My recovery experience - 38 yr old Female

I am a 38 year old woman who is not overweight, no prior surgeries. I should add that I need responded to nexus or prilosec so the surgery was inevitable. Jump down the last paragraph of this post if you want more of my background with GERD.

Yesterday I had laparoscopic fundoplication and hernia repair at the same time on an outpatient basis at the hospital.

I arrived at 7am, and about an hour later they put me in my own private room while they prepped me for surgery. I met the anesthesiologist there and my surgeon came in to see how I was doing. I think that part took about 30 minutes and then they wheeled me into the pre-surgery area where another nurse asked more questions and the anesthesiologist came in and gave a little injection into my IV to help relax me. I don’t remember them even putting me to sleep, but I did go into the surgery room and got off the gurney and on to the surgery table myself. I woke up about an hour or so later, I was told. My friend’s husband is a surgeon so I asked that he be the emergency contact person, that way the two surgeons would be able to give me a more detailed explanation of what happened. Turns out it went great, very minimal blood loss and were able to repair the hernia and did the wrap.

When I woke up from anesthesia I had a lot of pain in my neck and both shoulders- I think from laying down flat during surgery. You know how it is with the GERD, I haven’t been able to lay flat on a bed in years. So they gave me two additional pain killers before I left. I think Darvocet in my iv and then a percocet that I swallowed. I also asked for nausea medicine because i get car sick and it’s a long ride from that hospital to where I live. It completely took care of any motion sickness I would have had.

Going home was fine,I was discharged by 2:30, and my friend and I even stopped at the grocery store to drop off a prescription and get some apple juice because I was so hungry and thirsty at that point. I had to use the shopping cart as support (like a walker).

I live on the 2nd floor and didn’t have any trouble getting up my stairs or moving around too much. My friend stayed with me for a half hour or so and I was starting to fall asleep so I let her go home.

I think I slept until almost 9pm, when my husband came home. The pain in my shoulder and base of my neck grew worse and was awful for the rest of the night. We tried to just do a little walking on the patio and then the stairs, but the movement made me nauseous (even though I had a Scopase patch, and pills). It was so unbearable I went straight back to bed. A heating bad under my right shoulder helped a little but overtime I try to turn onto my left shoulder, the pain gets very sharp, like a 9 on the pain scale.

Day 2
Taking vicodin every four hours as prescribed. I have taken some gas x which the nurses and surgeon said might help with the CO2 left in my chest cavity. That has been the most painful today. I have had to stay in bed, even if I get up to go to the bathroom, just being up that long I get the shooting pains in my neck, shoulder and right side of my abdomen. The incision sites aren’t particularly painful. I feel surprisingly good other than the shoulder and neck pain. Then again, I’m on vicodin, so who know what the pain would be like without it.
I called my surgeon’s office to ask if I still had to do clear liquids and they said no, I could have shakes, blended soup, whatever as long as it isn’t solid (I don’t think I can have pudding or ice cream yet).
I think the shoulder pain may be easing up. I have spend the day in bed on the heating pad and under an electric blanket. I’ll try to write more tomorrow about day 3!

Background:
I’m a 38 year old female, not overweight but have had so much trouble with GERD and the hernia for the last 18 months, it was unbearable. Even though my hernia was small, it was casing me a great deal of chest pain and constant burping. It affected my entire life, from how I could sleep at night, what exercise I could do- I couldn’t ever bend over at the waist. I could go on and on but let me just tell you how my recovery experience is going. I was very fortunate that a friend of mine had the same symptoms about 7 years and she had the same procedure and so I went to her fantastic surgeon, Dr. Carson Liu. He was wonderful, mostly I think he does bariatric surgery, which is what made me feel very comfortable with him.

This is so interesting, I had my surgery the same day as you, anterior fundo. I'm also a vegetarian so I know your struggle with the broths. Before the surgery I made up a simple broth - celery, potato, carrots, onions - then sieved it into small portions, and pureed the leftover vegetables, put both lots in the freezer and its been a great help. So I've been having that along with mashed potato and apple sauce. I tried having a "creamy" vegetable soup, one of those powdered mixes, but apparently I can't handle dairy at all now so all of that is off the table.

