Gastric Sleeve Recovery Timeline

Gastric sleeve recovery timeline is the most important part of planning your surgery. Gastric sleeve patients must know every detail of their recovery process because recovery is the time that your body is going to do a lot of healing after the surgery.

Gastric sleeve is the fastest option for weight loss for those who have been tired of non-effective diets. After a gastric sleeve surgery, a subsequent recovery period is an inseparable part. This specific period of time requires special care and limitations ranging from activity levels, dieting to your sleeping position. Note that applicants who have chosen Flora as their medical tourism service provider will enjoy a two-year support by specialists. They will inform you about the recovery timeline and the latest information through the CRM system, on a regular basis (same as for gastric sleeve day by day trip plan). This following up will continue 2 years after your surgery and you can cancel this service whenever you want. In this article, you can get tips about how to have a fast healing of your gastric sleeve surgery.

1-Gastric Sleeve Recovery Timeline Day 1, right after the surgery

Having undergone a successful operation, you will probably need to stay a night or two in   hospital. During your stay, our medical staff will be taking care of you and provide you with whatever you may need such as medications and hospital pack. On the first day, you should use pain-relieving medications since you may feel discomfort in your stomach. In addition, you can only drink clear liquid to give your stomach the chance to heal. It is good to walk on the first day since it can avoid the risk of blood clot formation.

Dressings

After performing your surgery, your surgeon may prescribe adhesive dressings for the incisions. This piece of dressing will help absorb any leakage from the wound, provide ideal conditions for a faster healing, and protect the area from infection and other related risks. Your surgeon may also use thin tapes on the skin that fall off on their own within 2 weeks.

Bandage

On the day of your surgery, your surgeon will put a bandage on the incision site to reduce swelling and bruising. You may need to keep wearing it for two weeks after your operation. There is also a plastic covering and gauze over the incisions that need to be removed after 48 hours. The thin tapes on the skin are to be left until they fall off on their own within 2 weeks.

2-Gastric Sleeve Recovery Timeline, Week 1

During your stay, our assistants will be helping you, as you may find it difficult to move and walk around. You can have your liquid-only diet until the end of the first week and therefore you can not eat solid foods. There is also a 400 calories intake limitation that needs to be maintained during the first week of your recovery. You should keep avoiding any strenuous activity and maintain light activities to help blood move through the veins. You may also experience emotional fluctuations caused by your body reaction that will likely go away by time.

Bruising and swelling

Bruising and swelling in your incision site is natural, mostly in the first three days. But be sure to notify our experts if you have a severe level of bruising or swelling. They may suggest the possibility of bleeding or infection.

Discomfort

Having an increased discomfort is normal when the effects of the analgesics are gone away. Your surgeon may prescribe some pain medications to add to your comfort and help you feel less pain. But be sure to consult our experts if you feel an abnormal level of pain, especially in your abdomen and/or left shoulder.

Sleeping position

Avoid sleeping on your stomach since putting pressure on the incision area can increase the risk of injury or bleeding. The best position can be sleeping on your back with your legs stretched in a way that you feel no pressure on your incision area.

Medications

Pain-relieving medications help you with your pain. You must keep away from consuming certain medications during your recovery time. These medications include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Advil, Motrin, Aleve, Naprosyn, Vioxx and Celebrex.

In flight care

The first advice is that you choose a seat with additional room for your leg to help you move your legs now and then so you avoid the risk of blood clots formation. You should also be able to walk a few steps around the cabin in the middle of your air travel. If you are on a long haul, wearing compression stockings is also essential during your flight. The next advice is regarding your prescribed medications. You should have them with you so you can consume them on time during your fly.

3-Gastric Sleeve Recovery Timeline, Week 2

After a week of recovery with a liquid-only diet, you may resume eating pureed or mashed foods. During the second week, you can also go beyond the 400 calories limit and intake a more amount of food. You can also increase the intensity of activities

4-Gastric Sleeve Timeline, Month 1

After a month from the surgery, you can gradually add solid foods to your diet. But you should bear in mind that you should not jump into your previous solid diet at once. You should start from a little amount of solid food and gradually add solidity to your diet plan. After a month most people are able to resume their activities and get back to the work of any kind.

5-Gastric Sleeve Recovery Timeline, Month 2-3

By the verge of the second month, most of the pain is gone. You should have normally got rid of 20% of your excess fat masses. Carrying and pushing heavy loads can be gradually restarted by this time. You can resume your previous regular diet after two months and high protein foods. Soy products, eggs, meat, lentils, hard cheese, fruits and vegetables are all good choices. They provide your body with enough protein.

5-Gastric Sleeve Recovery Timeline, Month 4-6

The bariatric surgery post-op diet series continues with months 4 to 6, where your body is healed, and may start to get a little over-confident as you lose weight and keep feeling better. During months 4 through 6, you will continue with a rich solid protein diet and vegetables and add fruits to bring some sweetness to the table. From this time on you can do vigorous activities just like before the surgery.

