Hi All,

My surgery day has been and gone. I must admit I was quite tense and nervous for the 48 hours before the op. To add to my stress I travelled to Auckland for a meeting on the Wednesday and stayed the night there. I was booked on a flight back to Wellington Thursday morning in time for my surgery Friday. Only problem was that an ash cloud was hanging around. I woke up at 4:30am wondering if my flight was going to go or not! 2 things saved me. I was booked on Air NZ and only flights to the South Island were cancelled!

So my day of surgery arrived. I arrived at the hospital at 6:35am having been told to report at 6:45. I was taken down to my room at 6:55. The nurse shaved my stomach area then got me to have a shower and wash the area with a special soap gel she gave me. I then got in to my gown and the anesthetist and sugeon paid me a visit. I had the surgeon on a bit and said I hoped he was a good starter (I was first on the list of 5-6 he was doing that day)! He said that he was glad it was Friday as he took his "special" medication on Tuesday. Good to see he had a sense of humour. :-)

So it was on with the socks and the (rather grumpy) theatre matron type person turned up about 7:55 to get me down to theatre. I walked down to theatre behind the the bed (couldn't work this one out as the bed was on wheels?) and transferred straight on to the surgical bed which was a lot narrower.

Then the anesthetist came and put the IV in my arm. The last thing I recall was her telling me that she was about to administer some medication that would make me feel nice and relaxed and happy. Boy that was good stuff!!

I don't recall any countdown or other medication at all. I just remember waking up in the recovery room. I was then wheeled in to my room. No pain, but quite a dry throat. I wasn't allowed to drink until 2.00pm so until then I just kept taking a mouthful of water and spitting it out. Broth and jelly for tea and breakfast. The surgeon said that things went very well and he fitted the smaller band of the options available and that that was good news. The pre-op diet had worked well and he could see around the liver no problems. I got up and about pretty quickly and took a few walks in the hospital. I was discharged about 10:00am.

One of the nice things about the hospital visit was I got to meet most of the other patients and have a brief chat with them. I even got the wife to bring in a DVD of a new movie out and let them all know it was available on their TV's to watch. It was nice to talk about the anxiousness beforehand etc etc with someone eho knew what you were going through.

I took panadol gel caps regularly for the week after the surgery and visited the gym 3 times.

My diet called for liquids the first week then soft foods the next then mince sort of foods this week. It is all going very well but I am getting the odd referred left shoulder "gas" pain, but the literature I have read told you to expect this - so no dramas. I go fo my first fill next Thursday though the surgeon said he had put 1ml in the band during the procedure. The weight loss is tracking well although this week hasn't been as good as the others - probably because I am starting to eat more "filling" foods now.

I have to say I am very happy I made the right decision. I am also very impressed by the pre-surgery information I was given. It really did make the whole experience a lot easier to go through. I have also already been invited to a post surgery seminar!

I look forward to the next chapter.

AJ