What can you expect during the surgery?
Gastric bypass surgery is performed under general anesthesia. This means you inhale analgesics as a gas or receive the anesthetic agent through an intravenous (IV) line so that you’re asleep during the surgery.
During surgery, a tube is passed through your nose into the upper stomach pouch. Occasionally, this tube stays in overnight. The tube is connected to a suction machine after surgery to keep the small stomach pouch empty so that the staple line can heal.
You may have another tube in the bypassed stomach. This tube comes out the side of your abdomen and is removed four to six weeks after surgery. Some skin irritation may develop around this tube.
Gastric bypass surgery takes about four hours. After surgery, you wake up in a recovery room, where medical staff will monitor you for any complications. Your hospital stay may last from three to five days.
What can you expect after gastric bypass surgery?
You won’t be allowed to eat for one to three days after the surgery so that your stomach can heal. Then, you’ll follow a specific progression of your diet for about 12 weeks. The progression begins with liquids only, proceeds to pureed and soft foods, and finally to regular foods.
With your stomach pouch reduced to the size of a walnut, you’ll need to eat very small meals during the day. In the first six months after surgery, eating too much or too fast may cause vomiting or an intense pain under your breastbone. The amount you can eat gradually increases, but you won’t be able to return to your old eating habits.
You may experience one or more of the following changes as your body reacts to the rapid weight loss in the first three to six months:
- Body aches
- Feeling tired, as if you have the flu
- Feeling cold
- Dry skin
- Hair thinning and hair loss
- Mood changes
ArrivaCostaRica.com is the primary web site for information about plastic surgery and dentistry in Costa Rica. See www.arrivacostarica.com
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