Originally Posted by MiladyB

Welcome Kim. Your doctor should be answering all of those questions for you. It really is his respondsibility to make sure you are well informed. So don't be afraid to ask.

Doctors are different so I can only share with you my experience. In regards to a catheter, I had one. They put it in during surgery so I never knew it was there until I woke up. They removed it the next morning. I had one little drain (JP drain) but my surgeon doesn't put one in everyone. I had some oozing from the pouch during surgery so that is why it went in. I only had that over night too. They removed it the next afternoon. They had me up walking within 4 hours after returning to my room from surgery. Pretty much once I was awake enough they had me up. I walked every 4 hours right on through the night. Which is standard orders from my surgeon. I was pretty nauseated from the anesthesia but that is me. It just really makes me sick. I let them know that before surgery so they started pumping drugs in me before I even woke up and then in recovery room. It helped because I didn't have any more nausea after the recovery room. I didn't have to do the bowel prep pre-op, only nothing to eat or drink after midnight, but I had been on a 2 week low fat, low calorie, high protein diet pre-op.

Are there any other questions you were wondering about?

Other things I can think of is that I did have an IV and a pain pump (so I could give myself my own pain meds). They took the pump away the next morning. I had to wear special foot things that pumped up to help my circulation. They put them on before surgery and wore them until I was up walking more. I had a shot pre-op too that was a blood thinner to help prevent blood clots. I also had that after surgery until I went home. I was discharged about 24 hours after surgery but most people on here seem to be in the hospital 2 nights. I did have my RNY done lap. Only other tube was oxygen over night. It was placed in my nose. I also had to wear a little thing on my finger that lit up that recorded my oxygen concentration.

Please don't be afraid to ask questions...and answering them with, "don't worry, everything will be alright." really isn't enough. So insist that they let you know what to expect. It is their job.