Hi! I was thrilled to hear from mama59 and phwmn who both were banded on or near my same surgery date! We can go this thing together, huh? I, too, had trouble sleeping the first night, but mostly because the nurses were constantly waking me to check vitals, get me up walking, go to the bathroom,etc.:rolleyes2: I'm a 'tummy sleeper' so having to sleep on my back because I'm too tender to even turn on my side is quite a challenge. I have taken the Vicoden at night at 1/2 the dose to help me get to sleep. I truly have not had what I would call 'pain' as such. It is more like just an uncomfortable feeling you have when you've pulled or have sore muscles in your abdominal area. I've been pretty lucky with the gas. Before surgery I hardly every experienced gas or constipation :blushing:, and so far I've not had much gas and no constipation (but no bm, either):confused2:... I have had a couple of instances of discomfort in my shoulder, but I've read that this sensation is associated with the gas from the surgery. I've definitely had that 'rumbling' like mama59 mentioned and the hunger pains, as well. But sometimes with all that going on inside, I have trouble deciding what is what! Anyway, I have a great protein powder (nutritionally speaking) and it doesn't taste awful, either. I took my first shower since surgery this morning and took the patches off. The incisions are still covered by the steri-strips. I go for my 1 week post-op follow up on Tuesday. I didn't have the 2 week pre-op liquid diet thing because my surgery was scheduled kind of last minute, so I only had 2 days on clear liquids. But, from the time of all the blood tests, ekg and echo, I lost about 12 lbs. I had surgery at 225. I'm anxious to see what the doc's scales say on Tuesday! By the way, I'm 39, about 5'4", mother of 2 (18 & 6) and an office manager. My goal is to lose 100 lbs, however, I'll re-evaluate that based on how I look and feel when I'm down 80 or 90 lbs!:biggrin: Looking forward to hearing about your progress!