Water weight gain after surgery??

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Janie

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 13, 2009
Messages
61
Location
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Hi everyone,

I am doing great and happy to be home less than a week after my surgery. Can anyone relate to the water weight that is typical to gain after heart surgery? I am on Lasiks and not swollen at all but was wondering when things start to get back to normal. I follow up with my internist on Monday, August 17th. Just wondering your thoughts. Thanks!!
 
When you are in the hospital and have IV lines going in everywhere, the vehicle that they use to administer medications intravenously is a saline fluid. That alone fills your body with fluid. And your heart is pretty darned touchy after being poked, and operated on, so it is not working in its most efficient way. It will take some time for your body to shed the IV fluids and since your heart is kind of grumpy at this point, it cannot pump as fast as it should.

It takes a normal person about 7 days to shed fluid gain from something like a Chinese dinner with lots of soy sauce.

It takes a person recovering from heart surgery a good deal longer. That is why you are on diuretics, and most people are for a while after OHS. Also, you aren't moving around like you did before.

As you become more active and your heart gets happy again, things will iron out.

Trust me, I helped my husband recover from way too many surgeries, heart and otherwise.

Patience is a virtue.

This is not like appendix surgery. Early recovery takes about 6-8 weeks. Then you start to feel much better. But the final recovery can take a year or more.

Everyone is different in how long recovery takes.
 
Janie,
It's good to hear you're doing well.

I'm sure you know this, but ... if your weight goes UP a few pounds in a day, or more than 5 in a week, it could be effusion, and you should call your doctor--it's not a problem to ignore.

Best wishes.
 
I gained 20 pounds and ended up with CHF , a trip to the hospital where they almost opened me back up to drain me, luckily diretics worked. I lost 21 pounds in 3 days.

Guess where I spent most of the day?
 
Thanks for all the replies and advice. I am weighing myself everyday to keep watch on it. It all makes sense as to why we gain the water weight! I see my primary care doc next week to followup here on my surgery and then my cardiologist in 4 weeks. I hope to be in pretty good shape by then.
 
Janie,

I'm 2 weeks post op today from surgery. Before surgery I weighed 195 lbs after surgery I weighed just under 215 lbs. Today I weighed 185. I was on lasik while in the hospital but have not taken it since I've been home since last Thursday. The weight will come off and then some.
 
The beds in Mass General Hospital cardiac surgical step down floor all are scales and they weigh patients while in bed. I gained about 17 pounds during my surgery and was not permitted to go home until I lost it. I took diuretics, same as everyone else, and the weight came off very quickly..... more than 2 liters of fluid daily.

My first surgery, four years prior, I think I gained 15 pounds during the surgery and same thing. I had to have it just about gone before I went home. Again, it came off quickly.
 
I gained 27 lbs of fluid, my legs and hands looked liked someone else, I was not released until 2 days later when it came off. I am on lasix for the next month, and checking weight gain.
 
It will come off. I was 192 going into my AVR surgery. 3 days after surgery I was at 202 and I have never been over 200 before. I am now 3 weeks post op and I weighed in this morning at 182, so it is coming off. Also, it helps that my appetite is down a bit. I still get hungry like I did pre-surgery, but I find that I get filled up much quicker and am eating much smaller portions. I am hoping to get down to around 165 - I am only about 5'9".......
 
I was mistaken for the pillsbury Doughboy after surgery.
I went in at 168# came out of surgery the next day weighing in at a nice 191#, a couple months later I was 153#. Food tasted like crappola for a long time for me.
 
I gained over 6kg (around 12 pounds??)One of my goals to achieve before they let me go home was to get back, or below my pre-op weight.
It was fairly easy to do with the diretics etc, although I have little doubt that some of what I lost was fat burning and musscle wastage,and Iam still likely to havea bit ofwater to lose.
 
I weighed 188 lbs prior to surgery, gained 15 lbs in 2 days to balloon up to 203 lbs. The nurse came in 1.5 days after surgery and hooked a diretic to my IV at about 11pm that night. I didn't sleep for very long that night! In the morning I weighed 193. Since then it's been dropping about a pound each day so that right now (two weeks post op), I'm right back at 188.

I agree though that I feel like some of the weight transferred. I felt that I had more muscle in my chest and shoulders and that it's dissapearing rapidly, and I feel that my waistline is getting a little more fat around it. As soon as I can start jogging or playing basketball and lifting weights I'm confident I can get back to how I was if not even BETTER!
 
I gained 10 pounds after surgery. I do not remember lookikng swollen but I did not think about being swollen at that time. I do remember it being difficult to breath but thought that was normal after surgery.

My wife works as an adult critical care nurse. She told the nursing staff about her concerns in regards to my weigth gain. She was basically brushed off. 24 hours after we flew home from the hospital, I was taken by ambulance to our local hosptial. The cardiologist said I had gone into congestive heart failure due to all of the fluid build up. I was in the hospital for nine more days.

Karl
 

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