After you are fully awake (two to four hours), you will be
transferred to a regular hospital room on our Bariatric Surgery
floor. Most of the hospital rooms are private -- you will most
likely not have a roommate.
Under certain circumstances, a family member may sleep in
the room with you -- arrangements must be made with the charge
nurse on the ward.
After arriving to your hospital room, you will be assisted
out of bed the same evening to sit in a chair. This early
activity will help prevent postoperative complications of
pneumonia and deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in your
legs).
When in bed you will wear compression booties that act to
pump blood through your legs even though you are not walking.
There will be small devices placed on your chest and finger to
monitor your electrocardiogram and breathing.
You will have a catheter in your bladder so you won’t have
to urinate, and there will be a small drain tube coming out of
your abdomen.
Finally, you will have an IV in place through which you will
receive pain medication on demand (called a PCA). There is a
small button you push whenever you have pain and pain medicine
is automatically infused without having to call a nurse.
Post-Operative Day One
The tube in your bladder will be removed. Your intravenous
line will be left in place. You will be expected to walk in the
hallway with help and sit in a chair during the day. It is very
important for you to get out of bed to help prevent
postoperative pneumonia or blood clots in your legs. Also this
activity reduces the severity and duration of pain.
On this first postoperative day you will have an x-ray test
performed in the morning called an upper gastrointestinal
series or UGI Series. You go to radiology and they will ask you
to swallow contrast material while they take pictures of your
new stomach. This test will confirm that there are no leaks in
the staple lines. If okay, you will be started on a liquid diet
-- one ounce of room temperature tap water each hour while you
are awake.
Post-Operative Day Two
Most patients start to feel better! You will increase your
activity -- walking and sitting up in a chair will be the main
goals for the day. Your diet will remain liquids only but
increase to two ounces of full liquids, like Boost Plus or
Instant Breakfast, every hour while awake; plus one ounce of
low or no calorie, noncarbonated, non-caffeinated beverage
every 15 minutes as desired.
You will begin oral pain medications and be started on some
of your home medications. If you have not had a bowel movement,
you may be given a laxative or a suppository. If your pain is
under control and you are drinking the liquids well, IV fluids
will be stopped and the IV removed. If you have a small
drainage tube in your right side, it will be removed.
If all is well, you will be discharged on this day, although
a few patients are not ready to go home until the morning of
day three. You should plan to have someone drive you home and
to leave the hospital no later than 5 p.m.
When you go home you should be independent and need no
special help. To be safe, you should not drive for at least two
weeks and you should not lift anything heavy (so heavy that you
have to hold your breath or grunt). You will be able to go up
and down stairs and you should plan to walk a lot.
Patient Manual Index
