I was banded December 19th, and it has been a breeze. I had major nausea post-op, even with the patch and maxed out on IV nausea meds, but only had it the day of surgery. I had very little gas pain, and none in my shoulder. It was just a pressure under my sternum, and passed after post op day one. My dr is less strict than many, so I have been eating regular food for almost a week now. I have no fluid in my band yet, so I have had no problems eating anything. I mostly have head-hunger over real hunger though, so I'm constantly having to ask myself if I'm really hungry or just bored, etc. I won't get my first fill until the end of January, and I'm anxious for it to get here. I'm down about 20 lbs, but haven't lost anything over the past 5 days or so.