6-Gastric Sleeve Recovery Timeline, Month 6-12

Generally, you will lose around two-thirds of excess fat deposits between the first six months and one year. You can enjoy your ultimate results by the end of this time. Meanwhile, you will be able to do all activities you did before surgery and even lift heavy loads.

7-Advised Diet in Gastric Sleeve Recovery Timeline

As gastrectomy is a surgery of your digestion area, dieting is the most important part of gastric sleeve recovery. There are some specific rules and limitations about the type of foods and drinks you should use.

Foods

On the first day of your recovery, you can only drink liquids.. Then you can have liquid foods between days 2-7 after surgery. This may sound a bit hard, but as the part of stomach that produces the Ghrelin is removed you will not feel a strong sense of hunger. Only consume sugar free items. By the beginning of the second week, the hunger cravings may come back and you can consume pureed or mashed foods by then. After passing at least a month from your surgery, you can add real solid foods into your diet. But you still need to control the amount of sugars and fats you intake. It is best to add solid foods gradually into your diet and do not jump into a real food diet.

Nutrients supplements

After undergoing a gastric sleeve, multivitamin, calcium with Vitamin D, iron and Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Vitamin B12 can help your body recover.

Drinks

To stay well-hydrated is a must after your surgery. Therefore you must at least drink 8 cups of water per day. Several other sources such as natural juices that are sugar-free can also provide the water your body needs. you should also keep away from anything with caffeine or sugar for at least a month after the surgery.

Alcohol

Alcohol and soda are absolutely dangerous and need to be dropped out of your drinks list for 6 month after your gastric sleeve.

9-Daily Activities in Gastric Sleeve Recovery Timeline

Although walking is allowed, you need about 1 week of recovery to start other light activities again. Any type of strenuous and vigorous activities and exercises are prohibited until week 4 or 5. Some activities and their healing time are listed below.

Walking

Taking a walk can be even useful right on the first day of your recovery. It can prevent the risk of blood clots formation and help blood circulation. Be careful to go easy on that and wait at least two weeks before you go on a heavier walk.

Sleeping

The best position of sleeping is on your back when no pressure is put on your stomach. You should wait for a minimum of two to three weeks before you can lie on your stomach again

Getting back to work

For those with non-physical jobs such as desk jobs a rest of one week may be enough. But for occupations with more tense you should wait 3 weeks after the surgery day.

Sexual activities

There is no firm rule regarding the exact time of resuming your normal sexual activities. For some people it may be possible to get back to their normal sexual activities after ten days. While for some others it may take even months. All in all, you can consider a rule of thumb that you can begin your sexual activities as soon as you no longer experience pain or discomfort in the incision sites.

Smoking

You must postpone smoking for at least six weeks from your bariatric surgery. Smoking is not only harmful in slowing down the healing rate, but it also plays a role in the formation of blood clots and thus increases the risk of strokes and heart attacks.

Take a shower

After around 48 hours from your surgery you can take a shower without soaking in the bathtub. Taking a full shower with soaking requires at least 1 weak in order to avoid the risk of bleeding. Note that you should also dry your incision when it gets wet after you finish taking a bath.

Driving

As driving requires a good amount of alertness, you should put it off until you are done with your surgery associated medications. It follows that you may need a good one weeks before you can safely drive by yourself.

10-Exercising in Gastric Sleeve Recovery Timeline

Light physical activities can be beneficial to your healing process and an important factor for achieving the best possible results after a gastric sleeve. As you heal by time, you can resume more strenuous activities. We listed some important physical activities and their limitations.

Swimming and contact sports

You should avoid swimming at least three weeks from surgery and for a hot tub you should wait four weeks. Note that the exact timing may vary from person to person. If you feel that your condition may increase any health risk, don’t hesitate to contact our experts.

Aerobic & Cardio

Low-intensity aerobic exercises are generally safe after two weeks depending on the amount of pain you have. You can consult our experts whenever you are not sure about resuming a kind of aerobic exercise.

Lifting

Heavy loads, push and pull motions require a six week recovery time. For activities such as lifting, and dealing with very heavy loads you need to wait until three months from the surgery time.

Running

You must avoid running until a minimum of 6 weeks from the surgery and then you can do it slowly.

The most important part of your recovery is to observe the dos and don’ts on their certain time. Considering that we will inform you about the exact details of your recovery timeline through the CRM system for 2 years, you can pass this process perfectly.

Please do not hesitate to contact Flora if you have any other questions related to the gastric sleeve recovery process and we will answer as soon as possible. Our experts are available 24/7 to serve and help you regarding how to pass a successful face-lift recovery period.