So I am 2 days post-op and I feel pretty good!

I'll go ahead and describe my surgery date and yesterday... Although I do need to preface this by saying I had an issue with my car on the 27th (the night before my surgery), and it was undrivable for the 28th, which kind of through a monkey wrench into the whole thing, but it turned out ok.

July 28th, day of surgery--

Woke up around 7am to start getting ready, went ahead and took a shower (my doc's instructions said "a good shower with soap." Ummm....I do believe all of my showers include soap, but maybe that's just me. ). My fiance called the repair shop for my car and then said they could take it that day, so I called AAA to have the car towed and asked them to please rush it as I was having surgery that morning. I got to thinking later that they may have thought that was a lame excuse...but oh well! It was true!

I was scheduled to be at the surgery center by 9am for my surgery at 10am, and the towing company said they would try to be at my apt by 830am. I was absolutely terrified that I would be late, but I shouldn't have been! AAA has always been so good to me and my fiance, especially when we say we're in a hurry. The tow truck was there by 810am. They loaded up my car and we were on the road by about 825am, plenty of time to get to the surgery center.

We only hit a little bit of traffic getting to the center, and we ended up getting there around 855am.

I filled out my paperwork (felt like my hand was about to fall off with all the different forms I had to sign!), and then I waited to be called back. It didn't take very long, I was back within about 10 minutes. I changed clothes and gave them a urine sample for a pre-surgery pregnancy test.

The nurse then had me get into bed and hooked me up to the IV, gave me a shot of antibiotics, and hooked up my leg squishers (no idea what the real name is, but they're the things that keep my circulation going through my legs--circulators..?). She took my vitals and asked a ton of questions. After her pre-op procedures were finished, she invited my family back.

After another 10-15 minutes, we were greeted by my surgeon, Dr. Smith, and the anesthesiologist for more questions to ensure my readiness. Everything went swimmingly, so the anesthesiologist gave me the anesthetic and rolled me into the OR. The last things I remember were switching over to the OR table and the nurse putting the oxygen mask over my face and telling me to take deep breaths.

Then I woke up!!

My throat was sore and I was unbelieveably groggy. All I wanted to do was sleep, but the nurse kept telling me to wake up. I wanted to kick her, lol. I had another oxygen mask on and she was telling me to keep breathing. I think I slept for another couple of minutes before she took everything off told me to wake up again. I woke up more and more until finally I was moving my head around to see where I was. It was difficult to swallow because of the intubation having given me a sore throat. She asked me if I was ready to stand up and I just kind of laughed, and said, "really?" She said absolutely and expected me to be able to get up in the next couple of minutes, and would help when I was ready.

She helped me up and had me walk across the room to a chair so she could take my vitals again. They let my family come back to see me and I was feeling better and better by the minute...until they asked me to get up and walk again, lol.

They took an x-ray of my band as I drank some barium and said everything looked good! They sat me back in the chair and had me drink some ice water and then helped me get dressed. It kind of felt rushed, but I was glad to be going home so quickly to get into my own bed!

I was groggy for the rest of the day and slept a lot. They sent me home with an incentive spirometer (you suck in air as much as you can and do so every 2-3 hours to prevent things like pneumonia). I used that and took pain meds and was drinking water and broth by the end of the day.

July 29th--

I had scheduled a dental cleaning for the day after because I thought I'd be feeling alright to go have that done, and I was right! I woke up and I felt ok, but then I took some pain meds and felt really good, so I went ahead to the dentist. Everyone was pretty optimistic about the surgery and they were surprised I was up and moving around so well. I was up for most of the day and took a short nap that afternoon, but was up and walking around easily for the majority of the day.

I did have a small bout of nausea last night, but was able to take my anti-nausea medication and felt fine to go back to sleep.

This has been a pretty good experience so far! The only pain I have is right around my port site. I can feel it in there and it just feels different and slightly uncomfortable, but I was told that's normal.

I've also had some of the shoulder pain, but that's mostly gone away now. Just a few twinges here and there.

I hope this helps calm some fears! I feel a lot better now that it's done! Let me know if y'all have any questions for me!