Gas trapped under ribs after partial

askingforafriend

Hi all! I just discovered this site and forum and I’m grateful. I just had a robotic laparoscopic R partial nephrectomy 9 days ago. 6 incisions and the healing process has been slower than expected. My pain is much better than it was last week, but I’m still having some major discomfort.

I have C02 still trapped in my abdomen and it’s driving me crazy. When I breathe, I can feel large bubbles moving around that literally pop my ribs around a bit. When I push down on the skin on my right side, it feels slightly crunchy, like there’s sheets of dried seaweed paper right under my skin. The air feels like it’s right up under my diaphragm and it’s making it so hard to sleep.

Anyone else experience this? And for this long after surgery? Or am I just crazy

Bay Area Guy

I’ve had three surgeries, two heavy duty open abdominal surgeries and, like you, the robotic partial. The only way I found to get rid of the gas pains was walking, walking, then walking more.

askingforafriend

It’s been difficult with the weather recently but I’m definitely trying!

Dnipro

Hello,

I also had a partial robotic nephrectomy about a month ago and went through a similar experience of having some trapped gas. It didn’t last for very long and I think that’s because I started to move around starting the next day after the surgery when I was discharged from the hospital. It was uncomfortable and sometimes painful but I felt better every week and the trapped gas eventually went away (or, perhaps, I simply stopped perceiving it).

I think you should be fine as long as you keep walking and moving but if you do feel very concerned then you can always call your surgeon’s office and see what they say.

I hope you feel better soon!