Finally on the other side!

Well it's day 4 post-op and I am SO happy to be well on my way on the OTHER side of surgery! I really meant to post sooner than this, but it's been a little bit of a rough ride, rougher than I had expected for sure! So here is a little summary of my journey so far:

Tuesday morning Chris and I left home extra early and drove over ice to get to the hospital by 7 AM. My surgery was scheduled for 9:30, but the doctor was ahead of schedule believe it or not, and they took me back to the OR about 8:45. I was so nervous, I was literally shaking as they wheeled me into the OR, it was surreal. They put a mask over my face, told me to take a few deep breaths, and the next thing I remember was waking up to a lot of pain! I won't go into too much details with that, so as not to discourage anyone considering weight-loss surgery, but in one word, ouch. The rest of Tuesday was a bit of a blur, I was coming out of anesthesia and on a Morphine pain pump. By late evening, I was walking in the hallways. I was completely NPO (nothing by mouth) for the first 24 hours, and that was really miserable. My mouth was so dry I thought I would die! I wiped my mouth out with washcloths and lemon swabs and rinsed and spit water but it still sucked! Wednesday morning, I went downstairs for a barium swallow study to make sure my new stomach did not have a leak. That was awful. I got nauseated, and threw up on my blanket on the wheelchair ride back to my room. But the bright side was that there was no leak, so around 11:30 that morning I got my catheter out and was presented with a 1 oz cup of water. They told me to slowly sip it over one hour, which I thought would be impossible because I was so thirsty, but the first little sip proved to be painful. My new stomach is SMALL! So small that right now if I take too big of a drink of water, it hurts. Basically all day Wednesday my main jobs were to walk, deep breathe and cough, sip water and protein drinks, and try to pee. By Thursday I was doing well at all those things and was discharged home at noon!

Everyday I feel a little better and am taking less and less pain medicine. The pain was the worst the first 2 days and since then has been mostly soreness and gas pain. I actually feel great and have had lots more energy today. I have lost 10 pounds since checking into the hospital Tuesday morning and although I have a long way to go, that feels AWESOME!

I am overall very pleased with my decision so far but it hasn't been without some pain and right now the biggest challenge is being on an all-liquid diet while everyone around me continues with normal eating and drinking. I went to a baby shower and was surrounded by tons of food and people eating food, and I sipped on water. This may be the hardest part so far! I obviously loved food and I am mourning the loss of it. I haven't had solid food since Sunday, almost 7 days, and the psyhcological aspect of that is greater than I had ever expected. I don't really feel hungry, and I know that if I were to eat right now it would be painful, make me sick, and possibly rupture my stomach and cause major complications or even death, so there is no way I would do it, but it doesn't mean I don't miss food! Right now I am at my parents' house, and everyone is cooking a big meal and getting ready to eat (one of our favorite things to do as a family) and I am blogging as a way to keep myself occupied and not think about it! Tommorow everyone is going to a superbowl party that is being catered with barbeque, and I am not planning to go at all, that would be just too hard. I don't even like football all that much, the best part of superbowl parties is food! So anyway, this is super hard right now, but I keep telling myself that I am only on all-liquids for 2 weeks and I have the rest of my life to eat and that this surgery is still going to allow me to eat, but just in very small amounts. And the results? Being a normal-weight, slender woman!!! I CAN DO THIS!!