I posted elsewhere as a reply and it was suggested that I start a new thread regarding my recovery.
I had a large hiatal hernia which caused 40+ years of heartburn, finally put on nexium which relieved the heartburn, but had 2 instances of gastritis one of which felt like my stomach was on fire. After 2 endoscopies my GI doc suggested the laproscopic procedure. On Jan 26, 2014 I had the procedure done and initially did well eating (drinking) clear liquids for the first day, then soups and jello for the next 2. I was off self administered morphine by the 2nd night and went home on day three with Norco in hand, which I used for about
3 days then stopped. I had quite a bit of muscle pain in the chest for several days and one night had to sit upright on the sofa because of extreme pain and could only breathe shallow breaths. This eventually went away by day 6. By the seventh day I was eating light solid food and saw my surgeon on day 8 who seemed to think I was doing well. On day 10 I caught a bad case of bronchitis, was put on 2 courses of antibiotics plus a steroid shot and coughed heavily for 2 weeks followed by a constant tickle in my throat which causes me to cough and is still present. I started eating sold food by day 10, but had trouble moderating how much was too much food as I felt extreme discomfort when I ate too much. I constantly feel the wrap, sometimes with a little pain. I understand from reading other posts that this eventually goes away, but I'm the impatient type. I have resumed my exercise routine consisting of 45 minutes of treadmill on a 15% incline and 2.8 mph. Prior to my surgery my average heart rate on the treadmill was 116 beats per minute, but now because of inactivity and bronchitis it was up to as high as 140. Will take a little time to get into shape. On the day of surgery I weighed 188 pounds and now at week 6 am down to 180 pounds.
Around week 4 I was pretty discouraged by my recovery rate and was feeling a bit of remorse of having the procedure done. After reading others' post I am a bit more relieved as others have had a similar recovery. My surgeon said that full recovery is variable with each patient and can take up to 4 months or more. I feel that in the past week I have noticed a considerable improvement in pain and discomfort and am eating about
75% in volume of what I ate prior to surgery. I am happy with the weight loss though.
