maybe when I start getting normal movements my mood will improve.

I have made an appointment to see my general doctor and also the diabetic nurse next week as I'm finding it hard balancing my food and insulin intake. Also on my discharge paper it said I had high cholesterol so wanna check on that. I also noted before surgery in the admittance room my blood records showed high potassium as the nurse left my records with me to sign as she went to answer the phone, there was also something else that was high but can't remember what that one was, maybe my gp doctore will have the records. Maybe i should just go with the flow more and not worry so much but finding it hard to be relaxed at the moment. Time for a chamomile tea.

Day 7:

Well its one week post surgery and not feeling too bad. All the post surgery blues have passed which I think is because I have rested and got lots of sleep and the narcotics and anethesia have passed. I am also having regular bm's now so maybe that has helped also.

My incision sites are not too painful now and can sleep on my sides. The one that hurts the most is on my left side under the ribs, but its beareable without pain meds. I get stabbing pains in my left kidney area so will get my kidneys checked out when I see my gp on wednesday. I have had trouble with my sugar levels and have high potassium levels so will ask to see a diabetes doctor also to help out.

I still have an acidy taste in my mouth but I now believe this to be diabetes related and maybe because of ketones causing me problems. I have tested the ph of my saliva and urine and both are very acidic. Had I realised my acidity might be because of diabetes I might not of had this surgery as my mouth symptoms are the ones apart from burning stomach that debilitated me the most. This may well be why the meds never worked for me because my problems were caused by the diabetes. Also all tests were normal apart from the second pH test. I am looking at ways to alkalinize my body as I believe diabetic acidosis has caused me all sorts of problems. I do wake up feeling better with no nausea and the no regurgitation so the surgery has helped somewhat. I know its early days for me so will keep on keeping on and see what happens.

Swallowing liquid has been fine and creamy smoothies also go down fine. By day 5 I could swallow my digestive enzyme capsules without having to open them and add to apple sauce. Right now my diet consists of fruit and vegetable smoothies and chicken noodle soup, I believe I could quiet easily eat a soft diet now but prefer not to push my luck too early. The second day post op in hospital I ate fish in parsley sauce with mash with no problems. I have had no problems so far with swallowing or anything getting stuck.

Post Edited (Albez) : 9/23/2013 7:44:58 AM (GMT-6)

That one left side rib incision will nag at you for quite awhile. I still can feel mine and have a bit of swelling almost 7 weeks out. Icing it helps a bit. I noticed that mine drastically improved after the 5 week mark seemingly overnight. Dont worry about that one too much.

My stitches were the disolvable kind and I never even saw them by the time I picked off my steri strips.

Hi Albez, I'm glad you turned that corner and are feeling better. I was told the internal stiches dissolve, and they use glue on the outside, held in place with the steri strips. I hope that is the same for you, strange if they didn't give you an appointment to remove them if necessary.

I had that itching like you, some of it was from leftover adhesive from the bandages. The steri strips don't itch me. All itching subsided a few days ago. I itched around the incisions, when needed and it helped.

I peeled off my steri-strips last night. I figured it's over 2 weeks, I might as well try it. I was surprised at the length of the incisions. I'm not surprised that some surgeons use real stitches.

Good luck with your run-around! I don't know that there is a perfect health system anywhere.

Noelle3 said...
Albez, may I ask if you had your surgery through laparoscope or did you have open surgery?
It's just you said you were surprised at the length of the incisions and I sort of understood that if you had a laparoscopic procedure the incisions were quite small.

Oh my goodness! ... asking you to wait until the 7th.Oct to have your stitches out .. what??!! This sort of muddle is so frustrating for the patient. Yes, makes you laugh all right!

Hi Noelle, my surgery was laparoscopic keyhole surgery. I think it was Jenners post which said she was surprised how big her incisions were. My incisions don't look that big but its hard to tell with the stitches still in as they are still a bit swollen.

Its just as well I enquired with my gp about the stitches as I was under the impression they was dissolvable ones. There was also no mention of aftercare on my discharge letter. I could really do without getting an infection in the incision sites right now.

Day 12:

It seems I have hit peak swelling, really struggling to get my smoothie down this morning. I felt kinda bad when I woke up with that reflux feeling and a bit nauseaus so should of realised I was at the two week swelling point.. Because I have had no problems swallowing I took my usual gulps of my smoothie and then came the feeling of it was stuck and wanting to bring it back up. It wasn't a good feeling but now I know how those who struggle straight after surgery felt. I swapped my smoothie for a vegetable juice and will just take small sips of that for today. How long does the peak swelling normally last for?

I had my stitches out yesterday, the nurse at the walk in clinic was shocked I wasn't given any aftercare info as regards the stitches, she said they could of quite easily got infected. She rang the hospital ward I was staying on to to ask why nothing was on my discharge letter and they just said the surgeon usually uses dissolvable stitches and they didn't think any different. I had 11 stitches in total. The wounds are bruised but healing fine and I reckon will be hardly noticeable one they have finished healing.

Pain wise I am doing great and stopped all pain meds a while back. I can sleep on both sides without problem and can walk and exercise without pain. I still feel tender but on a scale of 1 to 10 I would say I'm about a 2. Like I said earlier the only real problem at the moment is getting food inside me and having a feeling of indigestion.

Today's menu:

Vegetable juice.

lajenner said...
My peak swelling lasted 2 days, I think it was 11 and 12. I'm glad you got rid of the stitches. I also had trouble with the hospital's discharge procedures and let them know about it in a follow up survey. I suppose the nurses had no way of knowing about your stitches, as they were covered in bandages.

I hope today and tomorrow start getting better.

By the way, isn't the date in your subject line wrong? Maybe you could have a moderator change it to September (9), instead of October (10).

During my discharge I was so out of it having not slept for two days that I didn't ask any questions about the aftercare. When I got home I thought as I wasn't told anything that the stitches must be dissolvable, it was only when I had a shower and removed the bandages that I thought different. I wasn't offered any follow up survey lol

Thanks Jenner, have edited my first post and managed to change the.date.

I just had nissen fundoplication at Mayo clinic I Florida one month ago.  Can eat some solid foods, but have to chew thoroughly and in small amounts.  Sometimes food gets stuck right at the breastbone and I have to walk around while burping the whole time to dislodge it.  Usually takes about 5 or so minutes.  Horrible feeling.  The reason I had to get surgery was because of my hiatal hernia and severe gerd.  All the acid was coming up going into my lungs.  Had trouble breathing and had dry cough for several years.  Surgery took 2 hours, and had 5 small holes punched thru stomach.  Just had month post op visit.  Doc said going to take 6 month to feel full relief.  Here's my problem.  No matter what I eat I have the worse gas pain in my right breast area and goes up into my right side of neck, sometimes to my back occasionally.  I get severe burps and pass some gas.  I usually have to do a fleet enema to allieviate the pain. It feels like a heart attack.  After several hours of walking and enema, it disapates.  Anyone else have this problem.  Decided to go back to liquids again and see if this helps.  Allready lost 14 lbs, don't want to get too much thinner.  Always believed you needed meat on your bones to fight illnesses.  Any similar stories would be appreciated.  Other than the gas pain, I feel pretty good.  I wals a mile every day and lift weights several times  a week.  I'm 61,  Thank you

Thank you Ian. Called doctor today, they said get Gas X and not to eat any foods that give you gas. Said it should go away in time. I hope so. Right now I'm afraid to eat anything not liquid.