Hi All,
I had my revision from lap-band to DS (lap) on the 29th of October. I traveled from Denver to Salt Lake for the surgery. My staples and drains were removed on the third day (only because I begged them not to take them out on the 2nd day) and replaced with steri strips. I was in the hospital for 4 days. I was discharged with 4 days of pain meds (percocet/20 pills, once every 4 hours as needed). I traveled home(by plane) the following day. I have one incision that is approx. 3 inches long. I believe this is where my band was removed.
The day after I got home I split this incision wide open and it bled significantly. I called the surgeons office and they told me to replace the steri strips, go to my pcp, or an emergency room. I went to my pcp and she wouldn't touch it.....she referred me to a general surgeon. By placing a significant amount of pressure on my abdomen and inserting his finger inside my incision approximately another 1/4 cup of old blood (or as he referred to it "grape jelly") from the incision. He assures me this is not new bleeding and I do trust what he is saying. At this point the incision is still open and he could not stitch/staple/etc. this far out. It is still oozing old blood, but at slow rate. There is no foul smell, redness, etc. It does appear to be healing.
Here's my question (sorry it took me so long to get there but I thought some back story would be helpful).....When I called my DS surgeon I also asked if he would prescribe me more pain meds. I was told that he would not do this. Now I do know that there are some laws that prevent doing so over the phone (or so I've been told), however I requested that he speak with my pcp and recommend to her that prescribing more would be acceptable. It's not going to happen. Am I being a baby? Should I have been able to wean myself off this early out? I have some left over pills from a prior procedure that I have been using, but those are nearly gone. I'm still in significant pain and not sure how I will be functional on Tylenol alone.
Secondly, my DS surgeon said that they will do labs in a year. I've read repeatedly that I should monitor at 3 months, worst case 6 months. I know I have awhile to go before I need to be concerned about this, but how do I go about getting these if the surgeon doesn't order them?
Thank you!
I had my revision from lap-band to DS (lap) on the 29th of October. I traveled from Denver to Salt Lake for the surgery. My staples and drains were removed on the third day (only because I begged them not to take them out on the 2nd day) and replaced with steri strips. I was in the hospital for 4 days. I was discharged with 4 days of pain meds (percocet/20 pills, once every 4 hours as needed). I traveled home(by plane) the following day. I have one incision that is approx. 3 inches long. I believe this is where my band was removed.
The day after I got home I split this incision wide open and it bled significantly. I called the surgeons office and they told me to replace the steri strips, go to my pcp, or an emergency room. I went to my pcp and she wouldn't touch it.....she referred me to a general surgeon. By placing a significant amount of pressure on my abdomen and inserting his finger inside my incision approximately another 1/4 cup of old blood (or as he referred to it "grape jelly") from the incision. He assures me this is not new bleeding and I do trust what he is saying. At this point the incision is still open and he could not stitch/staple/etc. this far out. It is still oozing old blood, but at slow rate. There is no foul smell, redness, etc. It does appear to be healing.
Here's my question (sorry it took me so long to get there but I thought some back story would be helpful).....When I called my DS surgeon I also asked if he would prescribe me more pain meds. I was told that he would not do this. Now I do know that there are some laws that prevent doing so over the phone (or so I've been told), however I requested that he speak with my pcp and recommend to her that prescribing more would be acceptable. It's not going to happen. Am I being a baby? Should I have been able to wean myself off this early out? I have some left over pills from a prior procedure that I have been using, but those are nearly gone. I'm still in significant pain and not sure how I will be functional on Tylenol alone.
Secondly, my DS surgeon said that they will do labs in a year. I've read repeatedly that I should monitor at 3 months, worst case 6 months. I know I have awhile to go before I need to be concerned about this, but how do I go about getting these if the surgeon doesn't order them?
Thank you!