You're right bananas aren't good for getting things moving, in fact they are recommended when you want to stop things moving. Aside from that I'd use caution with banana at this stage because it clumps together to form a bolus which could catch in your wrap, if it is mixed in with a smoothie or something then it shouldn't be a problem. Be careful with the fresh vegetable juice as well, they are quite starchy and can make your gas worse.

I can sympathise with you on the feeling hungry but the tightness is making it unpleasant to eat. My surgeon recommended 6 small meals a day, which I am finding pretty daunting and hard to do unless at least half of them are liquid. Have you got a bowl or something you can use that is about the size of what you can handle? I've got this little microwave safe ramekin which holds about 1/4cup and its about the perfect amount of food for me, I eat it with a teaspoon as well just to make sure I'm not taking in too much at once. It takes about 30mins to finish a meal but I guess easy does it.

Have you tried having oatmeal to help with the constipation? Its not the most exciting of foods but its a good soluble fibre that shouldn't cause problems with gas but should help get things moving along.

I haven't quite gotten to banishing my fiance, but its getting close, I'm really craving something carby and crunchy.

Best of luck with the rest of your recovery! Its interesting to see the similarities and differences at this point.

the recovery for me was forward backward, i will be 16 weeks this Thursday, i had a large hernia, that was giving me a lot of chest pain, as well as preventing a lung from fully inflating. that being said, i still have chest tightness, much less than before, and sometimes i still have issues taking a deep breath. i was told, that post surgical changes may occur, and i am starting to fully define my new normal IE, eating, pains, that come and go and my weight loss. i also now that recovery for us is long. i am back to working out, slowly incorporating lifting, cardio no prob. i have learned, there is no real instruction Manuel, as we all recover differently, and this forum is great. listen to your body. and try to stay positive[ that has proved hardest for me]. good luck and heal well.

aero1 and renegade,
Thank you for sharing your experience. It really is so helpful to hear from others who have gone through it. My surgeon is a fantastic bariatric surgeon who has done a ton of these, but is so nonchalant about what to expect for recovery. I have to keep reminding myself how much they did inside, even though there are just four tiny incisions. I’ve actually watched the operation on YouTube a few times, it’s pretty remarkable that we don’t have more pain than we do!

I do have a stick blender as well as a Nutri Ninja (both of which are fantastic), and a regular juicer though I can’t really deal with all the cleaning and prep of vegetables at the moment. I had not thought of grinding the oatmeal for eating- I have done for cookies in other recipes before. What a good idea. I found that vegan jello mix too! I haven’t tried it yet but I have peach and raspberry.

He was not planning to do the full wrap but he did not mention anterior or posterior. I didn’t speak to him after surgery so I am not certain. The swelling is just a general feeling of tightness throughout the chest and neck, I can’t say if it is inside or outside, probably outside. My main GERD symptoms were chest tightness and burping so I’m used to the tightness but this is a bit different. It kind of takes your breath away, especially when I move sometimes but not usually. I don’t know if I’d describe mine as pulling. Glad you are using your pain meds, might as well. I’m an American and I have no tolerance for our “just suck it up and deal with it” culture and will gladly take meds to make myself more comfortable. ;)


P.S. I also suffer from major depression and anxiety.

Day 6
My first day out in the real world. I took a shower and finally washed my hair. Keeping the glue on my incisions dry was no problem (I have a handheld sower head) I ran errands with my husband (who drove) and did a little walking, a few thousand steps overall. I went to the market, to pick up a few ready-made soups from the deli I could run through the blender. Even met up with a friend for some catching up at a coffee shop. I am moving slower than usual and have to keep reminding myself not to push/pull anything remotely heavy.

The predominant pain today is the tightness in my chest and throat. It seems to have gotten better most of the time, but other times I will have what I can only describe as a sudden attack that takes my breath away and I actually whimper out in pain because everything feels so stuck. Sometimes it happens from changing position, other times it is just out of the blue. Several times now I've thought I could go off the hydrocodone but then decided after a few hours it wasn't worth it. No point in suffering, better to be out and about and moving again than feeling like I'm stuck in bed. The trapped gas in the shoulder and neck is still there a bit as well but not nearly as bad as it was or as these new chest symptoms are.

