Your Hospital Stay
Day One.
After your surgery, you will begin to awaken in the post-op recovery room. Your breathing tube is usually removed from your throat as you begin waking and you will be started on pain medication by the nurses in recovery as soon as you need it. The IV line for fluids and medications that was started in the operating room will remain with you for your entire stay in the hospital and will take care of your required fluid intake. Although you won't be allowed to drink water for the next day or so, you will be allowed to suck on ice chips after the first day if your mouth is dry.
After awakening in post-op, most patients are transferred to the VIP-patient suites at Scottsdale Healthcare. There, you will be carefully monitored by specially trained and experienced Bariatric nurses. Occasionally, if your medical condition requires more careful monitoring, you may be moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) before being transferred to a VIP suite.
During your stay in the hospital, you will be able to give yourself pain medication as needed using Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA). You control a push button electronically connected to a special computer. This computer meters a dose of pain medication directly into your IV line, relieving any discomfort from pain safely and quickly.
About three hours after the operation, the nurses will ask you to sit up in bed, breathe deeply and cough. When you are in surgery, you are lying down and not breathing as deeply as you normally would and because of this, some of the air sacs in the back of your lungs close. Breathing deeply and forcing yourself to cough will open up these closed air sacs and help prevent any breathing problems.
This is an essential step in your recovery, so you will be asked to repeat your breathing and coughing exercise frequently during your entire stay in the hospital. You will actually learn and practice this exercise before your surgery.
The nurses will get you up again in preparation for your first walk about five hours after surgery. Along with your deep breathing and coughing exercise, walking is essential to your recovery. For your entire stay in the hospital, the nurses will get you up to walk around the floor about every two hours.
Walking is just as important as your breathing and coughing exercise in your recovery – helping prevent pulmonary embolisms (blood clots) and helping open your lungs.
Day Two.
As your recovery continues, we monitor your pulse, your temperature, and your blood count carefully. If you are showing good medical progress, you will start drinking water, followed by gelatin and broth. These will be your meals for the next few days. Don't worry about finishing your meals – stop when you feel full or just don't feel like eating.
You will continue your coughing/breathing exercises and you’re walking throughout your stay at the hospital.
In the beginning, when the new pouch is tender, certain foods may make certain people sick. If this occurs as you introduce new foods, simply return to the gelatin and broth diet and slowly reintroduce the approved post-surgery foods back into your system.
Your new stomach is much smaller and fills up on one medium-sized swallow of water. The water takes about five minutes to pass through your stomach and you will need to wait before taking another sip. If you feel full or nauseated, you are drinking too fast. Learn how this feels in the hospital, because when you go home, you will need to sip water all day in order to meet your basic daily fluid requirements. This can be a challenge with your new pouch.
It is very difficult to make up a water deficit, so try your best to not get dehydrated after surgery!
Day Three.
Depending on the patient, on the second or third day, you will begin your instruction and preparation for leaving the hospital. You will be sent home once you are taking fluids well, can tolerate gelatin and broth, don't have a fever, and are breathing and walking well.
You have had major surgery. Your strength and stamina are low and sometimes you may feel sick or exhausted as a normal part of your recovery. Most patients don't have any major difficulty. If you do experience vomiting, fever, or pain, we can usually solve the problem with a phone call. However, sometimes re-admission to the hospital is necessary for additional treatment.