TOO_S0BER

I'm a gaming teenager. I sat on my butt playing Halo and other such junk, letting my weight slowly spiral out of control. When the emotionality of the problem finally hit home (took long enough), I started going off to the gym to lose weight. I managed to lose 30 pounds off of rigorous exorcise. However, it slowled to a halt and I got stuck; far from my goal weight for joining the military. One day, my family and I sat down and talked about surgery. Initially I completely refused, because I thought said surgery was permanent. But as we studied the procedure and found out more information I finally decided to get it done. We had to fight the insurance company a bit to get approval, not due to uncooperation, but from miscommunication in their company. After a lengthy battle, we got approval for the Lap-Band surgery. My surgery was to take place two days before Christmas on December 23, 2008.On that day while we are waiting in the hospital, I was nervous, yet calm. Basically a typical doctor vist. Fill out some paperwork, wait in a waiting room reading old magazines. The real new experience was the pre-surgery prep. Getting undressed and into the surgery bed with an IV. After about 20 minutes they were ready to put me under. I remembered in a conversation with my mother, whom had had surgeries before, told me that the sedative puts you out like a light in ten seconds flat. She was not kidding. I tried counting to ten...I only made it to six, and poof. I didn't dream, it was just a light sleep...but a lot darker. Not like scary dark, but just dark; almost like slipping into oblivion and not existing. The first thing I wanted when I woke up was some water. My mouth felt like sand. First to see me was Dr. Monash, my surgeon. I do not remember much of what he said beyond what I needed to do for the day I was in the hospital. Every four hours I was to get up and walk around as much as "tolerable" to me. It sucked trying to get up and walk. The pain was pretty intense for me, but I found out that day I have a good tolerance for pain. Sleeping was even worse. They had a machine hooked up to my finger that monitored my air, or at least I think that's what it did. Every time it went below (I think it was 80) a certain number, it would beep really loud...right when I was almost asleep. Needless to say, this repeated over and over and I got no sleep. Finally it was time to leave the hospital. They asked me if I could walk to the car. I gave an annoyed look and said, laughing, "are you kidding me?". I got to right a wheelchair, which was pretty cool. The first thing I did when I got home was to go to sleep. That was the first christmas I did NOT want to get up for.