Swallowing is not a problem still, but I am still running everything through the blender to be safe. Trying to keep to high protein.
Still not regular so the pharmacist suggested taking twice the dosage of MiraLax before attempting another medicine. I feel, and look, swollen and haven't lost any weight.


For food today:
-Ensure for breakfast (convenient but not my favorite)
-Miralax in a cup of water with a splash of apple juice
-Fresh Beet/Carrot/Celery juice with soy protein powder (got at a local hop)
-8 ounces of veggie barley soup run through the blender
-1 cup of cauliflower cheese soup (also from the deli) run through blender
-1 piece of pumpkin pie with most of crust removed and with almond milk, blended to a paste.

It sounds like a lot of food but it really isn't. I just try to eat little thing almost constantly, which isn't too hard as long as I am home.

My husband, or maybe it was my friend, asked if my GERD was gone and I thought that was funny because I can't possibly know until all this swelling subsides. I'm not about to take my chances with foods that have been off limits a while.

I still have until next week before I go to work. Trying to just enjoy some R&R and take every day as a new day. I hope you all are healing nicely! Thanks for the support!

All the best to both of you Gragegrl and Jenajade. It's not an easy journey and It's good to know that you both are recovering well.

God bless.

TODAY was ALMOST normal. But first, the last few days:

My post op appointment was on Day 12, and my visit with the surgeon brought a little surprise with it- nausea- a new side effect! It's a long drive there and by the time I drove there (I've only driven one other day) I was nauseas. I get motion sickness but not usually from driving myself. Even after getting half a protein shake down, I lost my appetite to finish the rest and needed to lie down. Since there is a pharmacy in his building he just made sure I got more Zofran to take before trying to drive home. By the time I got back home I was absolutely exhausted from 2 hours of driving and another hour or so at the office. The appointment was otherwise uneventful; he just asked how I was doing, looked at my incisions and gave me the thumbs up for still having the glue intact for so long. He asked if I was still having reflux and I told him it was too soon to tell because I am not eating any trigger foods. He suggested I try one out when I’m ready to I can report back but I am in no hurry. He also said to go ahead and eat mushy foods, no more liquid diets.

The NEXT day, Day 14, was more nausea, and it also came right out of the blue. I had also lost my appetite. I phoned my surgeon and he called in another prescription for a drug called Reglan. I felt so sick and helpless that I was feeling sick that I was in tears when I talked to the nurse. He said it sounds like my stomach might not be emptying as quickly as it normally would and that can cause the nausea. The Reglan, unfortunately makes one very drowsy so the next day at work was very difficult and I can’t drive while I’m on it. It did help with the nausea though. I was feeling really depressed that I was still so tired and not able to eat and faced with having to go back to work I had a good cry and then a nap.

Day 16, I made it through another half day at the office and waited until later in the day to take the Reglan so I wouldn’t be so tired at work. I still didn’t have much of an appetite, I have to remind myself to eat so at work I made myself a very nice potato gratin to nibble on constantly. Trying to make myself things that I would normally find very tasty, to make sure I’m eating.


Day 17- TODAY - I almost didn't feel like I just had surgery today. Most of this week I could hardly get out of bed or eat but today seemed normal. It’s Saturday so I slept in nice and late, had a little bit of that leftover potato gratin (less than 1/4 cup) and made a protein shake to go. I still didn’t feel much like eating and only finished about 6 oz of the protein shake. I went for a very short walk for about 20 minutes and then went to the grocery store to stock up on some veggies and pudding. Pudding is very helpful when you have no appetite. It’s better than nothing, and the veggies were mostly carrots for my jucier- it’s an easy way to make sure I’m getting some nutrients. I took a long nap in the afternoon and in the evening started making two soups and doing a little crafting and I was nibbling some macaroni (one spoonful at a time) and I must have taken a much larger mouthful of macaroni than I thought because it was so painful after I swallowed. The crushing pain I feel around my chest (the one that feels like a heart attack) was so awful that I literally moaned through the pain, I had to. It was that bad. It only lasted about a minute of severe pain but it’s been a couple of hours since then and I really cut back to taking only about a half tablespoon of food at a time, and waiting minutes between bites (not hard to do because I was working on something else and watching tv at the same time). I was SHOCKED by how much pain that swallow put me in and rudely reminded that I just had surgery two weeks ago and need to take it easy and be very careful about the new “mushy food diet”.