Hello All,

I was sleeved on Tuesday March 5 2013 and boy o boy has the past 5 days been rough.

Day of surgery: I was poked 6 times before a usable vein was found for my IV. On the lighter side I had a great surgeon and she assured me that everything would be fine as I drifted into lala land but when I woke up I felt like I had been run over by a train. The recovery room nurses were very attntive and kept giving me pain meds until I was comfortable. A few hours later I was up in my room not much pain but when I was finally completely coherent I was greeted with the dreadful gas pains....I truely had no idea that the das pains would hurt more then after surgery. The only thing that helped was walking around and more pain meds....this summed up day 1.

Day 2: I have not passed any gas at this point and only had little baby burps. After going down for my leak test I came back up to my room and a few minutes later I begin to have a rumbling in my stomach could this finally be the big one so that I am over this gas feeling??? WRONG! I have diarreha this went on for 3 hours...all I could think to myself is how is this possible I havent eaten anything in 2 weeks. I was later released in the evening and estatic becasue I thought to myself I will feel much better at home becasue I was home!

MAJOR MISCONCEPTION!

Day 3: The gas pain was out of this world and I am still not passing it but I am also begining to have some other pains, after reading VST I find that these are stomach spasms...at this point I can not decipher gas pain from hunger pain or either of these pains from incision pain. I began to feel like this was the worst decision of my life and all I can think about is how hungry I am and how bad I want to get out of the house even though it is snowing outside. My vision in my left eye is blurry and I dont know why. The day goes on and my gas pains get worse. I just decide to go to sleep and pray that I dont die.

4am Day 4! I log on to VST to see if anyone is having the same relentless gas pains and I find out about Gas X strips...although I know I shouldnt have I drove myself to the local Walgreens and purchased 2 packs...where had these strips been for the past 3 days what a relief and I am now begining to let the air out. I wake up and told my daughters I want out of this house and thy drove me to the mall under the premise that I would walk the perimeter of the mall to get in some excercise, I was only able to walk about 1/3 of the mall and had to sit for about 10 minutes before walking back to the car. I feel like I am losing the muscle in my calfs. We came in from the mall and I had to take a nap. I attribute the fatigue due to my lack of nutrition.

Well it is now day 5 and I am finally able to pick up my laptop and share my experience with you all. Today I feel like the page is turning, still having some stomach spasms, not much gas pain and not much cabin fever anymore. I am looking forward to tommorow because I meet back with my surgeon to have my drain removed and hopefully she will allow more variety into this very bland clear liquid phase that I am currently in. My drain today does not have much fluid in it and I stepped on the scale and for the first time in over 8 years I am under 300 pounds!!!!! Today I am feeling much better and looking forward to the rest of my journey.

I can wait to share with you all the rest of my journey.