My surgery was on October 27th, 2009. To be honest, I wasnt nervous at all.

I got to the hospital at 6am to finish my registration. I was told I didnt have to have my $500 co-pay and that it would be billed with the cost of surgery. By the time I was done with registration, it was 6:30am and I was told to go to the Ambulatory Unit for pre-op preparation.

I sat in a chair, waiting my turn for about fifteen minutes before I was taken to a bed. First I had to have my vitals taken and my nose swabbed. WEIRD! I was given this weird fabric gown to put on and some slippers. Then bloodwork is drawn and an IV started. I sat in that bed for nearly an hour and a half before I was taken to the "holding" room for surgery. I spent another hour in the holding room before I was taken to the OR.

I dont remember much in the OR. Just the warm sensation of the anestesia going up my arm. I found it easier to just close my eyes and not try to keep them open.

When I woke up I was in immense pain. I couldnt breathe very well and kept repeating, "OW" over and over. It tooks about 50 OWs before a nurse came over to give me some pain medication. Not sure if the pain was the breathing tube having been in my throat or the hernia being repaired.

I was only awake for about 10-20mins before I was wheeled to my room. I was jazzed to have my own recovery room! I wasnt jazzed that it was across from the nurses station.

A few hours after entering my room I was up and walking, and a couple hours later I was able to get up to use the bathroom on my own. I found this useful because the nurses were EXTREMELY busy and took FOREVER to come and help me. I would walk around the halls, doing 10 minutes intervals. I think that this helped with the gas, because during my night there, I had no pain.

I was discharged the next morning around noon. Of course, I had to wait my turn for my upper GI and since my room was almost one of the last, the other two women that had just had surgery following me, had already been discharged.

Breathing was not a problem. It was the incisions that caused me pain, and later, at home the gas. The gas was HORRIBLE!!!!!! It kept me up all night and caused me to sleep in a chair with my feet on another chair. I was constipated for two weeks! TWO WEEKS! That sucked. I have just now started to be able to comfortably sleep on my side, flat on my back, and on my stomach. THANK GOD!

I am also currently having problems drinking my protein powder. I think I need to get some unflavored powder and blend it into things. This chocolate isnt doing it for me. I am also getting my mushy food "stuck" and that is painful for hours at a time. IT SUCKS!!!!!!

Other than that, I am doing well. I drool at the smell of other food and dream of eating the foods I cant have. But with 25 pounds gone, I really have no complaint!

I am only 8 days out and today I ate normal foods. Yes, softish, but normal to me! I made chedder potato soup today and had 2 cups! I do a terrible job with the protein and not sure how to fix that. I hate the powder protein crap, and I spent 75 dollars on getting a large chocolate, vanilla, and natural (natural?) flavored bottles, but each time I've mixed these powders into things the taste and consistency is so awful i can't eat it. I don't have a lot of money but i have found that the already mixed drinks in cans are probably going to have to be the way to go for me! They don't taste as bad and don't have a consistency that makes me cringe. I am hoping to be eating things in a week or so with the protein I need like cheeses and scrambled eggs and creamy peanut butter, No clue as to the actual date I can eat these things just hope its soon!

Getting a little bit stronger each day, but I do have this pain in my left side that is horrible. I don't' know what it is..the band, too much "food" in the pouch? too much water? or am I sitting/laying down wrong? I took a 15 minute walk and it only got worse.